Resources for Property Research

The Seattle Department of Planning and Development Microfilm Library has building permits from the 1890s to the present and building plans for single-family residences from 1974 to the present.

The King County Recorder's Office holds real property records relating to deeds, easements, and assessor's records. The Recorder's Office (phone: 206-296-1570) is in the King County Administration Building, Room 311, at 500 4th Avenue in Seattle.

Fire insurance maps, such as Sanborns, can also be useful for researching building histories and land use. The Seattle Public Library has Sanborns, and they also make them available online.

An excellent guide to sources for research in the history of a building is Researching Historic Houses, available from 4Culture.

How can I find a photograph of a house?

King County Assessor's Photographs
The best source for historical photographs of buildings in Seattle and King County is the King County Assessor's property records at the Puget Sound Regional Branch of the Washington State Archives. These records are not available on the Internet. Information about using these records is available from the Washington State Archives (phone: 425-564-3940).

Seattle Municipal Archives
The Seattle Municipal Archives online photograph database contains photos of many residences and other buildings. These photographs were usually made for purposes other than illustrating what buildings looked like. For example, many photos were shot to illustrate paving, sewer, or water main construction, or problems like landslides.

Since houses and other buildings in these photographs are not often identified by street address, searching directly for a street address is not a reliable way of finding relevant pictures. Instead, try a broad search by neighborhood district, or searching by street name. For example, for a house on the corner of 18th Avenue East and East Prospect Street, a search for "18th or Prospect" might work. Remember that directional designations for Seattle streets have changed over time, so including designations such as "E" or "East" is not usually a good idea. To see how the street designations have changed, check the maps showing the changes.

The description of a photograph of the area around 18th and Prospect may include the word "18th," the word "Prospect," or neither. For the most complete retrieval, try retrieving all photos from the neighborhood (in this case Stevens) or even better, from the broader neighborhood district designation, Capitol Hill. For more tips on searching in the photo database, see this page.