PHOTOS: PEMCO WEBSTER & STEVENS COLLECTION, MOHAI; UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON LIBRARIES, SPECIAL COLLECTIONS, UW9939 / UW6991
PHOTO: CHRISTOPHER NELSON
P ioneer Square.org A PRESENTATION OF
many bear the elegant stamp of a single architect, Elmer Fisher. buildings rose from the ashes over the following five years, and immediately set about rebuilding. Virtually all of Pioneer Square’s
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DowntownSeattle.com
(206) 441-3303 For more information, call the MID hotline at: BY TRAIN Amtrak stops at historic King Street Station in Pioneer Square. Commuter trains from Tacoma stop at Union Station. SMITH TOWER PHOTO: JEN KELLY
and by the 1930s Pioneer Square was abandoned.
WO N D E R S
districts, thereby saving Pioneer Square for future generations.
Seattle its first industry when he donated a substantial piece of
WANT TO KNOW WHAT EVENTS ARE HAPPENING DOWNTOWN?
BY CAR Exit 164 off Interstate 5 or the Fourth Ave Exit off Interstate 90. Easy access off Alaskan Way Viaduct (Route 99)
OF PIONEER SQUARE
to-be after Native American Chief Sealth. Over time the city’s
engine. Alas, Seattle’s business center gradually shifted north, Seattle” of today.
OCCIDENTAL PEDESTRIAN PARK
1970, Seattle created one of America’s first historic preservation
tippler, not necessarily in that order. It was Maynard who gave sheltered eastern shore of Elliott Bay, now Pioneer Square.
BY FOOT A 10-minute walk from Pike Place Market or a 15-20 minute walk from Seattle’s Downtown shopping district
PHOTO: JEN KELLY
argued for protection of buildings under law and they won. In
hospital. It was also Maynard who suggested renaming the city-
Booth or ask a Metropolitan Improvement
of prospectors, and the gold rush restarted Seattle’s economic sidewalks, which were later sealed to create the “Underground
HISTORY, GALLERIES, RESTAURANTS, SHOPPING, TOURS & FUN!
T H E S T RO L L I NG T O U R
store, pharmacy, restaurant, hotel, casino, saloon, brothel and
dressed in yellow and blue!
fathers unveiled an “urban renewal” plan to flatten its buildings
Republican, while Maynard was a Democrat, humanitarian and children shivered through a drizzly winter before relocating to the
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of vintage architecture from the bulldozer. Community leaders
While Denny developed his real estate, and Yesler supplied
on July 17, 1897. The city became the provisioner for thousands This stranded many first-floor storefronts in subterranean
MAP & GUIDE BUS & LINK LIGHT RAIL TUNNEL
a civilizing spirit to the new settlement. He established its first
District Downtown Ambassador Visit the Occidental Square Information
Denny was a hardheaded entrepreneur and a teetotaling as Alki) on November 13, 1851. Two dozen men, women and
BY TROLLEY Hop aboard Seattle’s Waterfront Trolley running from Pioneer Square to the Olympic Sculpture Park BY METRO Part of Seattle’s Ride-Free Zone (including the Downtown bus tunnel to Pioneer Square Station and the International District Station)
PHOTO: CHRISTOPHER NELSON
Seattle spirit, proud of its past but always Pioneer Square still embodies the for parking lots. Horrified citizens rallied to save some 40 blocks Pioneer Square remained until the late 1960s, when city of a steamer loaded with a “ton of gold” from Canada’s Klondike Seattle’s success was secured once and for all with the arrival plumbing problem by elevating the Downtown street a full story. The citizenry resolved to fix a chronic and malodorous
?
FROM THE
PIONEER SQUARE IS SEATTLE’S MOST ACCESSIBLE NEIGHBORHOOD!
Discover
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SMITH TOWER
When opened on July 4, 1914, the Smith Tower was the tallest building west of the Mississippi River. Built by Cornelius Smith- a gun and typewriter tycoon whose initials
PHOTO: GIANLUCA SIRRI
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still adorn the door handles-- it was one of several box-shaped buildings being erected at the time. Smith took the design to a new
OCCIDENTAL SQUARE & PEDESTRIAN WALK PHOTO: FRANK J. WOJCIK
for weary sightseers, shoppers and locals alike. Privately built and
the west houses an indoor mall and is covered in climbing ivy. To the
the Tower’s 10-foot-diameter cut glass and
Located at Main & Second, this secluded, lovely park offers an oasis
rants and a visitors’ information booth. The Grand Central Building to
formed operators. Standing 522 feet high,
This now peaceful pedestrian walk is flanked by shops, galleries, restau-
Within, brass elevators are still run by uni-
attack by Salish Native American warriors retreated to a blockhouse.
bell tower in Venice’s Piazza San Marco.
In 1855, on the southeast corner of Occidental and Main, settlers under
level by adding a tower reminiscent of the
copper ball at the top is lit at night.
PHOTO: JEN KELLY
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WATERFALL GARD EN PARK
of United Parcel Service’s original offices.
by Duane Pasco, a nationally respected Chinookan carver and artist).
maintained by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the park marks the site
north, admire Sun and Raven, Tsonqua, Bear and Killer Whale (carved At the southern end, across Jackson Street, is easy access to King Street Station, the terminus for Amtrak, the Chinatown/International District
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OPEN-AIR DINING PHOTO: CHRISTOPHER NELSON
Seattle to the ground in hours. Undaunted, Seattle’s citizens unattended on a stove, igniting a conflagration that burned souls. On June 6 of 1889, a furniture maker left a pot of glue The city grew slowly through the next decade to 3,500 name became Seattle. lumber to build Seattle and San Francisco, Doc Maynard brought his own property to Henry Yesler for a steam-powered lumber mill. the path to cityhood: Arthur Denny and David “Doc” Maynard. Among the founders, two very different men set the village on first landed on a windswept West Seattle beach (now known Seattle’s founders, led by Arthur and David Denny,
M UD UP
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and a Metro Tunnel entrance.
PHOTO: SCOTT B
PIONE E R P L AC E & P E R G O L A
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HISTORIC MUS EUMS
KLONDIKE GOLD RUSH NATIONAL PARK
interpretive talks, the museum is open between 9am and 5pm every day.
When an arsonist burned the pole in 1938, the city sent $5,000 to pay
and artifacts, gold panning demonstrations, several film shows and
fathers stole it from a Tlingit Native American village up the coast.
gold rush that put Seattle on the map a century ago. Featuring exhibits
totem pole was added in 1890, after an expedition of drunken city
The Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park commemorates the
This triangular park marks Seattle’s first permanent settlement. The
the Tlingits to carve a replacement. Legend has it that the cashed check
PHOTO: PAUL PEPERA
Admission is free and children are welcome.
Washington School of Arts.
parallel greased logs to the Yesler saw mill on the bay.
sculpture was chosen through a design competition at the University of
“skid.” Trees cut down on the hill above were “skidded” down a series of
Great Fire. The memorial was created by artist Hai Ying Wu, whose
first steam-powered lumber mill, the strip was used as a logging
The Seattle Fire Department was founded in 1889 just after the
Pioneer Square. When Henry Yesler chose to build the Puget Sound’s
dedicated to the history of the Seattle Police Department and of law en-
who have died in the line of duty throughout the department’s history.
Skid Road or Skid Row, originally a logging term, was coined in
The Seattle Metropolitan Police Museum was founded in 1997. It is
the life-size bronze sculptures are the names of 37 Seattle firefighters
were long tolerated.
the country. Pioneer Place’s ornate Pergola was added in 1905 to
SEATTLE METROPOLITAN POLICE MUSEUM
Seattle Fallen Firefighters’ Memorial. On slabs of granite surrounding
originally Maynardtown, where low-brow entertainment and vice
largest concentration of Victorian-Romanesque architecture in
Across Main Street from the Occidental Pedestrian Walk stands the
“the Deadline,” the northern border of the “restricted district,”
Fire of 1889. As a result, Pioneer Square is considered to have the
claim (to the south) and Carson Boren’s (to the north). It became
50 buildings in Pioneer Square, all constructed after the Great
Yesler was the dividing line between Doc Maynard’s original
in 1892. It was designed by Elmer Fisher who designed more than
through Pioneer Square. Immediately south of the square itself,
building west of Chicago” by the American Institute of Architects
Yesler Way, originally Mill Street, is the main east-west street
The Pioneer Building, located in the park, was voted the “finest
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a new pole will cost another $5,000!”
bore this note: “Thanks for finally paying for the first one, however,
YESLER WAY
LAST RESORT FIRE DEPARTMENT MUSEUM A new fire museum was created in 2008 when the Last Resort Fire
HISTORIC PIONEER SQUARE
PHOTO: PEMCO WEBSTER & STEVENS COLLECTION, MOHAI
shelter passengers waiting for the cable car which once trundled up and down Yesler Way. In 2001, an 18-wheeled semi clipped the pergola and it came crashing down into thousands of pieces. It took Seidelhuber Iron & Bronze Works of Seattle six months to rebuild the pergola to today’s construction standards.
PHOTO: GIANLUCA SIRRI
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Department moved a portion of its collection of apparatus and artifacts into Seattle Fire Department headquarters. The station, built in 1928,
FALLEN FIREFIGHTERS’ MEMORIAL
was home to Fire Station #10 for 80 years. The display includes eight historic rigs dating back to 1834.
forcement in the Seattle Metropolitan area. The museum is the official repository for the historical artifacts of the Seattle Police Department and the King County Sheriff’s Office dating back to the 1880s.