{"id":1437,"date":"2013-11-03T20:09:16","date_gmt":"2013-11-04T02:09:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/sightseer\/?p=1437"},"modified":"2013-11-03T20:09:16","modified_gmt":"2013-11-04T02:09:16","slug":"bill-speidels-underground-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/sightseer\/?p=1437","title":{"rendered":"Bill Speidel’s Underground Tour"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bill Speidel’s Underground Tour<\/a> (Seattle, Washington)
\nA Comtesse Travelogue!<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Seattle Underground
\n<\/span><\/b>\"\"<\/a>
\nBill Speidel’s Underground Tour
\nSeattle, WA – August 4, 2001<\/span>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
In August of 2001, I drove from my Californian home up to Seattle to see the ever-magnificent\u00a0Sleater-Kinney<\/a>\u00a0open for Patti Smith at the Summer Nights At The Pier Concert Series. While there, I decided it was as good a time as any to visit historic Pioneer Square and take The Underground Tour. Being one of those strange people who adore old urban ruins, I’d be waiting for years to go on this tour – which takes you past some of the original 1890’s-era storefronts that now rest well under Seattle’s street level. You see, back in the 1800’s, Seattle had horrible plumbing problems caused by the high water table and a poorly designed septic system. The pipes emptied into the ocean, and the fluctuation of the water level when the tide would come in made flushing a decidedly dangerous prospect. You see, if someone didn’t pay attention to the tide schedule and flushed during high tide, the toilet would flush in the\u00a0opposite way that it was intended<\/i>. Can you say, “Ewwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!”?<\/span><\/p>\n

Then, on June 6, 1889, a furniture maker left a pot of glue unattended on a stove, which ignited a conflagration which burned wooden downtown Seattle to the ground in a matter of hours. It was a tragedy… but one which actually turned out to be beneficial to the city, because a group of majestic brick and masonry buildings began to be raised in place of the rickety wooden structures that had burned. Then, the citizens decided to try to fix the plumbing while they were at it by raising the ground level up a story, thus allowing room for gravity to work wonders on the pipelines and fix the tide-induced flushing problems. This decision was made after the buildings were already completed – or nearing completion – so the streets were raised up above the ground floor – so that when you wander around Pioneer Square today, you’re actually entering the buildings through the second floor. In order to access the first floor stores, there was a group of subterranean walkways – and these remained open to the public until 1906, when access was closed off… only to be reopened by Bill Speidel for his Underground Tour years later. A great deal of this network of subterranean walkways was destroyed when the Seattle Kingdome was built, unfortunately, but there’s still enough preserved to provide a fascinating view of Underground Seattle.<\/span><\/p>\n

But enough with my yapping – here are some images I took during the stroll beneath Seattle:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
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\nAnother creepy doorway… obviously, I must find them fascinating, for some odd reason…<\/span><\/b><\/td>\n		\n\n
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\nHere’s a bit of the original wooden pipes that caused so much grief in old Seattle.<\/span><\/b><\/div>\n
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Because the conditions for photography on this day weren’t ideal, I decided to purchase a collection of Pioneer Square prints that provide a much more attractive overview of the area:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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\nHere’s the Tlinget totem pole – another historic Seattle structure – with the top of the Smith Tower behind it.<\/span><\/b><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

I also took a shot of the\u00a0totem pole<\/a>\u00a0while I was there. In true Seattle style, the pole wasn’t given to the city – it was stolen from a Tlinget camp by city representatives on a goodwill trip to Alaska. Seattle was a town founded by scoundrels, and you hear lots of stories about them during the tour. Very entertaining, indeed! Here’s another shot of\u00a0Smith Tower<\/a>\u00a0– the building you see poking above\u00a0Pioneer Square<\/a>\u00a0in the postcard images above. Pioneer Square is an\u00a0extremely lovely area<\/a>\u00a0of the city and one that I really need to go back to again. There just wasn’t enough time on this trip to do all the\u00a0exploring<\/a>\u00a0I desired…<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

 <\/p>\n

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Rich’s Walking Tour Of Seattle<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Asylum inmate Rich writes with a suggested itinerary for tackling the mean streets of Seattle!<\/span><\/p>\n

“Sometimes when people come to Seattle, I take them on what I call a walking tour of the town. It goes something like this. We drive to the Seattle center and park. Many times you can find free parking nearby. We take a walk around the center to warm up. Then on to the monorail for a quick ride to Westlake Center. We head west to Pike Place Market, aka Public Market, Farmer’s Market. When I was a kid in the 1950’s my grandmother often did some of her shopping here and sometimes we’d go with her. Later on my own I explored all the hidden places. Unlike today, the smells would make your head spin. Not from stink, but from the wonderful aromas. Just like today they did the fish throw. In the late 60’s and into the late 70’s you could hardly walk 10 feet without running into street musicians. There are few nowadays. We just cover the upper level on this part of the walk and don’t buy things we are going to have to carry. We get them on the way back.<\/span><\/p>\n

“It’s out onto 1st Av and head south. It’s easier walking downhill. While there isn’t a lot to look at, it is fun to pop into some of the shops and see what you can find. Keep walking and on the Westside you’ll pass the federal building. Look close on the Northeast corner of the building and you’ll see a placard. It’s where the Great Seattle fire started. You’ll also notice on your walk down what looks like soda bottle bottoms in the sidewalk. Keep them in mind. When you get to Pioneer Square, find and take the underground tour. On the tour you’ll see the soda bottle bottom once more – this time from the bottom side.<\/span><\/p>\n

“After the tour, take time to explore the shops in Pioneer Square. A lot of money has gone into the area to bring it back from the old days when they would have been torn down. Ready for something to eat? Well head on over to the waterfront. There are many places to eat, but Ivar’s was the first and to me the only place to eat. Now comes the time to walk it off. Head north along the waterfront. There’s more shops and little hidden places to explore. There’s no way around it. If you see something you want to buy, you’re going to have to carry it, all the way back.<\/span><\/p>\n

“OK, now we’re on the backside of Pike Place and look at all those stairs. Don’t worry, about half-way you can take the elevator to the lower level of the market, but you will have to walk to the upper level. Now’s the time to buy what you wanted when you started your walk. You’ve got one more small hill to climb, heading back to Westlake Center and the monorail.<\/p>\n

“If you want to see more and don’t want to have to walk up and down hills, head for Ballard. If you drive up Elliott Av. (North) before you cross the Ballard Bridge, you can stop at Fisherman’s Terminal. Not much going on there except during Fishing Season. Late spring and summer are best. You can keep heading North across the Ballard Bridge to Market Street. Turn left (west) and follow it to the locks. During spring and summer, you can watch boats come and go through the locks and you can watch the salmon returning to spawn.<\/p>\n

“There’s a lot of history here, not just in Seattle, but many other places around here. Next time you come to Seattle allow as much time as you can to explore.”<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

 <\/p>\n

Anyone have any additional stories, tidbits or photos to add?
\nIf so, by all means,\u00a0write me<\/a>!<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bill Speidel’s Underground Tour (Seattle, Washington) A Comtesse Travelogue! The Seattle Underground Bill Speidel’s Underground Tour Seattle, WA – August 4, 2001\u00a0 In August of 2001, I drove from my Californian home up to Seattle to see the ever-magnificent\u00a0Sleater-Kinney\u00a0open for … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,124],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comtesse-travelogue","category-washington"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/sightseer\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/sightseer\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/sightseer\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/sightseer\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/sightseer\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1437"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/sightseer\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1437\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1441,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/sightseer\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1437\/revisions\/1441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/sightseer\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/sightseer\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/sightseer\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}