A trip to Seattle, Washington, might take you past several interesting, above-ground attractions, like the Space Needle, Pike Place Market, and the Seattle Great Wheel. But what if we told you there was a place to visit that actually takes you under the city’s streets and sidewalks while transporting you back in time?
Just minutes from Seattle’s Waterfront district, beneath the tree-lined streets and cobblestone walkways of the historic Pioneer Square, is a subterranean web of sidewalks, alleyways, abandoned storefronts, and other relics from Seattle’s 19th-century past.
For decades, the underground portion of Seattle’s early days was closed off, left in disrepair and forgotten about, until writer and preservationist Bill Speidel founded the Underground Tour in 1965, taking visitors on entertaining tours of The Emerald City’s underbelly.
Seattle’s underground wasn’t always, well, underground. To understand the context, let’s dive into a little of the metropolis’ history. Back in the mid-1800s, the newly established city was already a busy commercial port and transcontinental railway hub, and by 1889 had over 25,000 inhabitants. But on June 6 of that year, one of the most significant and tragic events in the city’s history occurred: The Great Seattle Fire.
An accidental gasoline fire in a woodworking shop turned into a blaze that raged out of control until 25 city blocks spanning 120 acres had been destroyed. The fire left Seattle devastated, but efforts were quickly underway to rebuild. Officials seized upon the disaster to improve a long-existing infrastructure problem: a faulty drainage system that constantly backed up during high tide due the city’s construction on nearby mudflats.
To help solve this drainage issue, streets and sidewalks were raised above their previous levels — in some places up to 22 feet higher.
For a while, as streets and sidewalks were built at the “newer” ground level, the shop entrances remained down below, per the website HistoryExpose. To access the store entrances, patrons had to climb down below via ladders that were installed at street intersections. Vault lights, still visible in Pioneer Square today, were installed for sunshine to filter through to the lower parts of the city.
Eventually, storefronts were constructed at the new street level, and the space below was designated for storage spaces and other basement dwellings. The underground was condemned in 1907, when city-wide panic over the bubonic plague was in full swing.
Fast forward a few decades later, Speidel — a lover of history — launched the Underground Tour and was among a group of people who ultimately had Pioneer Square declared a historic district.
On the Underground Tour website, the excursion is touted as “a humorous stroll through intriguing subterranean storefronts and sidewalks.” In a Times Colonist article, journalist Patricia Coppard describes her experience on the tour, saying she saw “broken bricks, old doors, bedsprings, and a former bank lobby, complete with bank vault” and learned about real people who lived there during its glory days. She praised the guides as “masterful storytellers” who spin intriguing tales about life in underground Seattle. A Trip Advisor reviewer called the tour “a very welcome mix of humor and history,” and Nice News’ Managing Editor Natalie Stone considers it a must-see when visiting the city center.
So the next time you’re in Seattle, don’t settle for only what can be seen on the surface, make sure you foray into the underground too.
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