The Pioneer Square Pergola is a triangular canopy of cast iron and glass that sits at the intersection of First Avenue and Yesler Way. Designed by architect Julian F. Everett and completed in nineteen oh nine, the structure originally…
Pioneer Square Historic Brick
This walk leads you through the red-brick Romanesque Revival buildings and cobblestone plazas of Seattle's oldest district. You will see how the city rose from the ashes of the 1889 Great Fire to become the main gateway to the Klondike Gold Rush.
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1. Pioneer Square Pergola
2. Expansive Pioneer Building
The Pioneer Building stands out with its heavy red brick facade, sandstone accents, and arched window openings that mark it as a signature work of Richardsonian Romanesque architecture. Completed in eighteen ninety-two, it rose on the…
3. Bill Speidel’s Underground Tour
Bill Speidel’s Underground Tour operates out of a ticket counter at six hundred fourteen First Avenue, situated within Pioneer Place Park. This tour invites visitors to explore a network of subterranean hallways, corridors, and basements…
4. Merchant's Cafe and Saloon
The Merchant's Cafe and Saloon, located at one hundred nine Yesler Way, is identifiable by its nineteenth-century brick facade and a history that stretches back to the reconstruction following the Great Seattle Fire of eighteen…
5. Central Saloon
The Central Saloon is distinguished by a neon sign on its exterior that identifies it as Seattle's oldest saloon. Established in eighteen ninety-two, only three years after the Great Fire of Seattle, it occupies the historic Skagit…
6. Grand Central Building
The Grand Central Building is a sprawling brick structure on First Avenue South that anchors the corner of Pioneer Square. It is one of the first buildings constructed in the city following the Great Seattle Fire of eighteen eighty-nine.…
7. Occidental Square
Occidental Square is defined by long, straight rows of London plane trees that form shaded walkways, framing an open area paved in cobblestones and bricks. This public space sits within the Pioneer Square neighborhood and occupies what was…
8. Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park
The Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park occupies the historic Cadillac Hotel, a brick structure in the Pioneer Square district built just after the Great Seattle Fire of eighteen eighty-nine. This building, with its resilient stone…
9. Smith Tower
The Smith Tower stands out for its gleaming white terra-cotta exterior, which rises into a distinctive pyramid-shaped cap above the surrounding neighborhood. When it opened in nineteen fourteen, this thirty-eight-story structure was the…