Pioneer Square

Constructed after the Great Seattle Fire, the buildings of Pioneer Square retain an architectural integrity not found anywhere else in the city. To sample a taste of Seattle’s not-so-ancient history in the timber and gold rush, Pioneer Square is the place to go. During the city’s incline, a local businessman known as Henry Yesler built a lumber mill in the square, on ‘Skid Road’, a long narrow pathway down which wooden logs were slid. This acted as a catalyst, and the square is now the core or hub of the Pioneer Square Historic District. Here you can find its 1909 pergola, a copy of a totem pole from a neighbouring Tlingit Indian village, and a bust of Chief Sealth, the man after which the city was named. Beautiful period red brick and stone buildings which have been very carefully and consciously restored to their former glory, decorate the neighborhood. The square is the oldest part of the city, and these 19th century buildings are now showcases for shops and bars, superb restaurants and theatres. Due to Seattle’s precarious position on the edge of Puget Sound, periodic flooding and landslides have occurred. This has left much of the original city well below present street level. An absolutely fascinating tour, known as Bill Speidel’s Underground Tour, leaves regularly from Doc Maynard’s pub in Pioneer Square. This takes you through the district’s subterranean passages, and is a well worth while experience.

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