King County · Pop. 3,300

Algona Real Estate — The valley's small-town holdout.

About Algona

Algona began as 1880s homestead ground on the White River valley floor, but it was the Seattle–Tacoma Interurban Railway of 1902 that gave the settlement its shape — the town was platted along the tracks in 1906 and christened Algoma, which a postal clerk's slip recorded as Algona in 1909. Residents voted to incorporate in 1955, keeping the one-square-mile grid its own city wedged between Auburn and Pacific, and small it remains: about 3,300 people, a city hall in the old elementary school, and Tim's Cascade Snacks kettle-frying potato chips in town. For buyers, Algona is one of King County's most affordable front doors — modest mid-century ranches and 1990s cul-de-sacs closing well under Auburn and Kent money, minutes from SR 167 and Auburn's Sounder station. The Interurban Trail now runs where the trolleys did.

Living in Algona

• John Matchett Memorial Park — playground, community garden, and Algona Days festival grounds beside City Hall
• David E. Hill Wetland Preserve — 8.9-acre wetland walk to an overlook deck, opened 2023
• Interurban Trail — paved rail-trail through town tracing the 1902 trolley right-of-way
• Algona-Pacific Library — shared KCLS branch anchoring the two towns on Ellingson Road
• Emerald Downs — thoroughbred racetrack two miles north across the Auburn line

Where the locals eat

• Jack's BBQ & Steakhouse — Texas BBQ · Algona
• Tacos El Tajin — Mexican · Algona
• The Windmill Bistro — Pacific Northwest · Sumner-adjacent
• The Buttered Biscuit — Breakfast · Sumner-adjacent

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