Location: Downtown Seattle
Address: 100 Yesler Way
Acreage: 0.3
When people hear the name Pioneer Square, they probably think of the whole historic district. But, the official Pioneer Square park is actually more of a triangle that sits adjacent to 1st Ave.
There are two interesting features of this park. The first is the iron and glass pergola that was built in 1909. It was originally designed to provide shelter to the entrance of an underground restroom. This restroom was supposedly so fancy, it was thought to be the most luxurious underground loo in the world, (although how many underground bathrooms were there in those days to compare to?) Anyway, in 2001 the pergola was shattered by a semi truck. I would not like to be the guy whose bad driving skills wrecked a beloved city landmark. Luckily, the city had it restored using most of the original pieces.
The other landmark is the Tlingit totem pole, which also has a traumatic history. It was brought back from Alaska during the gold rush in 1889 by some Seattle businessmen who apparently thought the Native village where it had come from didn’t need it any more. Then, in the 1930s an arsonist burned most of it. It wasn’t until after this incident that Seattle city officials decided this would be a good time to return it to its Tlingit village. Now get this… the villagers, after having their totem pole stolen, kindly carved us a new one! At least Seattle finally paid them for the original one.
You can ponder all this interesting history as you watch tourists taking the fascinating Seattle Underground Tour that starts in Pioneer Square.
#77 (Visited 1/7/10)