Take Exit 164 off Interstate 5 or the Fourth Ave Exit off Interstate 90. Parking information is available at DowntownSeattleParking.com.
In a CAR
By FERRY OR WATER TAXI
Running from Westlake Station to SeaTac airport, light rail is a convenient way to get to Seattle’s historic neighborhood, via the Pioneer Square or International District/Chinatown Stations. Amtrak stops at historic King Street Station.
By RAIL
2 EXPLORE PIONEER SQUARE SEATTLE’S FIRST NEIGHBORHOOD ON THIS SPECTACULAR
WALKING TOUR 1
PIONEER PLACE & PERGOLA
This
triangular
park
marks
Seattle’s
first
permanent
TRAIL TO TREASURE
Catch a Washington State Ferry at Pier 52 for quick access to Bainbridge or Bremerton. West Seattle is a 15-minute ride via the King County Water Taxi at Pier 50.
ARTsPARKs
MARCH TO THE MATCH
settlement. The totem pole was added in 1890, after an
In June 2013, Pioneer Square will feature a series of wayside panels that call out points of historical interest with plenty of before-and-after photos! Free public tours.
“In the summer, see site-specific arts created just for Occidental Square Park by local artists. Join Sounders FC fans in Occidental Square Park for a pre-match ritual before each home match. Get there 60-minutes before the game and wear your Sounders gear!
expedition of drunken city fathers stole it from a Tlingit Native
PEMCO Webster & Stevens Collection, Museum of History & Industry, 1983.10.8576 FU N DE D B Y:
TRAIL to TREASURE
4
SMITH TOWER
OCCIDENTAL SQUARE & MALL
and a Metro tunnel entrance.
the terminus for Amtrak, the Chinatown – International District
Within,
Piazza
Jackson Street, you’ll find easy access to King Street Station,
the bell tower in Venice’s
Pasco, a renowned Chinookan artist. South of the park, across
designed to be reminiscent of
Raven, Tsonqua, Bear and Killer Whale—all carved by Duane
was
handles—its
Occidental Square, you’ll discover totems named Sun and
initials still adorn the door
and is famously covered in climbing ivy. At the north end of
whose
typewriter
The Grand Central Building, to the west, houses an indoor mall
Cornelius Smith—a gun and
galleries, restaurants and an information booth for visitors.
outside of Manhattan! Built by
Main. This now peaceful pedestrian walk is flanked by shops,
tallest building in the world
American warriors at what is now the corner of Occidental and
the Smith Tower was the
In 1855, Seattle settlers were attacked by Salish Native
When opened on July 4, 1914,
tycoon tower
San
Marco.
operators.
For more information please visit www.Trail2Treasure.org or pick up a Trail to Treasure Walking Map at the Occidental Square Park information booth or the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park. Trail to Treasure – the historical interpretive walking trail in Pioneer Square. Get to know the people who traveled here from afar to find their own paths to land, property, employment, vice, fame and fortune – many of whom, like Denny and Maynard, have become local legends. stories from Seattle’s pioneers, new and old, are told as part of past but always with an eye to the future. The collection of Pioneer Square still embodies the Seattle spirit: proud of its stampede restarted Seattle’s economic engine.
brass elevators are still run by
5
FALLEN FIREFIGHTERS MEMORIAL
(not
uniformed
tippler
MAP & WALKING GUIDE
PIONEER SQUARE American village up the coast. When an arsonist destroyed
and
By BUS
GETTING HERE IS EASY, NO MATTER HOW YOU GET AROUND.
PIONEER SQUARE
the pole in 1938, the city sent $5,000 to pay the Tlingits to
humanitarian
Pioneer Square is easily accessible from the Downtown Transit Tunnel via either the Pioneer Square Station or the International District/Chinatown Station. Call Metro Rider Information at 206-553-3000 for details, schedules and routes.
FIRST THURSDAY ART WALK
A 10-minute walk from Pike Place Market or 15-minute walk from Downtown’s Retail Core, Pioneer Square is a very walk-able neighborhood.
On FOOT
PARK CONCIERGE
STUFF TO DO
carve a replacement. Legend has it that the cashed check bore
Democrat,
The nation’s first art walk originated here in Pioneer Square. Browse gallery art every first Thursday of the month. FirstThursdaySeattle.com Occidental Square Park is staffed by helpful guides. On sunny days, tables and seating are provided in the park along with bocce ball and giant chess. Besides the spectacular WALKING TOUR highlighted on this map, here’s a list of other fun things to do in the neighborhood.
this note: “Thanks for finally paying for the first one, however,
a
provisioner for thousands of gold prospectors, and the Seattle’s waterfront on July 17, 1897. The city became a major loaded with a “ton of gold” from Canada’s Klondike landed on Seattle’s success was secured once and for all when a steamship 42,000 by 1890. city’s visionary spirit, Seattle’s population actually grew to over Romanesque style we now see in Pioneer Square. Thanks to the and adding beautiful brick buildings in the Richardsonian rebuilt from the ashes, elevating the Downtown area a full story every building in Pioneer Square. Undaunted, Seattle’s citizens 1889, right before the Great Seattle Fire burned down nearly
2013-2014
a new pole will cost another $5,000!” The Pioneer Building
American Chief Sealth. Maynard who suggested naming the city-to-be after Native saloon, brothel and hospital in Pioneer Square. It was also He started the first store, pharmacy, restaurant, hotel, casino, and San Francisco, Doc Maynard established a frontier spirit. While Yesler was busy supplying lumber to build both Seattle Seattle its first industry. year later, milling logs at the end of Skid Road and giving lumber mill in Pioneer Square. Yesler’s Mill established itself a convince Henry Yesler to come and locate his steam-powered Maynard donated a substantial piece of his own property to necessarily in that order). As Denny developed his real estate, Maynard,
entrepreneur and a teetotaling Republican, and David “Doc” set the course to cityhood: Arthur Denny, a hard-headed As the settlement began to take shape, two very different men resources – became Seattle’s first neighborhood. eastern shore of Elliott Bay, flat, and close to abundant West Seattle’s Alki Beach. This new land – sheltered on the after initially landing and suffering through a harsh winter on Seattle’s first settlers found shelter in Pioneer Square in 1852,
THE HEART AND SOUL OF SEATTLE
PIONEER SQUARE
The booming frontier town had grown to a city of 31,000 by June
7
PIONEER SQUARE MUSEUMS
This dramatic monument features life-size bronze sculptures of firefighters valiantly battling to save lives and property, flanked by slabs of granite that feature the names of 37 Seattle firefighters who have died in the line of duty. The Seattle Fire Department was founded in 1889, just after the Great Fire that razed the city. The memorial was created by Hai Ying Wu, a graduate of the University of Washington.
The
522-feet-high tower is topped by a ball made of cut glass and copper that lights up at night.
Photo Credit Tim Thompson
was voted the “finest building west of Chicago” by the American Institute of Architects in 1892. It was designed by Elmer Fisher, who designed more than
50 buildings in
3
Pioneer Square, all constructed after the Great Fire of 1889. As
YESLER WAY
The Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Park commemorates Photo Credit Tim Thompson
a result, Pioneer Square is considered to have the largest
the gold rush that put Seattle on the map. Featuring exhibits and artifacts, gold panning demonstrations, entertaining films
concentration of Victorian-Romanesque architecture in the
and interpretive talks, the museum is open 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.
country. In 1905, Pioneer Place’s ornate Pergola was built to
6
shelter passengers waiting for the cable car, which once trundled up and down Yesler Way.
every day. Admission is free and children are welcome.
WATERFALL GARDEN PARK
Located at Main & Second, this secluded, enchanting park offers an oasis for weary sightseers, shoppers and locals alike. Privately built and maintained by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the park marks the site of the original United
Photo Credit Paula RePera
Parcel Service offices. It’s the perfect place to relax for a moment, listening to the thundering melodies of falling water.
Yesler Way is the main east-west corridor through the Pioneer Square neighborhood. During Seattle’s early years, it served
The Fire Museum was created in 2008 when the Last Resort Fire Department moved a portion of its collection of apparatus and artifacts into Seattle Fire Department Headquarters. The display includes historic rigs dating back to 1834. The Seattle Metropolitan Police Museum is dedicated to the history of law enforcement in the Seattle Metropolitan area. The museum is the official repository for the police artifacts dating back to the 1880’s.
8
as the northern border of Doc Maynard’s original claim, commonly known as “Maynardtown,” where low-brow
MILEPOST 31
entertainment and vice were long tolerated.
Mileposts mark progress, helping us track
The phrase “Skid Road,” or “Skid Row;”—originally a logging
where
term—was first coined in Pioneer Square. When Henry Yesler
we
are
on
our
journey
and
reminding us of the places we've passed
built the area’s first steam-powered lumber mill, the strip was
through on our way to somewhere else.
used as a logging “skid”; trees cut down on the hill above Photo Credit Christopher Nelson
Milepost 31, located on 1st Ave S just north of Main Street,
were “skidded” down a series of parallel greased logs to the Yesler saw mill on the bay.
Photo Credit Frank J Wojcik
Photo Credit Christopher Nelson
highlights the people and projects that shaped Pioneer Square and provides an inside look at the SR 99 Tunnel Project.