Renaming Kirkland streets

This is a table of original and current downtown Kirkland streets’ names, from the 1890s to today.

The Kirkland streets data

The source

It was compiled from the 1926 Sanborn fire insurance map (available online through library database subscriptions), original plat maps, and a current map.

Early plats were also filed for Kirkland far to the north and east of downtown, though. So if the Kirkland streets you’re looking for aren’t here, go find your plat map through the Washington Secretary of State by searching by keyword in Plats and Surveys. To just browse early plats for Kirkland streets, search for Kikland there and then narrow the search to early years like 1850-1900.

The purpose

I’m continuing a project that I started with my friend Curt. We transcribed a January 1, 1891 Seattle P-I article that listed every structure built in Seattle the previous year. The list included surrounding cities like West Seattle and South Seattle that were later annexed into Seattle itself. It also had cities that remain independent, like Kirkland.

Street names for King County were chaotic in the 1890s. As a result, it’s really difficult to locate an old address, requiring referencing old maps and city directories. I’m adding current street names to the table of 1890 buildings, bit by bit. Some come in quick chunks when I find a city ordinance that switch names of entire neighborhoods. A few, like this one, needed me to compare sources by hand while pinching myself to stay awake.

Related articles

• Renaming streets of Seattle in 1895
• Streets of Green Lake
• Streets of Ballard
• Brygger Place: Ballard Streets Revisited
• Streets of Columbia City, Beacon Hill and West Seattle in 1907
• Streets of Fremont, Wallingford, Latona and Brooklyn (western U District) c1891 through today
• All structures built in Seattle area in 1890
• Weird Streets of UMadBro (for Capitol Hill Seattle Blog)
• 1892 problems at Harvard and Thomas (for Capitol Hill Seattle Blog)