I was in Seattle recently on business, but one morning I had a few hours free and decided to make the most of my time and location.

We stayed at the Courtyard Seattle Downtown /Pioneer Square, in the midst of the business district and just a block up from the historic core of the city, Pioneer Square. I lived in the greater Seattle area for 15 years but, like residents everywhere, had never made it to some of the iconic attractions of my home town. Now my morning of freedom allowed me to explore the infamous Seattle Underground.

No, this is not some pub crawl or exploration of the roots of grunge rock in the city (well, maybe just the “grunge” part). Instead, there exists a whole beneath-the-streets layer of Seattle that provides a fascinating history lesson on the city’s start as a boggy, stinky lumber town and how it rose up, literally from ashes and mud, to become the lovely metropolis it is today. I was able to jump online and reserve my spot on the 10 a.m., 90-minute tour the next morning (tours begin at 9 a.m. and run on the hour throughout the day most days) through Bob Speidel’s Underground Tours, operating since 1963.

We arrived a few minutes early and strolled around
Pioneer Place Park, a cobblestoned plaza shaded by large leafy trees and dominated by a towering Tlingit totem pole.  Nearby sits a bust of Chief Sealth,  whose corrupted name graces the city, and the ornate Iron Pergola,  erected in 1909 for the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition (Seattle’s first world’s fair) as a cable car stop. Surrounding the park, where the city’s first sawmill — built in 1853 by city founder Henry Yesler — once stood, are handsome brick and stone buildings housing all sorts of interesting boutiques, bars, brewpubs and restaurants. Our tour began with a 15-minute monologue from our guide as we sat in what had been a storefront at street level in the late 1800s.

We could look through large window casings to sidewalks and see the exterior edifaces of other buildings. However, we were actually in the basement of the building, a full level below today’s streets. Early Seattle sprung up quickly on the shores of Puget Sound, which was handy for milling and shipping lumber but not so good for clean streets and properly functioning sewage systems. Turns out tides, gravity and physics all conspired to turn early flush toilets along the waterfront into geysers of effluent; and so when a huge fire swept through the business district in 1889, it proved to be a blessing in disguise. In rebuilding, city fathers chose to regrade the surrounding steep hills and raise the level of the waterfront area, but property owners there didn’t want to lose income during the lengthy construction phase. Businesses  therefore initially operated from the original lower level, with bulkheads between the sidewalk and the new street level, until the area was filled in and they moved “upstairs” to their grand new street-level entrances.

We then wound our way through alleys and down stairways to tunnels and catwalks guarded by locked doors which circulated us past 19th-century storefronts and into buildings which housed banks, markets and saloons. We saw all manner of items from the bygone era  (including one of those early toilets, elevated on a platform to enhance proper functioning,  and old pipes  made of wood) and peered up through thick glass panels flooring the sidewalk above us.

The tour was highly entertaining and enlightening. There was a group of school kids in our midst, and the guide did a good job of using euphemisms to keep the narrative to a PG rating (ladies of the night were referred to as “seamstresses,” for example), but I wouldn’t think kids under the age of 6 or so would find it too interesting.

Also, if odd odors make you squeamish, this might not be the tour for you. (We didn’t see any on our tour, but because you’re walking through basements and alleys, the possibility of spying rodents should be considered.) Walking over uneven surfaces and up and down stairways means close-toed footwear is advisable. The tour concludes in a gift shop and area displaying photos, memorabilia and descriptions of the characters who built Seattle from the ground (or the mud) up.

All in all, I found the tour a great way for visitors (and current and former residents) to gain an understanding of individuals and forces that developed the city in a unique and humorous way. —

– Patty Vanikiotis, associate editor/copy editor