Lake Washington opened as Kirkland High School (also called Union “A” High
School) in 1922, the only high school in the area at the time.[5] It was originally located northwest of downtown Kirkland at the site of Heritage Park.[6] With the formation of the Lake Washington School District in 1944, the high school was given its present name. It moved to its present location in 1949, with doors opening in January 1950.[2] The former building became the junior high and was later known as Terrace Hall; it burned in a spectacular fire in 1973.[6]
The campus underwent an extended renovation project beginning in the summer of 2008. The new gymnasium opened during the 2009–10 school year, and the main school building was completed during the summer of 2011. The renovation, including school parking lot, was completed in late December 2011, while students were on winter break. The new building was designed to facilitate the newly implemented "house system." There was also the north-wing extension that occurred around 2020 which extended the facility adding a new math department and robotics station. During the summer of 2023, there was a full refurbishing of the football field and the old tennis courts allowing for a brand new track and extra space. The extra space from the old tennis courts are now referred as the "cage" by the students as from the resemblance of the black fence enclosure as a prison cell.
Formerly a senior high school (grades 10–12), LWHS added freshman to its campus in August 2012, and its feeder junior high schools (Kirkland, Rose Hill) were converted to middle schools (grades 6–8).[8]
Mascot change
Lake Washington's team name was the "Hornets" until 1935, when the class of that year decided to change the mascot to the Kangaroos.[9] The students at the time wrote a jingle involving a "rude phrase" referred to as the "horny hornets" and were punished by the district by having to choose a new mascot. The students selected kangaroos as joke, thinking the district would allow them to keep the hornets.[5]
