Pioneer Square

Pioneer Square is where the oldest buildings are in downtown Seattle. There aren't that many of them and they aren't very, very old because the entire central business district burned down on June 6, 1889. The fire was started by a glue pot in a furniture business boiling over. The fire lasted for one day and, miraculously, no one died in the fire. Seattle was rebuilt, but the buildings were built 20 feet higher because the original downtown was on a mud flat. Massive mudslides were created by shooting seawater at the hillsides that covered a lot of the burned area and then merchants could rebuild on top of their original building site. Some of the original wood sidewalks were covered in concrete, retaining walls were put in, and a new sidewalk built one story above the old one. If you go on the Underground tour like we did you will see what looks like round glass bottle bottoms in some areas of the sidewalk. They are actually skylights and let in lots of light underground.

The skylights are prisms.

 There are many buildings in Pioneer Square that have a "basement" that would really have been the first floor before the fire. Seattle merchants tried to have more retail businesses in the underground level, but without foot traffic to actually see the businesses were there, they mostly failed for lack of customers. Now the few underground areas that are left (Seattle can use imminent domain to use the underground for utilities expansion, or they might be closed off for safety reasons) are mostly used for storage but there are a few exceptions.

Seattle likes to say that the term "skid row" (from skid road, a logging term) originated in Pioneer Square. According to Wikipedia there could be some truth to that claim. There are certainly a lot of bars in the area, two of which claim to be the oldest in Seattle. There is also a mission and signs are still up for rooms for 75 cents a night.

Here's a wild fact about this rate, it was still available in the 1970's!

The white building is the Smith Tower and was the tallest building in Seattle before the Space Needle was built. Also, check out that wild parking ramp in front of the building. It looks like the prow of a ship rising out of the street.

We also wandered around Pike Place Market for a little bit but since we weren't in the market to buy anything we didn't stay long. It was a cold, damp, and blustery day, not good for taking pictures or walking outside.