Everett started in 1861 when Dennis Brigham built a cabin on a 160-acre claim on the shore of Port Gardner Bay.
In 1890, Henry Hewitt along with Charles L. Colby and Colgate Hoyt founded the Everett Land Company for the purpose of building the city and officially incorporated on May 4, 1893, the year the Great Northern Railroad came to the town.
Everett hoped that James J. Hill owner of Great Northern Railroad would make the town the terminus of his railroad. However railroad continued along the shoreline of Puget Sound to Seattle. Railroads and mines played an important part in Everett's future as ore was smelted, then sawmilling and port activity began to develop, along with shipbuilding as a dozen steam riverboats were built for the Yukon gold rush.
Everett was the place where several survivors of the Bellingham riots settled, until they were beaten and forcefully evicted by a mob on November 5, 1907. Everett also was the site of the Everett Massacre of 1916 which was an armed confrontation between a mob led by local Sheriff Donald McRae and IWW members.
Everett streets are named after each of the three founders, Colby Avenue, Hoyt Avenue, Hewitt Avenue and Bond Street named for Judge Hiram Bond, President of the Everett & Monte Cristo Railroad.