1911 Bogue Map or Plan of the City of Seattle, Washington

This is a rare and important 1911 map or plan of the city of Seattle by Virgil G. Bogue. This map, present the proposed ‘Bogue Plan’ and covers the city of Seattle as foreseen by the visionary engineer. The famous plan presented a grand design for the city in the early 20th century, envisioning it as a growing city in need of modern mass transit, municipal infrastructure in terms of harbors and waterfronts and architecture that would keep the growing city from looking and feeling too crowded.

Seattle saw sizeable improvements in the early 20th century. The Bogue Plan, worked in conjunction with the new park system developed by the Olmsted brothers in 1903. It also proposed a giant train station on the south shore of Lake Union, a civic center, the partial acquisition of Mercer Island as a city park and a rail transit line that would link Seattle and Kirkland via a tunnel under Lake Washington.

The plan however threatened the business establishments, who feared that the plan would shift the commercial district north, in turn devaluing their downtown holdings. This led to a debate between the business owners and the Municipal League. The unspecified implementation costs and the editorials against the Bogue Plan in three of Seattle’s leading dailies contributed to public confusion and the eventual rejection of the plan by the public. On March 5, 1912, the Bogue plan was rejected by a 10,000-vote margin. The civic center would eventually be constructed near the same location as proposed by Bogue after 5 decades.

This plan created by Virgil G. Bogue in September 1911 was printed as Map no. 3 by the Tucker Hanford Co.