Juanita beginnings: Hubbard Post Office opens on June 20, 1881.

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Hubbard Post Office (renamed Juanita) is established on June 20, 1881. The town is named after the Hubbard family and Martin W. Hubbard (1850-1887) is the first postmaster. A logger, he built a wharf and took mail to Seattle.

On April 30, 1886, the name Hubbard changed to Juanita. At the time of the name change, Martin W. Hubbard remained postmaster. He distributed mail from his residence. It is not known why the community changed its name to Juanita, but the name was chosen by Mrs. Charles C. Terry (Mary Jane Russell Terry) of Seattle, whose husband owned land along what is now Juanita Bay.

On May 28, 1887, Martin Hubbard drowned in Lake Washington, off Rose Point (then called William's Point) just south of Juanita Bay. He was 37 years, 11 months, and 17 days old. He is buried in Lake View Cemetery on Capitol Hill.

From May 31, 1905 to July 31, 1960, the post office was closed. Juanita is located on the eastside of Lake Washington near Juanita Bay.

Sources:
Guy Reed Ramsey, "Postmarked Washington, 1850-1960," Microfilm (Olympia: Washington State Library, February, 1966), 575; Lucile McDonald's Eastside Notebook, ed. by Lorraine McConaghy (Redmond, Marymoor Museum, 1993), 224.

By Greg Lange, December 07, 1998

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Tombstone of Martin Hubbard (1850-1887) in Lake View Cemetery on Capitol Hill, 2000
Photo by Priscilla Long