Bob and Pam Nodine: Underground Seattle

In April 1852 Arthur Denny and his party decided to move their settlement to the eastern shore of Elliott Bay, the current location of Seattle. They didn't bother to ask any of the local natives why they did not use that location. As the season changed and the tide waters rose higher they found themselves in a bit of a muck. Pun intended! They were proud and persevered with their poor choice of location. Consequently the settlement of Seattle became famous for its streets of muck, mud, and slurry filled potholes. Legend has it that a ten year old boy drown in a deep pothole filled with water and sawdust. It seems that Arthur Denny became rich in the lumber business and even richer by selling his sawdust to the city to fill holes in the streets.

In 1889 a large portion of Seattle was destroyed by fire and the city managers decided this would be an opportune time to raise the streets up out of the mud. They built retaining walls that raised the streets near Elliott Bay by one story. The walls were filled and new streets built on top. This left all the store fronts and sidewalks one story below the new streets. Consequently the citizens had to use ladders to carry their purchases from the stores below up to the street above. This turned out to be unsafe and a number of folks fell from the street above to the sidewalk below. Eventually the sidewalks were raised to the street level and the first floor of all the buildings became a basement. This left a maze of passageways under the city that today are referred to as Underground Seattle. We took a tour of Underground Seattle and some of the following photos show what we saw.

The tour started by entering a door on what was once the second story of the Korn Building. Notice the large black arrow in the second photo showing the door we entered.

Our guide explains that we are about to enter the second floor of the Korn Building

Black arrow shows the door

In the next photo our guide is showing us an artist's drawing of the Korn Building as it looked before the streets were raised. The door we entered from the present day street level was once a window on the second floor. The large black arrow in the photo below points to that window. Once below we exited thru the large front door of the Korn Building onto the sidewalks of the old streets.

Notice black arrow pointing to the door that was once a window

Here we are at the old street level. Notice the bricked up store windows.

Notice the retaining wall on the left used to raise the old street

Another example of an old store front with the window boarded up

There was a lot of old junk down there. Here is a toilet that must be a 100 years old

Here is a similar toilet in the museum that has been restored. Notice the flush tank high above.

An old bathtub in one of the passageways

In some locations skylights were installed in the new sidewalks to provide light to the area below. In the next photo notice the arch in the brick used to improve support for the new sidewalk. Remember the sidewalks were added sometime after the road level was raised.