How Clyde Hill Got Its Name

In 1947, the area residents formed a local community club. During this time the postwar home building activity was accelerating. At the time people found that it was difficult to describe the exact location of the Clyde Hill area. It wasn't exactly Bellevue, although the Bellevue Post Office delivered the mail. Columnist Ann Seeger often referred to this area as Nanny-Goat Hill in her column of the Bellevue American (previously the Eastside Journal).

92nd ave CH

At the first meeting of the new community club, the members grappled with the problem of a name. Some of the community club members included Bill Painters, John and Carrie Hill, Al Constans, Sam and Vivienne Boddy, Oscar and Ann Seeger, Father Val-Spinosa of St. Thomas Church, Mickey and Irja Telfer and Leon Snow.

Sam Boddy, whose family had homesteaded here, told the group how Clyde Hill Road (now 92nd Ave. NE) first got its name. Clyde Road had been named long before 1947. Regular commuters on the Yarrow Point to Seattle ferry, most of who were of Irish decent, had been giving unofficial names to the various roads along their route. Most of those names were Irish. One of the "regulars" happened to be from Scotland and wanted his opportunity to develop a name. The others invited him to name a road. This area pioneer had migrated from an area in Scotland called the "Firth of Clyde." Since the trip to the boat landing reminded him of his Scotland home, he suggested the name Clyde Road for the road that was later numbered by the County as 92nd Avenue NE.

Since "Clyde Road" was the main thoroughfare in 1947 and because the area was obviously a hill, Ken Day proposed the name "Clyde Hill" for the area. Six years later on March 31, 1953, the area incorporated as the Town of Clyde Hill.

Special thanks to Ken Day for this historical information