Everett Chronology and Historic Maps

Originally created by Jack O’Donnell and David Dilgard, and maintained by Jack O’Donnell, items in the Everett Chronology are featured in our yearly calendar. This is a valuable list of events of Everett’s history. We also have a mapping system with over 20 historic maps.

Everett chronology

Historic maps

Historic Documents

c. 1897 Everett Promotional Brochure has a number of interesting stories and drawings of buildings from the beginnings of Everett.

Researching Your House

Historic Everett Research Assistance

It’s fun to do your own research, which is explained below. We can help with your house, or tell you more about Everett’s history. For more information, contact Historic Everett by email with questions.

Start with “PROPERTY RESEARCH 101”

Lisa Labovitch, historian at the Everett Public Library’s Northwest Room, created a presentation on getting the history of an Everett house. Start by viewing “Property Research 101“, which explains the process in detail.

Everett Public Works

Start by getting the public records, now available online from the old microfiche records. In the upper left corner, there are two tabs, marked Browse and Search.  Search is the default that works for many houses. If for some reason it doesn’t work, try the Browse tab, where houses are organized by street name.

For many houses built before 1909, these may be the only public records available. (The county courthouse burned in 1909, and we lost a lot of valuable records.)

You may discover: builder of the house (often the owner), when water was first turned on, additions and remodeling permits, sewer work, fire repair, roofing, etc. Finding the owner is the key item, which may be on the first water permit. Permits were not saved before about 1950, except for water and sewer records.

Snohomish County Assessor

The county assessor website lists the date your house was built. However, many of their records are incorrect. But it’s worth checking anyway.

Everett Public Library, Northwest Room

Armed with names and/or addresses, next go upstairs to the Northwest Room. The library has two historians on staff who can guide you to the Polk Directories. In the pre-telephone era, these were the “white pages” of their day. You can look up the name and learn the occupation and spouse’s name, and sometimes older children’s names. You can follow up in subsequent years to see if they moved. Starting in 1932, the Polk Directories also list by address — this makes it very easy to see who lived in your house.

Also in the NW room at the library: files on many homes, Sanborn insurance maps that show the footprint (maybe there was a barn on your property), high school yearbooks (Everett and Cascade high schools), a couple of books on famous or influential residents, lots of photos, and computerized map resources. The librarians will guide you. Note: the NW room may be locked evenings and weekends. You can ask at the main desk to open the room.

Snohomish County Records

Go to the Snohomish County campus, downtown, and look up property records, legal records, and old assessor photographs of your house.

Neighborhood Photographs

Finally, see if we have a photo of your house or your block on our neighborhood self-guided walking tours.