The town was incorporated in 1909 and originally relied on logging and farming; in the mid-20th century, it became a bedroom community for workers commuting to Seattle and later other Eastside cities.

Bothell's modern economy is centered around biotechnology and high-tech companies that have facilities that were developed in the late 20th century along North Creek and in the Canyon Park neighborhood, which was annexed by the city in 1992.

[9] The first Homestead Act claims to modern-day Bothell were filed in 1870 by Columbus S. Greenleaf and George R. Wilson, an English immigrant, on adjoining plots of land.

[11] Eight families settled in the area in the next six years and were followed by Canadian businessman George Brackett, who began commercial logging in 1877 on 80 acres (32 ha) on the modern-day site of Wayne Golf Course.

[19] Bothell grew rapidly following the railroad's opening; by the end of the 1880s, it had telegraph service, a general store, a butcher, and a drugstore with a practicing doctor.

[6][30] Several civic projects were completed during the Great Depression by the Works Progress Administration, including construction of a new town hall that also housed the fire department and library when it opened in 1938.

[5][43] In 1974, plans to build a regional shopping mall were announced on the site of a 142-acre (57 ha) truck farm adjacent to the Interstate 405 and State Route 522 interchange east of downtown Bothell.

[38][46] The environmental groups filed a lawsuit against the city government over the rezoning, which the King County Superior Court found to violate state laws on land use fairness and conflicts of interest within the planning commission.

[47] The ruling was upheld by the Washington Supreme Court in 1978 and the property was instead rezoned into an office park under new regulations for the North Creek Valley, which was designated as a special district.

[48] The remaining farmland in the North Creek Valley was developed into facilities for high tech and light industrial companies beginning in the 1980s, encompassing 1.8 million square feet (170,000 m2) of office space.

[51] Bothell continued to develop into a center of high tech employment alongside Canyon Park, an unincorporated area to the north in Snohomish County, with a combined 4,300 jobs added between 1985 and 1987.

[52] Several office parks were also developed in nearby Woodinville, which Bothell unsuccessfully attempted to annex in 1985 for a shopping center;[53][54] the community later incorporated as a separate city in 1993.

[59] The annexation prevented the competing proposal for a new city, tentatively named North Creek,[60] from claiming the area and its existing industrial parks that employed 20,000 people.

[67] In the late 2000s, the city government adopted a downtown plan to revitalize Main Street and add denser housing and mixed-use development in the area.

[74][75] Main Street was rebuilt as a shared space between vehicles and other modes with curbless sidewalks and parallel parking separated by dining areas and planter boxes.

A one-block section was closed to all vehicular traffic in June 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic to encourage its use as an outdoor gathering space and dining area to revitalize business in downtown.

The northern city limits of Bothell is defined by 216th Street Southwest on the west side of Interstate 405 and State Route 524 (Maltby Road) through Thrasher's Corner.

[14] Since the 1980s, high tech development in the Canyon Park and North Creek business districts has transformed Bothell into a regional employment center.

[85] The city had the second-largest biotechnology and biomedical hub in Washington state, behind South Lake Union in Seattle, and has 61 companies that employ 4,000 people.

[140] Microsoft had a Canyon Park campus in the 2000s that housed servers for the company's web services and previously used a building in the area to package its consumer software.

[165][166] The city government's Parks Department organizes five annual events, including the Fourth of July parade (also known as the Freedom Festival), which featured a reenactment of the Battles of Lexington and Concord.

[14][171] The parks department also hosts weekly outdoor concerts at the Bothell Landing amphitheater and other activities during the summer months, including night markets on Main Street.

[176] In 2007, about 5,000 to 7,000 people gathered for a parade and outdoor concert at the Veterans Memorial Amphitheater at Bothell Landing in honor of local American Idol contestant Blake Lewis.

[177] The Cup of Kindness Day, created by a local coffeeshop owner and held on May 10, 2018, was cited by Reader's Digest in its awarding of "Nicest Places in America" honors to Bothell and nine other cities that year.

[183] The region's largest newspaper, The Seattle Times, operated a production facility in the city's North Creek business district from 1992 to 2020, when it closed amid an industry-wide decline in print revenue.

[198] The museum is open on Sundays from April through October (aside from a two-year hiatus induced by the COVID-19 pandemic); it is furnished with contemporary artifacts from a late 19th-century home and those related to the city's history.

[236] The Northshore School District serves the cities of Bothell, Woodinville, Kenmore, and surrounding unincorporated areas in King and Snohomish counties.

[253] UW Bothell was established by the state government in 1989 alongside another branch campus in Tacoma to serve students who had graduated from two-year community colleges.

[281][282] The city government is also responsible for stormwater collection and treatment using a 138-mile (222 km) system of storm pipes that flow into catchment ponds and detention vaults.

The King County portion of Bothell is part of the public hospital district that manages EvergreenHealth and elects one member to its board of commissioners.