Seattle Audio Tour: Legends & Landmarks of Pioneer Square

Look to your right-you’ll spot a tall, carved wooden pole with bold faces and animal figures stacked one above the next, rising high above the small patch of greenery in the square. Standing here in front of the Pioneer Square totem pole, you’re looking back through more than two centuries of stories, adventures, and even a little mischief. Imagine yourself on the edge of a misty Alaskan village in 1790. The sharp scent of hemlock fills the air, and you hear the steady rhythm of carving tools against wood. In the Tlingit village of Tongass Island, the Kinninook family is gathered, hoping to honor the memory of a beloved leader-Chief-of-All-Women, a woman of such wisdom and heart that her story must be told to generations yet to come. They hire a master carver and share with him their most important stories to shape into the wood: legends of Ravens, frogs, whales, and family, all woven with magic and mystery. When the pole is finally standing tall, a magnificent potlatch fills the village with celebration, drums, and laughter. Not many totem poles were dedicated to women, but this one was for her. Flash forward a hundred years or so, and we switch scenes! Instead of a quiet Alaskan village, you’re on the bustling decks of the steamship City of Seattle, full of would-be adventurers, business leaders, and reporters from Seattle itself during the Klondike Gold Rush days. But instead of finding gold, this group became obsessed with finding a souvenir to show off Seattle’s new status as the “Gateway to Alaska.” And what better souvenir than a totem pole, they thought. With the village folk away for their fishing season, a handful of Seattle’s guests spot the majestic pole, chop it down, and saw it in two to cart it off-but, of course, they accidentally smash the beak of one of the figures! They float the pole home and pay the third mate a whopping $2.50 for his tree-chopping efforts. The totem pole makes its way to Seattle, where it’s patched up, given a coat or two of non-traditional paint, and gets gifted to the city in October 1899. At its public unveiling in Pioneer Square, the crowd goes wild! Some folks cheer for this dramatic new “gateway” centerpiece, while others grumble, calling it a “blot” and “ridiculous.” Rival newspapers even exchange jabs over the event-one paper draws a cartoon poking fun, with a sign on the pole advertising their competition as grave-robbers! Clearly, civic pride can be a double-edged sword. But the story doesn’t end there. When the Tlingit villagers and the Kinninook family return home from fishing, discovering their beloved pole missing, anger and shock ripple through the community. They call for justice, file lawsuits, demand compensation, and even get federal grand juries involved! Eventually, a legal settlement is hammered out and a few thousand dollars exchange hands-but not before Seattle’s business leaders get more than one nervous night’s sleep. Without regard for its complex origin, the pole quickly becomes part of Seattle’s identity: featured on postcards, advertisements, and even as the mascot for the city’s hockey team, the Seattle Totems. Ironically, the Coast Salish-peoples native to the Seattle region-never traditionally carved totem poles at all! Seattle’s love of this borrowed symbol grew anyway. Then, like any figure that stands out in a crowd, the totem pole faced misfortune. In 1938, arson scorched its carvings, and experts declared it too damaged to save. The city sent the burned remains back to Alaska for Tlingit carvers to do what they’d always done best-repair the spirit through art. Charles Brown and his team, including members of the Kinninook family, worked for months, and in 1940, their new red cedar replica returned home to Seattle. It now stands proudly where the spirit of Chief-of-All-Women still tells her stories to all who pass by. So if you gaze up, you’ll see more than just wood or paint. Carved into this pole are three epic Tlingit stories: Raven, the trickster, stealing the sun, stars, and moon by transforming himself and outsmarting a powerful chief; the woman who married a frog, whose children became human and spread far from their watery home; and Mink and Raven’s wild escape from inside a hungry whale. Each figure is stacked from top to bottom, colors returned to their Tlingit roots-black, red, and blue-green-a story in every twist of wood. So, as you stand here, let yourself be transported back: to the laughter of a potlatch, the chaos of a gold rush steamer, the embers of loss, and, finally, the healing return. Even a stolen story can bring new meaning in a city always on the move.

To spot the Pioneer Square Pergola, look right in front of you at the edge of the park where sunlight peeks through the trees-a long, ornate cast-iron and glass shelter with elegant Victorian columns and decorative arches stretching toward the street. Alright, imagine it’s 1909. You step onto the bustling streets of Seattle, cobblestones underfoot, horses clopping past, streetcars rattling by-and there, gleaming in the afternoon sun, is this brand-new architectural marvel: the Pioneer Square Pergola. At 60 feet long and topped with glimmering glass, it was built to shelter crowds waiting for the cable cars at James Street and Yesler Way, a triangle of shelter in a busy city square. Pause for a moment and you can almost hear the click of heels and the muffled conversation beneath its ironwork as people came and went, newspaper boys shouting headlines, and the distant clang of streetcars. But the pergola wasn’t just a fancy waiting room-it was Seattle’s answer to a 20th-century comfort crisis! Under your feet was one of the first, most lavish underground public bathrooms west of the Mississippi-a veritable palace for a pitstop. Think terrazzo floors like shining seashells, brass and nickel fixtures glinting under gaslight, and Alaskan white marble stalls. Sixteen stalls for men, nine for women-my, how the city was growing! It was so nice, rumor has it, that people nearly dressed up just to use the restroom. Of course, not everyone was thrilled; some in the community cried, “Eyesore!” And indeed, as the cable cars rumbled to a stop above, local newspapers questioned if this underground affair was a bit too posh for its own good. Yet as time ticked on, cable cars disappeared, the bustling crowds faded, and the pergola began to wilt. The grand restroom closed up in 1948, its glory days flushed away, and the ironwork above was slowly stripped and neglected. By the late ’40s, the grand old lady of Pioneer Square had become a shadow of her former self. Enter the hero of our story-James E. Casey, founder of United Parcel Service! In 1972, with a generous gift and a deep nostalgia for the old neighborhood, he led the charge to save the pergola. Restoration crews studied original blueprints, recreated its frilly roof and light fixtures, and soon enough, the pergola returned to its shimmering self, minus the underground palace. And yes, someone even tried to reopen that restroom for the Seattle Underground Tour, but the city wasn’t quite ready for that level of adventure! Of course, meaningful restoration is never the end of the tale. In 2001, the pergola met its greatest nemesis: a semi-truck making a sharp turn. With a clang and a crunch that echoed through the streets, the essence of Pioneer Square collided with modern day traffic. The crash destroyed the entire structure! But Seattle loves a comeback, and soon, architects, craftspeople, and even a foundry owner-who had to sell his own house and wedding rings to pay for the rebuild-rallied together. Piece by piece, a stronger, steel-reinforced pergola rose again, using iron from the original and just a trickle of new materials, at a cool $3.9 million price tag. But the trials didn’t end there! To protect the pergola from any more bumper-to-bumper horror stories, the city installed sturdy poles and bollards, deflecting not one but two more truck attacks. The local Seahawks fans, so excited by their Super Bowl win, clambered onto the roof one wild February night and shattered twenty glass panes-don’t worry, fans and businesses crowdfunded repairs and the pergola got a temporary fence, just in case. Standing here now, look up. See the swirling ironwork, the play of light in the glass, and imagine the layers of history: bustling pioneers, elegant commuters, the clang of disaster, spirited restoration, and the surreal joy of championship celebration. The Pioneer Square Pergola-Seattle’s most dramatic bus stop, beloved survivor, and the only shelter in town where the real danger is an overexcited football fan!

To spot Pioneer Square, look for a cluster of handsome red-brick and stone buildings with a small, leafy park nestled among them, just to the west of the tall, white Smith Tower and near the train tracks and piers. Alright, traveler, you’re standing in the beating heart of Seattle’s history-Pioneer Square. Imagine yourself stepping into a time machine-the pavement rattles under your feet as streetcars jangle by, brick buildings rise up around you, and the salty breeze brings a whiff from Elliott Bay. Back in 1852, Seattle's founders landed here, possibly a little soggier than they'd hoped after braving the wilderness across the bay at Alki Point. They settled this spot for a very practical reason: Henry Yesler wanted to build a lumber mill, and who can blame him? The city grew right out of the mud and water, with early settlers filling in marshy ground and leveling bluffs to lay out the first streets. It wasn’t exactly a neat grid-cross Yesler Way, and suddenly even the roads couldn’t agree on which way to run. In those days, this area was a wild jumble of wooden buildings, bustling wharves, and a mix of pioneers, dreamers, and more than a few folks seeking trouble. Yesler Way itself became famous for more than its sawmill; it drew the line between the more “proper” north and the so-called “restricted district” to the south-otherwise known as Skid Road. It was a place where deals, dice, and the occasional dubious decision flowed freely-I wouldn’t advise you to check your wallet too thoroughly, though; rumor has it even the police only entered in teams. Disaster struck in 1889. The Great Seattle Fire roared through these very streets, turning nearly everything to ash and cinders. But the city wasn’t going to let a little thing like total destruction slow it down! Within a year, dozens of sturdy brick and stone buildings rose from those ashes in late 19th-century armadillo-skinned style-Richardsonian Romanesque, if you want to sound fancy at dinner parties. Pioneer Square’s distinctive look comes from those determined folks stacking bricks, plunking arches over windows, and building with dreams. By the time the gold-lust of the Klondike Gold Rush hit in the late 1890s, stampeders swarmed through Pioneer Square on their way north. Merchants grew rich, and, I bet, more than one hopeful prospector lost their savings to a sharp card game or a piano-playing charmer. Speaking of notorious legends, you’re walking streets that once saw brothels, saloons, and “box houses”-rowdy places full of theater, music, and all manner of entertainment, honest or otherwise. There’s an art to chaos, and Pioneer Square had it in spades. (If the sidewalks seem a little high, by the way, you’re not imagining things! The city literally raised the streets to fix drainage, leaving some old storefronts buried below-a mystery you can still explore in the city’s famous Underground Tour.) Keep your eyes out for the art around you-not just the totem pole and pergola, but galleries tucked into old buildings and public art woven into alleyways thanks to the Forest For The Trees project. With installations brightening up brick walls and small passageways, the neighborhood now mixes the buzz of history with a splash of modern creativity. If you’re here in early June, you might just stumble upon the Pioneer Square Fire Festival. The area fills with the wail of sirens and cheer of crowds as firefighters parade past-celebrating the men and women who keep Seattle safe, and honoring the fallen with the solemn bronze of the Firefighter’s Memorial. Pioneer Square is a place where every corner tells a story: from bawdy cabarets and parlor houses (run, fun fact, by some celebrity madames-Lou Graham, Lila Young, and Raw McRoberts, anyone?) to Seattle’s first Catholic church founded by Father Francis Xavier Prefontaine-whose name lives on in the nearby street. You can feel the pulse of history in the hodgepodge street grid, the echo of cable car bells, and the lively crowds packing cafés and bars. So, as you stand here, let your imagination walk alongside dockworkers, dreamers, and the tides of fate that built Seattle. And don’t worry-if you get lost in all these stories, just look for the Smith Tower looming nearby; it’s been pointing the way in Pioneer Square since 1914. Just try not to confuse it for the “Sinking Ship” parking garage across the way-unless, of course, you’re due for a good pirate joke!

Look just ahead for a wide, round concrete fountain with a bright blue tiled basin and little sculpted turtles perched on the rim-trust me, those turtles aren’t going anywhere fast! Now imagine Seattle almost a hundred years ago, when this small patch of park was busy with horse-drawn wagons and early automobiles rattling down the street. Prefontaine Fountain was finished in 1925, and right from the start it was a bit of a showstopper. Picture crowds gathering for its grand opening, the air full of excitement (and probably a whiff of wet concrete). But behind its bubbly beauty is the story of a generous spirit-Father Francis X. Prefontaine, who built Seattle’s first Catholic church. He loved this city so much he donated $5,000 (which bought quite a lot more than a coffee and a donut in those days!) to build this fountain in his honor. The fountain is like a friendly old neighbor-Seattle’s oldest one, in fact-standing watch as the city has changed around it. And although the fountain’s area is now fenced off, you can still spot the blue mosaic tiles, gleaming like the surface of a pond on a rare sunny day, and those turtles, frozen forever in a race they’ll never win. So tip your hat to old Father Prefontaine and his turtle troupe-after all, they’ve been waiting almost a century for this moment with you!