Seattle, Part IV: Pioneer Square

From Dave "Proto Grunge Rocker" Brigham:

This is the fourth post in a five-part series about Seattle, a beautiful and fun city I visited with my wife and kids back in April. This series is by no means meant to be an exhaustive survey of the Emerald City. It just features a lot of the stuff I saw while annoying my family by taking so many pictures. For links to the three previous installments, see the bottom of this post.

I saw this ghost sign on a building abutting the parking garage where I put our rental car, and I knew our tour of Pioneer Square was going to be a good one. I had only a rough idea what to expect in the square, which dates to 1852 and calls itself "Seattle’s original neighborhood." There are some Native Americans who might disagree on that title. We went to the square for Bill Speidel's Underground Tour, which was cool, but we had time to kick around the historic district, so we did and boy am I glad.

The Bank of California sign above was a gigantic advertisement for the Seattle outpost of the financial institution that was the first commercial bank in the Western United States. In 1996, the Bank of California merged with Union Bank; in 2008 it became a wholly owned subsidiary of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, per Wikipedia.

Alright, I'm gonna run through the Square more or less in the order my family and I did it before we went underground. You might want to go to the bathroom before starting on this journey; it's gonna be a long one.

This stunner is known as the Good Arts Building. Situated on the corner of First Avenue and Cherry Street, this place was completed in 1890 and was known as the Scheuerman Block, per the building's web site. "It has been the home to department stores, a two-story diner ('Good Eats,' from which our name derives), a cigar store, a jazz club, a boxing gym, brothels, speakeasies, and the original office of Washington Mutual Savings Bank," per the web site. "In the nineteen-seventies the basement housed the first gay and lesbian community center in Seattle, followed by the Skid Road Theatre....In 2015, Good Arts LLC purchased the building with the mission of preserving its artistic heritage and affordability to creative enterprises."

This totem pole is so cool, and the kind of thing I just don't ever get to photograph around New England. In addition to being a stunning work of art, the Tlingit Indian Totem Pole has an interesting back story. "The Totem Pole first appeared in 1899, after members of the Chamber of Commerce, vacationing in Alaska, stole it from Tlingit Indians," per the PioneerSquare.org web site.

Wow, I wasn't expecting that bit of racist history. How the hell did they travel with that thing? Boat? Train?

What happened next, oh great and wonderful Internet?

"The men gave the object to the city as a gift, but the tribe justly sued for its return and $20,000 in damages. The courts found the men guilty of theft, but fined them only $500 and allowed the city to retain ownership. In 1938, the pieces that remained after vandals set the Totem Pole on fire were sent back to Alaska, where Tlingit craftsmen graciously carved a reproduction."

Why am I not surprised that the Native Americans were bigger men than the idiots from Seattle's Chamber of Commerce?

(Detail of the totem pole.)

Steps away from the totem pole is a statue of Chief Seattle.

A Native American, Seattle (or Sealth) was born in 1786 and died in 1866. "While known as 'Chief Seattle, there were in fact no hereditary chiefs among the Puget Sound tribes," according to this biography. "From time to time leaders arose who distinguished themselves by their actions or particular skills, and were respected and followed." Seattle, per the biography, wanted the natives and the white settlers to live in peace and harmony. As such, he worked with David Maynard, who is considered one of the founders of what became Seattle, to realize that goal. Obviously, some Native Americans at the time rejected this accommodation; others went along. Chief Seattle's legacy is therefore a bit complicated.

"Though many people see this cooperation as a lesser of two evils, some individuals have a different opinion," per this post on Indians.org. "Some have criticized Chief Seattle claiming he was cowardly and it cost the tribe their land and their way of life. However, the other Native Americans who chose to fight for their lands eventually lost."

A few more steps away from Chief Seattle's statue and the totem pole is the Iron Pergola, which sounds like a heavy metal band or a medieval torture device but it's actually neither.

Erected in 1909 as a stop for the Yesler and James Street Cable Car Company, the fancy shelter was "the most lavish of its kind west of the Mississippi with ornamental iron columns, wrought iron ornamentation and a large underground restroom," per the PioneerSquare.org web site. It was restored in 1972 and today serves as a place for tourists to hang out, and for homeless people to gather, as you can in the above photo.

The Lippy Building went up in 1902, built for T.S. Lippy, who made a fortune in the Klondike gold rush. I'm guessing the mosaic entryway below had been touched up more than once in the ensuing 117 years.

Too bad this building wasn't named for Zippy the Pinhead's square brother, Lippy.

The State Hotel doesn't exist anymore at this spot along 1st Avenue South, but somebody was smart enough to save and restore this fantastic neon sign. Not sure the history of the hotel.

You may be starting to understand just how excited I was for Pioneer Square, what with the beautifully restored old buildings, the funky statues, the neon signs and the ghost signs. Well, when I saw the building below, I about crapped my pants.

I've shot ghost signs all around Greater Boston (and will even be featured in an upcoming Boston Globe article about these advertising relics), but I've never seen anything as amazing as the Buttnick Building. I thought I was looking at a movie set. I'd never seen ghost signs that were so easy to read, and that featured multiple commercial products: Buttnick Manufacturing, Driftwood Sportswear and Paul Bunyon (not sure why the spelling is different than the lumberjack of folklore) Outerwear. The building dates to 1908 for the Brunswick Balke Collendar Company, which made billiard equipment.

By this point in our walk, I was lagging well behind my wife and kids. Often I wasn't even on the same side of the street as them as they wandered along, chatting, looking at their phones, whatever. But there was no way I was going to miss the opportunity to snap photos of as many of these fabulous places as I could.

The J&M Cafe & Cardroom dates to 1889 as a hotel, and as a bar to 1892, when it served the men of the Gold Rush. The ceiling is tin and the bar-back is made of Austrian mahogany, per the web site.

Walking through Pioneer Square, I felt like I was on a movie set. No more so than when I saw the Bread of Life Mission building.

Founded in 1939, the mission has been in this building since 1942. The charity offers "a bed, food clothing, and a safe environment for those who are in need. Bread of Life reaches beyond the physical needs by offering an opportunity to make a life-changing decision to accept Jesus Christ. Bread of Life is interdenominational and is supported entirely by individuals, churches, businesses, and foundations that believe in giving hope to Seattle’s homeless."

Built as a hotel in 1890, the building was once home to a brothel; the name "Matilda Winehill" just under the cross at the top of building refers to a former madam or prostitute, according to the mission's web site.

Built as a warehouse between 1903 and 1905, the Schwabacher Hardware Building is now home to, among other businesses, Flora and Henri, which offers bespoke products for children, women and home, per its web site.

The red brick building was once home to the Seattle Quilt Manufacturing Company, which was founded in 1915. The company was bought and sold a few times over the decades, and I believe its brands are now dead.

The Washington Shoe Building was built 1892 as the Washington Iron Works Building. It was remodeled, with the addition of two floors, in 1912. I'm not sure if the ghost sign across the top reads "DAGG DURNEDEN" OR "DAGO DURNEDEN." I've seen both interpretations online. Whatever it was called, the company manufactured "green hood shirts," which I assume are the same as hooded sweatshirts.

When I saw this, I assumed this was where our underground tour would begin or end, but I was wrong. I'm sure this stairway leads to something cool.

This is the former Occidental Park station for the George Benson Waterfront Streetcar Line. To answer your questions: no, not that George Benson; the line operated from 1982 to 2005 using vintage streetcars.

Located in Occidental Square, this sculpture depicts Tsonqua, a mythical giant from Northwest Indian lore. Created by Duane Pasco, the statue was displayed at the Kiana Lodge restaurant until 1985, per this Waymarking web page. In 1985 restaurant owner Richard White donated the totem to the City of Seattle. Pasco refinished the totems and they were placed in Occidental Square in 1987.

Located on the back of the previously mentioned Buttnick Manufacturing Building is this ghost sign for local favorite Rainier Beer.

A city has really made it when it has not one, but two (and possibly more) Schwabacher buildings. This one dates to 1884 and is just down the street from the previously mentioned one.

Upon its opening in 1914, Smith Tower featured 540 offices, six retail stores, two telegraph offices, and a public telephone station in the building, in addition to a thirty-fifth-floor observatory, per the building's web site. Today, Smith Tower is home to the famous observatory, thirty-fifth-floor bar, Legends of Smith Tower exhibits, ground-floor retail store, special events space, and office leasing.

Merchants Cafe calls itself Seattle's oldest bar. Established in 1890, the saloon also for a time featured a brothel upstairs for the local loggers and Gold Rush maniacs heading to and from Alaska.

With Merchants Cafe, we completed our circle and were back in front of the Pioneer Building, where we would shortly do our underground tour. While we waited, I noticed this amazing building, which served as a nice backdrop for an oversize chess set.

Now home to Magic Mouse Toys, this stunner of a building rose in 1891 as the Mutual Life Building.

The amazing Barney McCoy sign I saw as we left the underground tour stopped me in my tracks.

Located in the former Elgin Hotel/Traveler's Hotel building (circa 1913), McCoy's was a pre-Prohibition bar, according to this account I found online. The bar offered lunch, cigars and Olympia beer "in cartons."

Continuing our way toward the waterfront, I spied this cool pair of neon signs.

The Pioneer Square Hotel (a Best Western facility) dates to 1914; it was formerly the Hotel Yesler. I'm not sure if the signs are vintage.

Last, but not least, is this impressive old heap.

At its construction in 1893, this power plant was owned by the Seattle Steam Heat & Power Company. "The company was granted a franchise to lay pipes under city streets to provide steam and hot water for various uses," per this web site. Since 2014 the facility has been owned by Enwave Seattle, which uses renewable biomass as its primary fuel, per the company's web site.

OK, so that's (most of) Pioneer Square. Make sure to come back for the fifth and final installment of this Seattle series, which will cover the Lower Queen Anne neighborhood where my family and I stayed during our visit.

Here are links to the previous three installments:

Part III: Underground Tour

Part II: Discovery Park

Part I: Pike Place Market