Biohazard Cleanup Near Cornerstone Covington, WA

Covington is a city in southern King County, Washington, about 20 miles southeast of Seattle, bordered by Kent to the west, Auburn to the southwest, and Maple Valley to the east.

The area was originally known as Jenkins Prairie, and the town was founded in 1900 as a stop on the Northern Pacific Railway's Palmer Cutoff between Auburn and Palmer.

Covington took its name from Richard Covington, a Northern Pacific surveyor who worked on building the railroad line through the area.

In 1900 the railroad built a 2,850-foot passing track, a loading track, a section house, a 24-man bunkhouse, and a standpipe for watering steam locomotives at Covington.

By 1908 the Covington Lumber Company had a mill at Covington capable of cutting 85,000 board feet of timber a day, but by the 1920s dairies had replaced lumber as the area's main industry.

A school district for Covington was established in 1937, and the city's public schools are today part of the Kent School District.

Voters approved incorporation on November 6, 1996 — the same day voters created neighboring Maple Valley — and Covington was officially incorporated as a city on August 31, 1997, with about 12,200 residents.

The 2020 census counted 20,777 people, 7,005 households, and 5,416 families in Covington, up from 17,575 people in 2010.

Covington is a regional medical hub for southeast King County: MultiCare opened a four-story, 58-bed hospital in the city in 2018, and Valley Medical Center also operates facilities there.

The city's principal arterial is State Route 516, known locally as Southeast 272nd Street or the Kent-Kangley Road, and State Route 18 is the only freeway passing through the city.