Site Report 3
King County Department of Assessments, "Tax Roll History" March 16, 2016.<History.http://blue.kingcounty.com/Assessor/eRealProperty/Dashboard.aspx?ParcelNbr=4092300940>.
University of Washinton, Special Collections Library. Zoning Map, early 1900s. Accessed on February 16, 2017.
University of Washinton, Special Collections Library. Zoning Map, early 1900s. Accessed on February 16, 2017.
Hello and welcome to my tour of block #9 of the university district, located between 7th and 8th Ave NE and 43rd and 42nd St. I am your guide, Sarah and today we will be walking through the details of this land development. Now unfortunately as I discovered in the special collections library of the University of Washington, there is not a ton of information before the 1850s on this area quite frankly because there were not a lot of settlers there yet that would have been making maps. What I can tell you is that like the untouched areas of Seattle are today, 1800s Seattle was covered in evergreen trees and hills. Now for this block, framework of buildings began in the early 1900s and as the population of the city expanded this block became more and more important. It is a block that is today purely residential and honestly has always been this way. Though other sections of Seattle may be more interesting it is certainly just as important to address this part of development as well. The type of buildings put here are a good indicator of how the area was doing. Now, the housing on this block is all older, except for a few buildings that we will come back to in a minute. Most of these homes follow the early 1900s Seattle box home style of building, and as we look through old city records we can find out a little more about the people that were living there. Now there isn't a ton of years to study for trends, but starting the early 1900s and continuing for the next 100 years we see a steady incline in property value all the way until you hit 2007, where there is a sudden decline in value through 2010. It is not until 2012 that the property exceeds it’s previous 2006 value. Additionally, places like the new “apodment” building have sprouted up in the last few years to make room for more people. The growing population both continues to increase the value of the homes on this block and increases the need for the high density housing from the small lots to the apartment buildings.