Seattle Underground

Today John, Joe, Alyssa, and I ventured downtown to take a tour of the Seattle Underground. It was so neat to see history and get a feel for where the city used to be.

A little history:
The Seattle Underground a network of underground passageways and basements in downtown Seattle that was ground level at the city's origin in the mid-19th century. After the streets were elevated these spaces fell into disuse, but have become a tourist attraction in recent decades.

Seattle's first buildings were wooden. In 1889, a cabinetmaker accidentally overturned and ignited a glue pot. An attempt to extinguish it with water spread the burning grease-based glue. The fire chief was out of town, and although the volunteer fire department responded they made the mistake of trying to use too many hoses at once. They never recovered from the subsequent drop in water pressure, and the Great Seattle Fire destroyed 25 city blocks.

Totem Pole at Pioneer Square

The tour started at this Totem Pole, that was actually stolen from Indians in Alaska. It was later burned, and the city paid the same tribe to build a new one.

Pioneer Square Pergola 1914 

Pergola 2011

 

Pergola 

This pergola was also in Pioneer Square. It is mostly original. The first one was accidentally hit by a truck and knocked over. The steel company that made it still had the original blue prints, so the pieces were sent to them and it was put back together.

Original Skylight. Only a few of these are felt. 

Most have fallen in and boarded up

 Fun Building

Several times during the tour we would be underground for a while, get back to the street, and then go back underground to see a different section. This was at one of the corners when we came back up to street level.

 Column that used to be ground level

Toilet with an overhead pull string

Old Window

It was weird to think that we were underground, and this is where the street used to be, this is a picture of a window that used to be a store front. 

Old Couch

Sewer System, just wood.

The tour guide told us that since the city used to be so low, when the tide would come in all the sewage would come back into the homes. Pretty gross. I'm glad a better way to built sewer systems was invented.

Melted tub