European
settlement in the Burien area dates to 1870, when Mike Kelly walked
up a hill from the Seattle, South Seattle area. When he emerged from
the trees he said, "This is truly a sunny dale." Still today,
the Burien area is called Sunnydale. He claimed a 160-acre (0.6 km²)
plot of land and built a house and a farm.
Ten years later, Gottlieb Von Boorian, a German immigrant, arrived
in Sunnydale. At this point, the community was only trails and small
houses. There were no roads or non-residential buildings. Von Boorian
built a cabin on the southeast corner of Lake Burien and also was
said to have formed the community into a town bearing his name. (It
has been misspelled over the years.) A real estate office was built
and soon more people began pouring in to Burien.
In the early 1900s, people of Seattle came by the Mosquito Fleet to
Three Tree Point, just west of town to sunbathe and swim.
In 1915, the Burien railroad was completed. It ran on what is today
Ambaum Boulevard from Burien to White Center to Seattle. A small passenger
train ran the tracks and was affectionately named by the residents,
The Toonerville Trolley. However in the summer, squished caterpillars
made the track slippery, and in the winter, the tracks iced over.
Soon the Toonerville Trolley was more of a nuisance than anything
and it was removed.
Burien was an unincorporated portion of King County prior to February
28, 1993, when it incorporated as a city.
Late in 2004, the City was assessing the possibility of annexing North
Highline (which includes White Center and Boulevard Park), "one
of the largest unincorporated areas of King County," which would
double the size of Burien. Many citizens have spoken against the annexation
and have created picket signs and petitions to protest against it.
