Medina

While the area around downtown Bellevue blossomed and attracted residents in the mid-1800s, the Medina region remained underpopulated. It was mostly used for berry farms so bountiful that a strawberry festival was held in the city every year. The first permanent settler in Medina itself came in the 1880s, and soon mansions and even a small business district were built. When the Lake Washington Ship Canal project dropped the water level by nine feet in 1917, lakefront residents found themselves with new beach property, earning Medina the nickname “the golden coast.” The sentiment pretty much extends to the whole neighborhood.