Above, are three of the earliest maps of Seattle, and at the bottom is its first real estate map, showing the sectioned fruit of the towns 1853 survey, its first additions on which Arthur Denny, Carson Boren and David “Doc.” Maynard expected to sell lots – and did.    The above maps all put east at the top.  The top one dates from the 1841 navy survey of Puget Sound, and includes a peninsula, Piner’s point, which when the tides were high and the wind strong out of the west could become an island.  It covers an area that now extends from about one-half block south of Yesler Way to King Street, and from the Alaskan Way Viaduct (for a while yet) to some little ways east of Occidental Ave.  The tides then also splashed against Beacon Hill.   The middle map above dates from 1854, and is the fruit of another federal survey.  It includes a few marks for buildings, but none yet for blockhouses.  Those troubles came a year later.  The bottom of the three maps dates from the mid-1870s and shows as yet no King Street coal wharf.  That was built in 1877.   The 1870s map also features topo lines.  This last map (of the three) marks Mill Street – later renamed Yesler Way – and that line can help one get oriented with the two earlier maps above it.

Finally, and again, the map below is a rationalization of land as marketable.  And they didn’t even own it.