Gracing the front cover of the December 2017 issue of the North Maple Valley Living magazine is the figure of Dick Peacock, President of the Maple Valley Historical Society. History runs deep in Dick’s veins. His great-grandparents, Charles and Ellen Peacock purchased property in Hobart in 1887-88 and built a home a year later. His grandfather, Fred, lived there as did his father, Hubert. Dick has lived in that same home all his life, except for a 5-year detour to Renton after his marriage to wife Candy. His home is the same one shown in this 1942 photo of Pacific Coast Railroad Engine #14 approaching the Peacock whistle stop as it heads east toward Hobart and Taylor. The photo is looking north from S.E. 208th Street.
Train schedules published by the Columbia & Puget Sound Railroad show Peacock as one of several stations on the rail line that ran between Taylor and Maple Valley. In 1917, it took just over an hour to travel from Taylor with stops at Hobart, Peacock, Cramers, and Atkinson before arriving in Maple Valley. The Peacock station was little more than a platform with trains only stopping if a package or passenger were present, hence the name “whistle stop.” Trains quit running to Taylor in 1945. The house that Dick’s great-grandparents built still stands and the driveway seen in the foreground is still there, only higher.
This photo number P15.06.48 comes courtesy of the Peacock family and Maple Valley Historical Society, both of whom have done so much to preserve and promote local history. Next week, more about coal and clay mining in the brick-making town of Taylor.
