Have you ever wondered what your home looked like in the distant past? If it was built before the 1980s, you may be in luck. The three photos featured above were obtained from King County Assessor records, which are housed at the Puget Sound Regional Archives on the campus of Bellevue Community College near Eastgate. PSRA’s extensive database, operated by the Secretary of State, provides access to Assessor records and high-quality photos for a small fee.
By the mid-1930s, King County’s 2,152 square miles desperately needed a tax reassessment. King County contains 700 lakes, 16 major rivers, three large islands, one mountain range, and the second deepest harbor in the world. The 1940 population of its largest city, Seattle, was 368,302. Rapid growth and challenging topography resulted in a gross undervaluation of properties countywide and the omission of many parcels from the tax rolls altogether.
In 1936, King County began a major survey of every property in the county, financed by the federal Works Progress Administration (WPA). The survey, which concluded in September 1940, employed an average of 600 people until 1939, then down to 200 in its final stages. The project resulted in a significant increase in cumulative real estate values because so many properties weren’t even taxed, and others were significantly undervalued. The survey discovered 33,000 buildings that had never been registered on property tax rolls. The WPA undertaking was easily paid for by increased tax revenues.
Phase one of the project involved creating a complete set of aerial photographs of the entire county. The photos provided guidance for field personnel by showing exactly where structures were located. After the aerial photography was completed, a survey of the county’s standing timber was conducted. In eastern King County, aerial photos enabled timber crews to include 68,402 new acres, formerly listed as logged, thereby adding more than 1 billion board feet of lumber to the county tax rolls. Today, the 1936-1939 aerial collection can be viewed on King County’s iMap site.
Assessor employees then toured the county, entering information about individual properties on field sheets that were later transcribed in the office. If a structure existed on the property, a photograph was added to the data collection. Many of the photos were taken with quality cameras by previously unemployed photographers hired through WPA funding. After the property survey was completed, the King County Assessor’s Office continued updating its records.
Periodic field surveys allowed Assessor employees to revise individual property records. They also snapped new photographs of preexisting buildings that had significant changes to their exteriors, and photographed newly constructed buildings. From the late 1930s to 1972, between 1.5 and 2 million photographs were taken.
For the complete story of how this huge archive of photos and records came to exist, go to www.historylink.org and type in “WPA Photo,” or follow this link: https://www.historylink.org/File/3692
The Puget Sound Regional Archive records are housed at 3000 Landerholm Circle S.E., Bellevue, WA 98007. Copies of these historic photos can be purchased along with tax records that show the ownership history, improvements, and other detailed information for each property. To obtain King County Assessor records, email [email protected] or call 425-564-3940. You will need your King County tax parcel number and address.
These three photos of 31917 Railroad Avenue, Black Diamond (tax parcel #112106-9029) were taken on November 28, 1939, June 6, 1949, and September 23, 1958. They illustrate the various rehabs and remodeling of the home. According to Assessor records, this home was built in 1918 by Pacific Coast Coal Company. However, a picture postcard dated 1911 from P.H. Martino to Miss Clara B. Gooch in Yarmouth, Massachusetts, features this exact home with its distinctive diamond-shaped upper-story window. The greeting on the postcard states it was a six-room house built the prior year, 1910.
The home was long associated with Thomas J. and Naomi Macfarlane, who moved from Coalmont, Colorado, to Black Diamond in 1932, where Tom took a supervisory job with Pacific Coast Coal Company. In 1942, the Macfarlanes purchased the home from PCCC and undertook improvements, including new siding and shingles, as seen in the middle picture from 1949.
Gail Macfarlane, Tom and Naomi’s daughter, married Bob Kuzaro in 1944. Bob and Gail Kuzaro later purchased her folks’ home and, by 1958, had made significant improvements. A key clue to the nature of the additions and remodeling is the old chimney visible in the two early photos, and still in the back of the home in the third photo. Today, the home essentially retains its 1958 look.
Photo enhancements of these three King County Assessor photos were undertaken by Doug ‘Boomer’ Burham, a Tahoma High School teacher, doing business as BoomersPhotography.com
