The helpful guide to know where addresses are in Seattle without a map

(usefulness not guaranteed)

Seattle, being a relatively young city, has a layout that was at least moderately engineered (sort of), so we’re on a grid system. This makes it pretty easy to locate addresses if you have an idea of where the grid boundaries (like a meridian) are. Also, all streets run east to west and all avenues run north to south (more or less). All E/W streets get a prefix direction (E Pike St) and N/S streets get a suffix direction (23rd Ave E) — these two rules are actually reliable, but for crooked streets they may only help understand how they fit on the grid. All odd street numbers are on the south or west side of the street.

Thing is, we have ten grids. But they’re uniquely identified by direction markings.

NE is northeast. Street numbers count up to the north and to the east and Sunnyside Ave N serves as its zero point.

NW is, again, northwest. Street numbers count up to the north and to the west and Palatine Ave N serves as its zero point.

N is the gap in the middle, which I think exists thanks to downtown Seattle being crooked. It counts up to the north and east, and there are no numbered avenues. Palatine Ave N serves as its zero point as well, and Sunnyside Ave N or Eastern Ave N (the grids shift around a little in Seattle) is its eastern boundary.

The Ship Canal is the southern boundary for all of the N grids. It’s not 0; the address numbers (and therefore numbers on numbered streets) continue counting up from the grids to the south.

The W grid covers the western half of Queen Anne and Magnolia, as well as Lower Queen Anne down to Denny Way. Queen Anne Ave N is its zero point. The W grid has numbered avenues, but no numbered streets.

The E grid covers Eastlake and Capitol Hill north of E Denny Way. Counts up north and east. I don’t know if it actually has a meridian per se — but there are enough numbered avenues to get a pretty good idea where one would be. If I had to guess, maybe Fairview Ave E. Get a ruler and draw a line from Eastern Ave N down.

Denny is the zero point for all of the north grids, including W and E.

The S grid counts up to the east and south. Most avenues are numbered, except crooked or windy ones — no streets are numbered within the city of Seattle. Its western boundary is a little wacky. Figure it’s the Duwamish (the water), and then south of the Duwamish it’s 1st Ave S. The S grid includes SoDo, Georgetown, the ID, and most of Pioneer Square.

The SW grid counts up to the west and south. It picks up where the S grid leaves off. There are no numbered streets (but there are numbered avenues) down to… SW Roxbury St. The SW grid includes West Seattle and Harbor Island.

The northern boundary of the S grids is Yesler Way. It is a zero point for them. West Seattle actually stops south of Yesler Way.

This is where it gets fun.

The downtown grid is crooked. There are fascinating reasons for this. It is directionless and counts up to the north and east. Avenues are numbered, streets are not. The boundaries of the downtown grid are Denny Way on the north, Yesler Way on the south, and Broadway on the east — mostly. The boundary actually cuts west at Union, and then turns north along Melrose Ave.

East of Broadway, between E Yesler Way and E Denny Way, is what’s known as the E St grid It counts up north and east. Streets are named, avenues are numbered, but directions only go on the streets. So you have addresses like E Marion St and 19th Ave.

North of Denny Way, between Queen Anne Ave N and Eastlake Ave N, is the Ave N grid. It counts up north and east. Streets are named and are directionless; avenues are a mix of numbered and named, but all have a postfix N. You can view this as an extension of the N grid, only for some reason the streets don’t get an N. I don’t know man, I didn’t do it.

If you’ve got a headache, you’ve been paying attention.