By the time the leaky three-masted schooner arrived at the old Kirkland dock in 1973, the town’s role as a seaport had all but disappeared.

But the old freighter Wawona, said former mayor Bob Neir, helped provide the impetus the town needed to re-envision the waterfront as a “destination on the lake.”

According to her owners Northwest Seaport, a non-profit preservation group, the ship made it’s final voyage from their Maritime Heritage Center across Lake Union to the Lake Union Drydock company for dismantling on March 4. Joe Shickich, president of NW Seaport, said the short, quarter-mile journey came off without a hitch.

“It was time,” he said. “She’s a wooden boat and she’s been gone over (for salvageable material) … It’s a good result.”

Several efforts to raise enough money – estimated at $15 million – fell short and years of disrepair had taken its toll. Age, water intrusion and beetle infestation were rotting the timbers and compromising the hull.

Similar to the disrepair of the Wawona, during the late 60s Kirkland’s lakefront was also in some need of refurbishment. The city has a long history in ship-building in the Houghton neighborhood, notably during WWII when the Lake Washington Shipyard churned out 29 warships for the US Navy and employed about 8,000 workers. But several lakefront industrial properties were shut down or sold off in the 50s and 60s, leaving several derelict lakefront sites along the city’s shores.

According to Neir, Kirkland’s offer to host the group’s ships was a rendezvous with destiny.

“When the Port helped us build the ferry dock, it gave us a little kick,” he said. “We’ve moved on into becoming a little seaport on Lake Washington.”

In 1973, NW Seaport was seeking a new home for the Wawona and two other ships, the lightship Relief and the tugboat Arthur Foss when they contacted another former mayor, Bill Woods. Forced to leave by the Port of Seattle, he said Northwest Seaport was struggling to stay alive when they approached Kirkland with the idea of docking there and inviting the public onboard.

“They had fundraisers and socials on the thing to try to get work done on it,” Woods said.

When Neir became Mayor later that year, he said the town’s morale had risen with the influx of visitors and the prestige of having a nationally recognized historic treasure there.

The Wawona was built in 1898 to haul lumber from Washington to California by shipbuilder Hans Bendixsen and was one of a fleet of around 200 such cargo ships. The three-masted schooner was one of the largest of her kind, measuring 165 feet in length and a mast standing at 110 feet. It was repurposed as a fishing vessel until WWII, when national service pressed the vessel back into use as a supply barge for lumber. According to the Northwest Seaport, civic leaders including Wing Luke, Ivar Haglund, and Kay Bullitt raised enough money to purchase the three ships that laid the foundation for their preservation efforts.

The floating museum proved to be popular and drew thousands to the downtown area, especially during the now-defunct Moss Bay Days and over Halloween, when it was reportedly used as a “haunted house”, according to Kirkland Heritage Society secretary Loita Hawkinson.

“It was over the top on the fright meter,” she said. “They grabbed your ankles when you were going down the open backed ladder.”

There were a few residents, however, who expressed some doubts about the condition of the ship even then. According to Woods, Fire Chief Bob Ely raised concerns the ship would sink and kept a close eye on regular reports of the ship springing a leak.

NW Seaport remained in Kirkland until it was lured away by Seattle in 1980. The non-profit hoped to expand their preservation efforts and raise more money to restore the schooner from their present-day home in the South Lake Union area of Seattle.

Since then, they estimate tens of thousands of visitors had walked the decks of the ships until 2006, when the Wawona was closed-off to the public for safety reasons. But before she left, Neir acknowledged the renewed focus on the waterfront her long stay at the docks on Moss Bay helped to inspire.

“They did leave a legacy and we’re grateful for that,” Neir said.