Tracing the History of a Home or Building

If you live in an old home or in a community with older properties, you may be curious about their past. Aside from the many problems of maintenance and repair a vintage structure poses, its charm may be intriguing enough to make you wonder: When was it built, and who was its builder? Who designed it, and what did it look like when it was new? Has it been remodeled? Who lived or worked there? And what events took place within its walls? Any ghosts? Has it retained enough of its original character to be considered for a local historic register and possible tax incentives for rehabilitation?

There is no single place that has answers to all these questions, and your search may be challenging. In Snohomish County, early building permits have not been kept, and there are no blueprints on file. But if you are willing to do some research, you will be rewarded with a fair amount of history about the structure.

What to Look For ~

  ▪ What you’ll be looking for will include
  ▪ Photographs (of the house itself and the people who lived there)
  ▪ Architect or Builder
  ▪ Architectural Style
  ▪ Dates (Construction date and the years people lived or worked there)
  ▪ Owners and Residents (who they were, what they did)
  ▪ Stories about neighborhoods, structures and the people associated with it.

Where to Look ~

The Everett Public Library Northwest Room is the best place to start for Everett properties. The staff can give you help finding answers to your specific house history questions about county properties as well.

Some of the answers will be found in the house itself (e.g. architectural style, building materials and artifacts. And, if blueprints are to be had, they could turn up in the attic.) The building or house may have been remodeled, so you will need to play detective to determine what changes were made to the original. Other information is found in public records (plats, deeds, mortgages), photographs; newspaper articles; biographical and historical resources; neighbors and past residents.

Page Contents

Historic Register Records

All properties and districts that have a local, state or national register status will have an accompanying nomination form that was originally filed upon application. These contain history about the property, architectural information and a bibliography that will lead you to newspaper articles or other resources. The Everett Public Library has all official and unofficial historical surveys of Everett properties as well as basic information about National and State Register properties in Snohomish County. For historic register records in the County, contact the Snohomish County Historic Preservation & Cultural Resources Office for information updating the 1980 Snohomish County Cultural Resource Inventory available in local libraries.

For more specific help, contact local boards:

  ▪ Everett Historical Commission
  ▪ Snohomish [city] Historical Commission
  ▪ Snohomish County Historical Commission
  ▪ Edmonds Historical Commission
  ▪ State Office of Archeology and Historic Preservation

Maps, Plats, Atlases

Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps of Snohomish County towns show the footprints of buildings and houses and indicate building materials as well. While they cover only the incorporated areas at the time the map was drawn, there are occasionally supplements and updates that extended the boundaries. Besides providing basic information about the structure, the Sanborns are very helpful in proving “pre-existing use”, since they predate 1955. This may be helpful if you want to remodel or rebuild an older garage or outbuilding. The Everett Library has microfilm copies of all Sanborns issued for Arlington, Edmonds, Everett, Gold Bar, Granite Falls, Index, Marysville, Monroe, Mukilteo, Silvana, Snohomish, Stanwood, Startup and Sultan. The Sno-Isle Regional Library system provides online versions of the Sanborn Maps on their subscribed sites page.

The historic editions of the Kroll & Metzger plat books and the 1910 Anderson Map Company Plat Book of Snohomish County. These are most helpful for areas outside of Everett where details will include property owners and, in the Anderson’s, may show building details and many of the old editions are available at the Everett Public Library Northwest Room. The Snohomish County Courthouse Assessor’s and Auditor’s offices will have these maps.

Original Plats showing property lines, dates, neighborhoods and property owners will be found through the Snohomish County Auditor’s office.

City Directories

The Polk’s city directories were issued from 1893 to 1999. These give an alphabetical listing of residents and businesses as well as listing by address for Everett properties. Early county communities were included in the beginning years, county addresses are often vague or nonexistent. The householder’s index (listing a property by address) started in 1932. Before that time, you can only search by name of occupant. These document occupations, families, homeownership, phone numbers and other details.

City & County Records

County Property Records

Tracking a deed, (also called a chain of title or a title search) often reveals or verifies names of owners, transfer dates and might give clues to additions and prices paid for purchase. You can now search for Snohomish County Assessor’s records online at http://web5.co.snohomish.wa.us/propsys/Asr-Tr-PropInq/PrpInq01-Entry.asp.  Entering a property address will give you information about ownership, structural data, valuation and a “guess date” of when it was built. The date is frequently incorrect so you will want to match this information with what you learn from other resources. You can also visit the Auditor's office/Records Department in the Snohomish County Administrative Building (enter and park in the garage at Pacific and Rockefeller). Here you can track the records back through the years, owner by owner, through deeds, mortgages, land patents until you come to the original recording of the property.

The County Auditor will do some or all of the deed-tracking for you for a small price. Call (425) 388-3411 ext. 2632 to discuss how this is done and how much it will cost.

City Water Records

For Everett properties, Water Department records (which have been copied to microfiche) contain the earliest water hookup date that usually indicates the year the structure was built, additions, roofs, water and sewer hookups. Properties can be searched by address. The person who requested the permit will most likely be the owner or builder. You will find these records at the Everett Water Department (3200 Cedar Street) and in the Planning Department in the Wall Street Building (2930 Wetmore in Everett). Other communities may or may not have old water records.

For Other resources, check Historic Everett [http://www.HistoricEverett.org/guide.html]

Newspapers (usually on Microfilm)

Newspapers are like the diaries of a community, and can be a great resource. Everett Public Library has copies of the Everett Herald, Everett Morning Tribune, Monroe Monitor and Stanwood Tidings, Snohomish EYE and Northern Star for early years. Unfortunately indexing is limited and for small papers, non-existent. Computer indexing began for the Herald in 1992, and while an Everett Public Library library indexed the Herald from 1971 through 1991, articles are listed by subject and not easily searchable. But, if your building is a register property, the person who filed the Register nomination may have done the work for you.

If the property is on the Register, news items may be indicated in the application bibliography. If you know approximate dates, sometimes events such as a house moving, fires and remodeling may have made the news, especially in the small community newspapers. Some of the Sno-Isle Libraries have back issues of local newspapers. If not there, they may also be found at the University of Washington Microforms/Newspapers Division or the Washington State Library.

Photographs

Pictures of street views, buildings, neighborhoods and residences may be available at the Everett Public Library if you have an Everett property. Some of the local historical societies may have photograph collections. They are usually staffed by volunteers so access is limited. But they might be worth a try. Often past residents, neighbors or people associated with a particular property will have old photos of the place as well.

Architectural Resources - books & periodicals

The Everett Library and the Sno-Isle Regional Library System attempt to add all books printed on Snohomish County History. Even if you don’t find information about your property or the people connected with it, these histories provide a context for your research. For instance, knowing the years that building booms happened or that economic hard times occurred may shed light on why the property you’re researching was built or remodeled when it was, or why it became a rental, etc. Both libraries also will have books on architectural styles and historic design plans, such as the Sears Kit Homes. The following books and magazines are ones you might want to check for local listings and design ideas.

Books

A Survey of Everett’s Historical Properties by David Dilgard and Margaret Riddle. 1996.
Buildings of Early Everett: a Pictorial Survey of the Architecture of the Everett Boom. 1975.
Hands On! The Rehabilitation Handbook for Everett’s Historic Homes. Everett Historical Commission and the Everett Planning Department, 1992.
Great American Houses and their Architectural Styles. Virginia and Lee McAlester, 1994.
Renovating Old Houses by George Nash, Taunton Press, 1992.
Snohomish County Cultural Resource Inventory, by Brent Lambert, 1981.
A comprehensive guide for listing a building in the National Register of Historic Places by Gail Greenberg, Lucid Press, 1996.
Classic Houses of the Twenties (Loizeaux's plan book no. 7), Dover, 1992.
Small Houses of the Twenties : The Sears, Roebuck 1926 house catalog, Dover, 1991.
500 Small house of the twenties (also called Books of a thousand homes, vol. 1), Dover. 1990.
Periodicals

Old House Journal
Old House Journal Interiors
Preservation
American Bungalow

Biographical Resources

Local libraries have many biographical resources that can be consulted. Below are listed other special resources. One organization that has trained volunteers for helping with newspapers on microfilm is the Stillaguamish Valley Genealogical Society, see their Library Resources list. http://www.rootsweb.com/~wastvgs/page2.html

The Everett Public Library’s Northwest Room updates and maintains both a card file for many of Everett’s older residences as well as biography files [ http://www.epls.org/nw/bio.htm ] on prominent Snohomish County residents.

Vital statistics records can give you death dates that will allow you to search the newspapers for obituaries. This can give background information on the people who are linked to a property. If you know the death date, go directly to the newspaper of the time. To find out birth, death, and marriage dates, there is an online site at http://vitalrec.com/wa.htm

Internet & Special Resources

The League of Snohomish County Heritage Organizations’ website has links for those interested in historic preservation www.snocoheritage.org/preservation.htm and a list of museums and heritage groups in Snohomish County www.snocoheritage.org/Leaguedir.html.

Some of these League member organizations maintain collections of materials that relate to the history of each locale. Most of them are operated by volunteers, so there is often limited access but some might be able to help using contact numbers on this list. This may include photographs, written accounts, maps, artifacts and oral histories. Older members of each group are great resources, particularly for stories relating to a house or building’s history.

Historic Everett www.historiceverett.org – is a new organization sponsoring and promoting historic preservation programs and assistance in Everett.

Join your local historical society www.snocoheritage.org/Leaguedir.html to get to know those involved in historic preservation and researching local history for fun and support in finding house histories - then share the information you get with others.