King County neighborhoods

Photographs

King County Archives holds the following photograph collections that document neighborhood history.

King County Department of Transportation photograph and moving image files, 1900-2002

Commercial and residential neighborhoods near county public works projects, particularly street and road construction and maintenance, can be found by keyword, road or street name, or intersection Much less frequently, photographs of individual properties are indexed by homeowner name or property address.

King County Road Engineer bridge files (photographs), 1904-1988

Images of houses and other structures located near county bridges may be found using section-township-range coordinates or by keyword.

Seattle-King County Department of Public Health photograph files, 1909-1970

Residential and commercial neighborhoods, mostly in Seattle, that were the subject of health concerns can be identified by keyword. Images of Depression-era "Hooverville" shacks are present in these files.

King County Commissioners' Boeing Field files, 1928-1971

These records include photographs relating to a 1950s Georgetown property acquisition for Boeing Field addition. Access is by address or name of property owner.

King County Office of Information Resource Management: Printing and Graphic Arts photograph files, ca. 1962-2000

These photos document commercial and residential neighborhoods in King County, its municipalities, and in Seattle adjacent to watercourses, wastewater collection and treatment facilities, and transit routes and facilities. They are most easily accessed by a subject term.

King County Department of Public Works levee inspection reports, 1988-1990

Photographs of riverfront property near county-maintained levees are present in these files. Access is by keyword.

King County Assessor's Real Property Record Cards, 1937-1972

Maps and plans

Maps, plans, and other graphical material can give researchers an overall picture of the development of the built environment at a specific location. King County Archives holds records that contain maps and plans that show the locations of homes, businesses, farms, and other properties. Sometimes the properties are identified by owner name, but more often they are unidentified. The following records are held by the Archives.

King County Auditor: General Land Office field notes, 1856-1913

Survey notes and related maps in these volumes describe the natural and built environment along section lines as they were surveyed. The information in the volumes is organized by section-township-range coordinates.

Department of Executive Administration: Real Property Division franchise files, 1898-1988

These records document individual utility and transportation franchises issued by King County between 1898 and 1988 to private companies (railroad, streetcar, gas, electric power, water, and cable television companies); water and sewer districts; Maps accompany most text records and may be either annotated copies of commercial or plat maps, or original maps created by the applicant. The most helpful way to access these records is by subject term or by utility taxing district number.

King County Assessor timber cruise records, 1907-1967

These records are organized by section-township-range coordinates. Within each volume, section maps, intended to show stands of taxable timber, may also show home sites and describe property improvements.

Road establishment books, 1912-1936

These books are atlases of King County roads. Maps show existing county road rights of way, former roads, actual roads constructed, road names and numbers, and date of road establishment.

King County Engineer state highway plans, 1925-1933

After 1900, Washington counties worked increasingly with the state Highway Department to maintain roads built with state monies. The Highway Department sent reference copies of its highway plans to the counties. These plans are for State Highway #1 (Pacific Highway, through Auburn, Kent, Des Moines, Seattle, and via North Trunk Highway to the Snohomish County line) and State Highway #2 (Sunset Highway, over Snoqualmie Pass).

In addition to construction details, the plans provide information about the land on either side of the right-of-way: property owner's names, location of structures such as barns and sheds, wetlands, pastures, cultivated fields, etc. Maps on each page have been indexed by section-township-range coordinates.

Engineering Land Survey description cards, 1936-1941

Cards often include a hand-drawn sketch of the area surrounding the survey marker or section/quarter-section corner. The sketches, when present, vary widely in degree of detail. They may show houses (some with owner names); commercial structures (some with business names); churches; roads (paved, gravel, dirt, brick, etc.); old trails; logging roads; bridges; watercourses; rail lines; garbage dumps; electrical power lines; vegetation; agricultural crops; burnt or logged-off land; etc.

King County Engineer state highway plats, 1959-1972

This series consists of King County's reference copies of Washington State Highway Department plat maps. The maps show the extent of rights-of- way for state highway projects. Large-scale maps of the right-of-way for the Seattle Freeway (Interstate 5) show the location of structures removed during freeway construction. No additional information about the buildings is present.

King County Planning Department land use maps, 1959-1972

This series consists of large scale neighborhood maps (many based on Kroll maps) showing the nature of built structures or land utilization during the time period. They are arranged by section-township-range coordinates.