Seattle in the late nineteenth century was a rapidly growing city, aided in no small part by the 1883 connection to the rest of the country by the Northern Pacific Railway Company (NPRR). Additionally, the city's population doubled in 1890 from the previous year to 40,000, boosted by the influx of people who saw opportunity in rebuilding after Seattle's Great Fire. Expansion led to conflicts over the legal definitions of property and in what ways and by whom real estate could be utilized. NPRR was part of many lawsuits in Seattle during the period between 1895 and 1925, many of which were to establish rights-of-way and valuation of properties.
The plat map pictured here, roughly of Seattle's Alki, Harbor Island, and Pioneer Square neighborhoods, was used as evidence in 1896-1897 litigation between NPRR and a member of the Denny family, probably over usage of tide lands. The map is an index map to a series of maps called "Volume 2 of Seattle Tide Lands," and includes plats 26-56 of the City of Seattle. The map was created by members of the Board of Appraisers of Tide and Shore Lands for King County, Washington: Fredrick W. Sparling, Appraiser; Thomas W. Prosch, Appraiser; D. A. McKenzie, Appraiser; Edward Wheeler, Secretary; and M. Stixrud, C. E., Engineer. As part of the litigation E. H. Evenson, King County Auditor, certified this map as a copy of the original on April 7, 1897.
Stamped and handwritten on verso: 23429-23430. Equity Department, N.P. Ry Co.'s Defendant's Exhibit 7. Filed APR 7 1897. Geo. M. Holloway, Clerk [initialed W. C.]. Stamped on verso: The O. P. Anderson, Map & Blueprint Co., Inc. Township, City, County, and State Maps. Mining Maps a Specialty. Manufacturers of Zenith Blueprint Paper. 228 & 229 Occidental Blk., Seattle, USA.
Caption information source: NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILWAY COMPANY. LAW DEPARTMENT: An Inventory of Its Records at the Minnesota Historical Society, Manuscripts Collection, retrieved from http://www2.mnhs.org/library/findaids/01021.xml Caption information source: Klingle, M. (2007). Emerald City: An environmental history of Seattle. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
