Kendall is a census-designated place (CDP) in Whatcom County, Washington, United States. As of the 2020 census, Kendall had a population of 769.
History
Kendall was founded in 1887 by F.B. Hardmen. It was named for the first homesteader in the area, Carthage Kendall, a West Virginian who settled there in 1884.
In 1900 a seam of high quality limestone was found in Sumas Mountain near Kendall. An English company, Balfour and Guthrie, doing business in the US as Western Estates Company, showed interest in this stone, setting up a mining operation. The company had planned to build housing for several hundred residents to work the mines, and some people envisioned Kendall growing to several thousand residents. This never happened, with only about ten or fifteen families staying after the seam was mined out. Limestone from the mine was sold mainly to Olympic Portland Cement Company. The limestone was used for riprap, cement, and construction. The Milwaukee Road railroad had a spur from Bellingham to move the blocks. The now abandoned tracks crossing the highway near the Pair-o-dice Tavern mark the location of the mine.
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 0.9 square miles (2.2 km<sup>2</sup>), of which, 0.8 square miles (2.1 km<sup>2</sup>) of it is land and 0.04 square miles (0.1 km<sup>2</sup>) of it (2.35%) is water.
Kendall is at the junction of Washington State Route 542 (the Mount Baker Highway) and State Route 547, which leads over a low pass on the northeastern flank of Sumas Mountain to connect to the town of Sumas and the border crossing with Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada. The community of Maple Falls is three miles east along the Mount Baker Highway, which leads to the Mount Baker Ski Area.
Demographics
As of the census