Right in front of you is the Smith Tower-a narrow, elegant skyscraper topped with a pointed pyramid and glowing dome; just look for the tall, white, old-fashioned building rising high above the historic brick of Pioneer Square.
Now, take in the Smith Tower before you-Seattle’s original skyscraper, and once the tallest building on the entire West Coast! Imagine the year is 1914. Horses clop along cobblestone streets, steam whistles echo from the nearby port, and this brilliant, ivory giant is about to pierce the sky higher than any building west of the Mississippi. People gazed up in awe, jaws dropping so wide that I suspect a few rain drops snuck in.
This tower began as Lyman Cornelius Smith’s dream. Smith was a New York tycoon with guns and typewriters in his pockets (not together-we don’t want any ink accidents), and a knack for seeing gold where others just saw, well, dirt. He bought this unusual bit of land-once called Bailey Corner-without much fuss, but his son, Burns, was the real skyscraper enthusiast. After talking his father into building higher, Smith Tower was set to steal Tacoma’s thunder and become a shimmering beacon of the New Northwest. Some brash locals called it the “L.C. Smith Building,” but in 1929 the name Smith Tower officially stuck.
Construction was no dainty dance. Contractors arrived, blueprints rustling, laborers hauling, and 1,276 pilings were driven deep into the earth. Day and night, the clang and bang of steel rang out over Pioneer Square. The building’s skin began with granite-sturdy as a mountain-then rose in gleaming white terracotta that caught the sun like a lighthouse. Local firms, national powerhouses, and even marble from Vermont and onyx from Mexico all came together to build a monument that seemed to pour ambition itself into Seattle’s young air.
Of course, no great story skips its share of drama! There were tenants refusing to move out, contracts delayed by the elder Smith’s death, a forgotten camera sacrificed to gravity from the 42nd floor, and a three-ton wooden derrick that fell from the skies-miraculously, without flattening a soul. But the American flag finally fluttered at the top in 1913, and all of Seattle marveled. When it opened on the Fourth of July, 1914, over 4,000 people crowded inside, eager to ride the city’s new high-speed elevators. For years, elevator operators whisked generations up and down, collar sharp, stories ready to share.
Time marched on. The tower watched the city rise and change, ceding the tallest-in-town title to the Space Needle in 1962 but never giving up its proud profile. Rumor says the outside’s only had a proper wash once since it was built-talk about an old Seattle raincoat! Inside, the Chinese Room crowned the top with carved teak sent from the last Empress of China. Have a wish? Take a seat in the legendary Wishing Chair glimmering with dragon and phoenix carvings… some say if you’re unmarried, a year after you sit, wedding bells might ring. Just ask Smith’s daughter, who found both love and legend atop the city.
Through booms, busts, and even Disney internet workers (seriously!), Smith Tower has changed hands more than a relay baton, always finding new life-sometimes half empty, sometimes bursting with new businesses. In recent years, it’s hosted a roaring Speakeasy up top, reimagined tours, and a dazzling glass dome that glows blue-unless it’s December, when green lights up the Seattle night.
You can still spot the last elevator operators in Seattle’s history, replaced by glass-panel marvels, and if you listen hard enough while you ride up, you might just hear the whispers of a century’s worth of stories. Today, the Smith Tower keeps watch over Pioneer Square as both guardian and time capsule, challenging every new arrival to dream a little bigger and aim a little higher. And while the infamous Wishing Chair might help with romance, I can’t promise it’ll get your rent lowered in that penthouse suite!
So, take one last look up-Seattle’s past, present, and future come together right here at the tip of this dazzling white rocket, a monument to bold dreams and sky-high hopes.
