Title Info: King County Assessor, Real Property Record Cards, 1937-1972

Real Property Record Cards were created by the King County Assessor’s Office to capture information through time necessary to value land and buildings for the assessment and collection of real property taxes by the County. This series of records was established through a survey funded by a contract between King County Assessor and the federal Works Progress Administration (WPA). The survey began in 1937 and was completed in 1940. The Real Property Record Cards were updated by the Assessor’s Office through 1972, when they were replaced by an automated database and folios that served as field reference files. The Real Property Record Cards contain information on individual parcels of property, including legal descriptions, building types, building uses, number of rooms, construction details, and at least one photograph of each building on the parcel. If significant exterior changes were made to the buildings additional photographs were taken. The cards also contain the assessed valuation for each parcel of property for the period ca. 1937 to 1972. The project to scan the original hardcopy Real Property Record Cards has just begun. Only a small portion of the collection is currently available online. More records will be posted as they are scanned.