Our house was already 45 years old in 1930
The Seattle archives contain two fairly large sets of residential photos. If your house was standing during the mid-30’s and again in the 50’s, there’s likely a photo of it in the archives. We’ve not be able to find the one from the 50s’, but we did locate this one from the 30’s.
Our house was built in 1885 and is one of the older homes in our city. We’re actually listed as home of historical interest due to the early balloon architecture used and that the outside is in fairly as-built shape. The inside, so you know, has been gutted over the years into a weird mishmash. Only the transoms in the upstairs bedrooms are likely original.
If all goes, well, next year we’ll move the kitchen into the old woodshed, and I hope when we do we find the walls stuffed with yellowed newspaper.
2 Comments
Hi I’m a Seattle resident in Beacon Hill. I stumbled across your blog in search of information on a classic bike shop rumored to be on Whidbey Island… Alas I didn’t find what I was looking for, but I am curious how I can potentially find a photo of my house in the Seattle Archives. My house was built in the 40’s so perhaps there is a photo from the 50’s? Thanks for you help, -Galen
Hi Galen,
Just click on that link in the very first sentence and it will take you to the Seattle archive. It may help to know that several of the neighborhoods are not what we call them today and street names do tend to switch. In 1930 there was no need for N,S, E, W on the streets yet.
You’ll want to try many types of searches, including just your street or just your house number to see what they have.
Finally, you can make a request to the city archivist and I believe for a small fee, they will mail you one.
There should definitely be a picture of your house from the 1950’s inventory.