Lynnwood, WA has been remade by each new way through it: first the interurban railway, then Highway 99, then Interstate 5, as HistoryLink tells it, and since August 30, 2024, Link light rail at Lynnwood City Center Station. The south Snohomish County city of 43,070 (state estimate, April 1, 2026) also holds Alderwood Mall and 3.8 miles of the Interurban Trail.
Chickens before the city
In the late 1910s the Puget Mill Company, having logged much of south Snohomish County, sold the stump land as small farms. HistoryLink says the firm subdivided it into five- to 10-acre “Ranchettes” at $200 an acre, put $250,000 into a 30-acre demonstration farm that taught newcomers to raise crops and chickens, and drew buyers with a national advertising campaign. By 1922 Alderwood Manor had 1,463 people and 200,000 hens, a figure both HistoryLink and the city give.
Where did the name Lynnwood come from?
From a developer’s wife. At the end of 1937, Seattle real estate man Karl O’Beirn platted land along Highway 99 between SW 196th and SW 200th streets and named it Lynnwood, borrowing from his wife, Lynn, according to HistoryLink. An incorporation measure failed in 1958, and a smaller proposal of three square miles and 6,000 residents passed in April 1959. Interstate 5 opened along the eastern boundary in 1967.
Heritage Park, the Interurban Trail and Scriber Lake
Heritage Park, at 19921 Poplar Way, keeps the Alderwood Manor story in its buildings: the Wickers Building, the Superintendent’s Cottage, Humble House, a water tower and Interurban Car No. 55, which the city describes as one of the six original electric cars that ran between Seattle and Everett.
The Interurban Trail follows that railway’s route, which ran from 1910 to 1939. Lynnwood’s 12-foot-wide, hard-surfaced section runs 3.8 miles from 212th Street SW to 177th Street SW, mostly separated from traffic, with parking at South Lynnwood Park and the Lynnwood Transit Center. The city lists the regional trail as running through Shoreline, Edmonds, Mountlake Terrace, Lynnwood, unincorporated Snohomish County and Everett.
Scriber Lake Park, at 5322 198th Street SW, is a lake and wetlands inside an urban forest. The city bought 22 acres including the lake in 1982, and the lake’s original dock, built in 1981, has been replaced with a floating boardwalk. Part of the park is closed for now: as of October 2026 the city’s page says the western two-thirds and the boardwalk are open, while the eastern third and the section where the Scriber Creek Trail runs through are closed.
City Center and Alderwood: what exists, what is planned
Alderwood Mall opened in September 1979 east of Interstate 5, on what HistoryLink identifies as the old Morrice homestead. The city treats the mall area as one of two districts in its Regional Growth Center, designated in 1995: Alderwood to the northeast and City Center to the southwest. Together they cover about 1.2 square miles, roughly 15 percent of the city’s land.
On June 23, 2025 the City Council adopted the City Center + Alderwood Subarea Plan to tie the two districts together. The city’s plan page looks ahead 20 years to two light rail stations in the area, new residential units and job growth. What exists today is the mall and the one station that opened in 2024. The rest is planned, not built.
How do you get around from Lynnwood?
Lynnwood City Center Station opened on August 30, 2024, with Sound Transit’s 8.5-mile Link extension, which also added stations at Mountlake Terrace and in Shoreline. Sound Transit now schedules two lines from the station: the 1 Line to Federal Way and the 2 Line to Downtown Redmond. Community Transit says 14 of its bus routes stop at the station, Swift Orange stops there, and Swift Blue also crosses the city. Routes 102 and 130 link the station with Edmonds Station in Edmonds.
Celebrate! at Alderwood (2026)
In 2026 the city’s Celebrate! event ran on the evening of Friday, June 26 at the Alderwood Mall Terraces: three bands, food trucks, and a beer and wine garden hosted by the Lynnwood Chamber of Commerce. The city listed the event as free and open to all.
Living here
Ranchettes sold through national advertising, an interurban car kept in a park, a mall on a homestead, and now light rail: Lynnwood’s history reads like a transit map.
If you are weighing a move to Lynnwood, or selling a home here, Chase Hedin, Managing Broker, can help you think through how the station, the Interurban Trail and the City Center and Alderwood plans fit your own. Start a conversation or ask what your home is worth.