A stroll through Redmond’s historic downtown with tour guide Tom Hitzroth reveals the city’s colorful past.

Nearly a century ago, guests of Redmond’s downtown district stayed under the same roof as the city undertaker, a dance hall and a soda shop.

“I sort of look at it as one-stop shopping,” Hitzroth said.

Hitzroth tells this story as he leads tour groups by the Brown Building, currently home to The Matador restaurant.

He’s filled with anecdotes about the city’s history, which he will share during the Redmond Historical Society’s remaining walking tours of old downtown on June 19 and Sept. 18.

With the city’s centennial just around the corner in 2012, Hitzroth draws upon his nine years of experience leading tours to bring the names, places and gossip that shaped Redmond’s early years.

Giving tours offers an opportunity to talk about the places and people he has studied.

“It’s allowed me to research the buildings that are here and look at the landscape as it was when the city was growing,” he said.

Although Hitzroth resides in Kirkland, Redmond intrigues him because the means to uncover details of the city’s past still exist.

For example, he corrected the location of the old Redmond Meat Market by comparing a 1908 map to a photograph hanging in the now-closed Big Time Pizza and to another photograph in the Eastside Heritage Center. After a few measurements, he determined the market stood where Half Price Books is located today at 7805 Leary Way rather than in the adjacent parking lot as previously thought.

Hitzroth employs research techniques similar to those he used while investigating frauds for the Department of Licensing (DOL), including interviews, scanning documents and taking measurements. Although his day job currently has him consulting the DOL on technical operations, he spends his spare time piecing together the Eastside’s past – one day, determining the location of a long gone meat market – the next, scouring newspapers and government documents to reveal the mystery behind a century-old unsolved murder.

His curiosity led him to the King County and City of Redmond landmarks commissions, where he works with senior planner Kim Dietz of the Redmond Planning Department to preserve the historical places he researches.

Dietz said the county designates historically significant property as a landmark after evaluating its age, location and design. So far, 16 landmarks exist in Redmond.

The city commission oversees landmark alterations by looking at visuals and reports “so that we can compare it to what the structure used to look like and what it is intended to look like when the work is complete,” Dietz said.

The first tour stop, the Justice White House, became a landmark in June 2010. Built in 1889 by former King County Superior Court Justice William White, the house functioned as Hotel Redmond.

Rumor has it that President Theodore Roosevelt stayed there, according to Hitzroth.

“It’s sort of the Marriott of its time,” he said, referring to the house’s proximity to the Redmond Town Center Marriott Hotel.

Aside from a larger porch and new paint job, the Justice White House has maintained its 19th century appearance.

“This community has mixed its old and new so well that you look at the old and you look at the new, and you don’t really see that you’ve passed from one century into the next,” Hitzroth said.

As Redmond nears its centennial, Hitzroth encourages residents to take a closer look at the city’s roots.

“If you understand how we got here and what it took to get here, you can better appreciate what we have to do to keep it going,” Hitzroth said.

Tours will be held June 19 and Sept. 18 from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. Walkers will meet on the front steps of the Justice White House at 7730 Leary Way NE. Tours will not be held in the rain. Pre-registration is required and a fee of $8 per person will help fund society research. To register, call or e-mail the Redmond Historical Society at (425) 885-2929 or info@redmondhistoricalsociety.org.

Amy Sisk, a sophomore at the University of Montana, is a summer intern for the Redmond Reporter.