David Swinson “Doc” Maynard. Doctor. Lawyer. Indian Agent. Storekeeper. One of the founders of Seattle and close friend to the city’s namesake Chief Seattle, spelled siʔaɫ in modern Puget Salish Lushootseed language, Si'ahl in modern Duwamish spelling, also transcribed as Sealth, Seathl or See-ahth. Chief Seattle personally paddled Doc Maynard in the chief’s canoe from Olympia to Alki Point in 1852. In 1857 the good doctor traded his remaining Seattle holdings to Charles Terry, one of the settlers who landed with Arthur A. Denny at Alki Point in 1851, for the original Alki Point homestead claimed by Charles’ younger brother Lee Terry. For a deeper look at Doc Maynard’s role in the founding of Seattle, see:
Doc Maynard House
Mardy Toepke, current owner of the Doc Maynard House who operates an Airbnb on the upper floor.
After returning to Alki Point with his wife Catherine Troutman Broshears Maynard, a cabin he either found or constructed burned to the ground in 1858. By 1860 Maynard built the clapboard house which today bears his name, originally located on Alki Beach at the foot of 64th Avenue SW. The Maynards lived in the house until 1868, when Doc Maynard decided that country life did not suit him. Maynard sold the Alki claim in 1868 to Hans Hanson, grandfather to Seattle folk singer and restauranteur Ivar Haglund, and moved back across Elliott Bay to downtown Seattle to open Seattle’s first hospital. As a good friend of Doc Maynard’s, no doubt Chief Seattle himself walked the floors of the home before his death in 1866.
The Doc Maynard House remained on Alki Beach until 1905. That year, two years before Seattle annexed West Seattle, King County started construction of Alki’s first major road along the beach, the forerunner to Alki Avenue. Houses along the beach, such as Maynard’s, had to be moved or demolished. The Doc Maynard House was moved one block east and reoriented to face newly platted 64th Avenue SW. Sometime after the relocation, what had been the south wing of the building, then the west wing, was removed. Current owner Mardy Toepke restored the building in 2019, converting the upstairs into an Airbnb.
Images created with a Nikon D500 mounted with a Nikon AF-P DX NIKKOR 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR Lens. 18mm focal length ISO 200 f9 shooting at 1/320 second. Raw NEF images edited in Adobe Lightroom.