Four years after a Jog Around Lake Union, I decided to take another jaunt—this time on downtown Seattle’s main artery—and brought Caitlin Burke, friend and shutterbug, along for the walk.
From north to south, here’s what we saw on a sunny day in the Emerald City.
Gallery
A Stroll Down First Avenue
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Location: Just off 1st Ave. and Denny Way
When I was growing up, Seattle was a confirmed two-newspaper town, with the Seattle Post-Intelligencer published in the morning and the Seattle Times in the evening. They even had a joint operating agreement, wherein the rags shared production facilities, advertising departments, and distribution networks. But the uneasy alliance came to an end in 2000 when the Times switched to morning delivery (even though the agreement remained in force), and the two papers began competing in earnest for a dwindling readership. The P-I was the underdog from the get-go, and this was no Cinderella story: The Post-Intelligencer ceased print publication on March 16, 2009, and is now only available online.
Location: 1st Ave. and Broad St.
Why does Seattle have such a high percentage of techies and geeks? Living in the shadow of the Space Needle will do that to a community. And while our dwellings have remained stubbornly terrestrial—thumbing their nose at the “model home of the 21st century” that was erected during the 1962 World’s Fair—this distinctive profile on the horizon gives our urban landscape an unmistakable tinge of Issac Asmovianism.
Location: 1st Ave. and Pine St.
Pike Place is one of the city’s most popular destinations for tourists, who throng the public market in search of fresh produce, Seattle memorabilia, and photographs of the famous salmon-flinging fishmongers. It’s also home to a cadre of buskers, who perform on everything from guitars to autoharps to spoons. The mascot of the market is Rachel, a 500-pound bronze cast piggybank stationed at the main entrance.
Location: Within Pike Place Market
My colleague Caitlin agreed to serve as the photographer for this gallery on one condition: that we stop at the Three Girls Bakery, home to the finest pastries in all the land. I scored a chocolate-dipped shortbread biscuit out of the deal, so it was win-win for me.
Location: 1315 1st Ave.
The Lusty Lady’s marquee is a Seattle institution, and no one travels down 1st Ave. without a giddy peek at their latest, lewdest slogan. The sign makes heavy use of puns, and is often updated to reflect the date: On March 17 it read “Erin Go Braughless,” and on April 15 it said “Feeling Taxed? Get an Extension!” When a bear was discovered roaming the streets of Ballard the folks at the Lusty Lady had their “Another Bare Scene in Seattle” slogan up in hours, and many people probably saw “Just Beat It” on the marquee even before hearing about Mr. Jackson’s untimely demise. If you’d like to be kept up to date on the sign, you can follow the Lusty Lady Marquee on Twitter.
Location: 1st Ave. and University St.
Directly across the street from the Lusty Lady is the Seattle Art Museum, and the two institutions have even collaborated on projects. When stripper-turned-author Erika Langley published a book about The Lusty Lady, for instance, S.A.M. held an exhibition for the photographs found within. The main entrance to the museum is guarded by The Hammering Man (seen here, from behind), a 50-foot, 26,000-pound steel sculpture by Jonathan Borofsky, the arm of which actually moves, hammering four times per minute.
Location: 1st Ave. and Seneca St.
Or for the love of Mike—I thought the Duck was confined to the Lake Union area. Apparently it has metastasized.
Location: 1st Ave. and Spring St.
While much of the architecture on 1st Ave. tends to date back to the early part of the century (the other century), more modern buildings can be found only a few blocks away. Here you can see the contrast, with the very top of the 55-story Washington Mutual Tower in the very back.
Location: 1st Ave. and Columbia St.
Remember the 2001 Seattle Earthquake? Neither do we, really. At least we wouldn’t, were it not for the Alaskan Way Viaduct, which was damaged in the tumbler and has been a perennial PITA ever since. Even after $14.5 million in repairs it was determined that the beast had to be scrapped altogether. And for years thereafter the governor, mayor, city council, and citizenry squabbled about how to address the problem: Construct a new viaduct; dig an underground tunnel; or just do nothing, let the damned thing collapse during rush hour some afternoon, and then point fingers of blame. The tunnel option just recently won the day but, given Seattle’s history with transportation issues, we may all be riding around in hydrogen-powered hovercars before the thing is complete.
Location: 1st Ave. and Yesler Way
Best toy store ever.
Location: Pioneer Square
If the Pike Place Market is the heart of Seattle, Pioneer Square is its soul—or, given the amount of drinking that takes place within it, its liver. In 1909 a Pergola was added to the south side of the square, where it remained unmolested until 2001, when it was clipped by a passing tractor-trailer and totaled. Uh, oops. I’m guessing that that guy’s insurance rates went up. The national landmark could hardly go unreplaced, and it was fully restored and reopened the following year.
Location: Pioneer Square
After the Great Fire of 1889, the citizens of Seattle shrugged their collective shoulders and simply built right over the charred remains (although they paid a bit more mind toward fireproofing, this time around). And there the ruins lay forgotten for more than 50 years, until an entrepreneur got the idea of offering tours of the underground empire (once he found it, that is—no one was 100 percent sure where they were). Since then the Seattle Underground Tour has been taking groups of tourists and locals alike under Pioneer Square to gawp at the world that was—and sell a few souvenirs in the process.
Location: Pioneer Square
A Tlingit totem pole has resided in Pioneer Square since 1899 and, like the Pergola, is a recognized national landmark. How did it get there? It’s kind of a funny story—although not “funny ha-ha,” alas. It seems that during a steamer cruise of southeast Alaska, a bunch of businessmen waltzed into a “deserted” Tlingit village (deserted because everyone was out fishing for the day) picked out the best totem pole they could find, and “chopped it down—just like you’d chop down a tree. It was too big to roll down the beach, so we sawed it in two.” The cruise was a “Goodwill Tour,” by the way. When an arsonist burned the pole down in 1938, Seattle finally decided to pay the Tlingit for the purloined pole, and then ponied up for a new one to be made. It’s this replacement that resides in the Square today.
Location: Occidental Park
After four firefighters died in a 1995 warehouse blaze, the Seattle Fire Department erected this memorial in the square adjacent to their headquarters. The faces of the figures are covered by oxygen masks, to signify that they could be any of the 31 firefighters who have died in the line of duty since the S.F.D.’s inception in 1889.
Location: 1st Ave. and S. Main St.
The The Elliott Bay Book Company was founded in 1973 and despite its relative youth has already established itself as a Seattle landmark. The cafe in the basement serves a mean cup of joe (as well as the locally made Mighty O Donuts), and the adjacent reading room is something of a required stop for touring authors. Despite the unassuming storefront, it’s nearly impossible not to duck in for a minute or 60 if you are wandering down 1st Ave. with some time to kill.
Location: Just off 1st Ave. and King St.
In the background: Safeco Field, home of the Seattle Mariners. Just in front of it: Qwest Field, where the Seahawks roost. Somehow our fair city made due with only one stadium until they blowed up the Kingdome in 2000 (before it was fully paid off, even), but now every sports team demands its own arena. Of course it was a lot easier to convince politicians and voters that new digs were worth the bucks during the dot-com boom; when the Seattle SuperSonics tried to get their venue completely refurbished in 2006, the city balked—and the team fled to Oklahoma.
