Located along Puget Sound about 30 miles north of Seattle, the Snohomish County seat was well known for being a lumber mill town. It also was home of Henry “Scoop” Jackson, who served in the U.S. House from 1941 until 1953, and in the U.S. Senate from 1953 until his death in 1983. Nowadays, Everett is renowned for its Boeing plant (featuring the world’s largest building by volume), where the 787 Dreamliner had its maiden flight last December.

How did Everett get its name? It was first platted in 1890 by Wyatt J. and Bethel J. Rucker as Port Gardner after the bay on which it’s located. Rumors swirled that the Great Northern Railroad might build a terminus there, causing the Rucker brothers to join forces with Tacoma industrialist Henry Hewitt Jr. and a group of eastern capitalists that included Charles L. Colby and John D. Rockefeller in the Everett Land Co. In 1890 the city was incorporated under the name Everett in honor of Colby’s son. To this day, Everett has prominent streets or avenues named after Colby, Hewitt and Rucker.

This 1916 photo, courtesy of our State Archives, shows Hewitt Avenue.

For more info about Everett, go here and here .