This drawing of downtown Kirkland's Central Business District ran as part of a newspaper ad appearing in a 1973 issue of the old East Side Journal. This is, of course, the block on the west side of Lake Street, between Kirkland Avenue and Central Way. Several of the businesses shown, including Betty's Apparel, Kid's Stuff and Betty's Pants and Tops, were owned by the late Bob and Betty Lightfeldt, perhaps Kirkland’s most entrepreneurial couple of the 1960s and '70s. He was a Boeing professional, and she had been a retail buyer when the two launched their first enterprise, Betty’s Pants and Tops, in the early 1960s, launching what was to become a sizable local retail empire.
In 1965, they purchased the Burke Building, which still stands today at the northwest corner of Lake Street and Kirkland Avenue. The Lightfelds were very active in Kirkland's charitable and civic affairs for many years, and Bob eventually left Boeing to focus full-time on their retail businesses and had been a member of the Kirkland Planning Commission. He also co-chaired the Central Business District Advisory Committee with the East Side Journal's editor/publisher, the late Charles "Chuck" Morgan. As today, there was great concern over the lack of parking downtown, and Bob played a leading role in getting the lots at Central Way and Lake Street turned into the parking lot it is today—which included a $42,500 personal donation by the Lightfeldts (about $250,000 in 2019 dollars). They were also instrumental in transforming the muddy open parking lot near the lake into Lake Plaza, which provides parking for both Marina Park and downtown shopping.
Among the goals this advisory committee accomplished was converting what was then called Commercial Avenue into today's tree-lined Park Lane. Their original vision for Park Lane was to be a pedestrian-only specialty retail environment. There was originally a stream flowing through the middle of Kirkland—with the rather unfortunate name of Jap Creek—and it had been rerouted through culverts and buried. One item the committee proposed but was not implemented until recently was to open the creek back up as an environmental enhancement to the new Park Lane. Today, four decades later, Park Lane finally conforms to that original vision.
The Lightfelts also owned land in Juanita, which was part of the parcel that became the old Juanita Plaza in 1964 where the PX Sooper Store/Mayfair grocery store, Bill Bitz Barber Shop and numerous other well-remembered businesses were located for many years. That property was redeveloped decades later and is now known as Juanita Village. The Lightfelts' daughter, Karen, still lives in Kirkland and has also been quite active over the years in Kirkland and civic affairs. The Lightfeldts opened the Shady Lady as part of the original Totem Lake Mall compliment in 1973 and later The Satin Lady—something of a Victoria’s Secret forerunner—at Factoria Square Mall.
Richardson's, Ben Franklin and J.C. Penney are prominent in the drawing and are well-remembered downtown businesses. For many young Kirkland boys of the 1960s and '70s, the boredom of one's mom dragging them into Betty's for "just a minute" for her to "try on some clothes" during a downtown shopping trip was offset by some candy from Richardson's if he kept his complaining to a minimum.