Seattle Underground to Waterfront Dinner with Friends

Thursday, 17 May 2018
Gig Harbor RV Resort — Gig Harbor, Washington
Temps: 66F (19C) / 50F (10C)

Skipping a day in the blog as we did nothing noteworthy yesterday.  Moving on to today’s fun times.

We’d heard horror stories about the traffic going in and out of Seattle, but were hoping that they were exaggerated.  Turns out they aren’t … and it’s made worse by the ongoing construction.  The bottomline for anyone coming to the area — you have to plan around rush hour traffic … otherwise, you’re going to be miserable.  Staying in Gig Harbor, which is south of the Seattle hub-bub, that means delaying our departure to mid-morning if we’re heading north.  Which is what we did today.

With plans to meet friends for dinner in Kirkland, we decided to venture into Seattle first.  The forecast was for a mostly overcast day — no surprise in the PacNW — so I suggested to Mui that we do Bill Spiedel’s Underground Tour.  Wouldn’t you know it, the sun was out every time we came up from the “underground city” to walk to another access point to go back under.  And then it went into hiding for most of the rest of the day.  You win some … you lose some.

I remember this tour from when we lived in Tacoma back in 1982.  But I don’t recollect if we actually did the tour then.  I have no notes … no photos.  I imagine the tour was probably a little too pricey for a couple of youngsters on a tight budget.  Today admission is $22pp (before the $2pp military discount we received).

We parked the car at a nearby fee-lot — $12 for 3-4 hours of parking, walked a few steps, turned a corner, and found ourselves at Pioneer Square … the birthplace of Seattle back in 1852 … the “first neighborhood” as the city claims.  We remember it as being a vibrant place, but today we were a bit put off by the ‘locals’ who seemed to have taken over the benches under the historic pergola.  The square felt deserted … maybe the timing of our visit was just wrong.

Chief Seattle, of the Suquamish Tribe, joins us for a selfie at Pioneer Square.
He pursued a “path of accommodation to white settlers.”  The city is named for him.

This historic photo shows Pioneer Place and Pioneer Building at Pioneer Square's zenith, about 1910. The glass roofed pergola created a fashionable meeting place at the hub of Seattle's business district. Below the pergola were stairways down to a European style underground comfort station, touted as one of the finest in the country. It was well lit by skylights, well aired by high powered ventilation fans at the base of each hollow light post; had Alaskan marble stalls. In its heyday, the Parks Department estimated that the Pioneer Place Comfort Station averaged 8,000 flushes per day … 15,000 on Sundays when the saloons were closed. (Image taken of a photo at the gift shop … words from the Museum of History & Industry.)

We arrived at Doc Maynard’s Public House, where the tour starts, in time for the 1:00p tour.   By the time our time slot was called, there was a fairly large group of people.  After the introductory words in the basement of the building, we were separated into two groups … three would have been better.

The 75-minute tour of the original storefronts and sidewalks that lie beneath modern-day Seattle is interesting.  The guide can make or break this tour — ours did neither, but it was hard at times to separate fact from fiction because he tended more towards exaggeration than not.

I’ve no doubt the commercial district — which was constructed on the tidelands — flooded regularly.  I’ve no doubt, the sewage from the residential district on the hill flowed downhill to the beach and mingled with the salt water that then came flooding back into the city at times.  I doubt, however, that the sewage spewed out of the toilets like mini geysers with every flush at high tide.

The collage is from a toilet displayed in the museum/gift shop.
Similar to the one we saw on the underground tour, it’s paired up with an original
“Crapper’s valveless waste preventer.”  Though the first flushing toilet was invented in
1596 by a John Harrington, and others patented water closets, Crapper — who heavily
promoted sanitary plumbing — became synonymous with … well you know what ;-)

Continuing with the stories we were told.  I’ve no doubt that there were a considerable number of “seamstresses” who worked for Madam Lou … I even believe that she contributed handsomely to the building of the local schools … and that the mayor agreed to “take one on the chin,” so to speak, and delve into finding out why Seattle had so many ‘seamstresses’ reporting income far higher than the men working in the area … and paying taxes accordingly to increase the city coffers.

Believed to be Madam Lou Graham (on the left) with her "sewing circle."
Her establishment was the finest parlor house in Seattle.  It was located
a couple of blocks from City Hall and kitty corner to the Catholic Church.

Putting the questionable stories aside, what I found most fascinating was how the flooding of the city was mitigated by raising the streets after the 1899 fire devastated Seattle’s commercial district.  Instead of rebuilding the city in the hills where the residential neighborhoods were located … and thus survived the fire, the founding fathers came up with an ingenious solution to keep the businesses in the tidal beach area.

The story goes that when the proprietors of the businesses were given the OK to rebuild, they were instructed to make their buildings at least 2-3 stories high.  They were also told not to spend too much money embellishing their ground floor entrances as these would eventually be hidden under the raised streets and the first floor of the buildings would become the new ground floor.

Even after the ground floors became basements, skylights built into the raised sidewalks” allowed light into the underground where some establishments continued to do business.

A cross-section schematic helped us to visualize how 8-foot+ retaining walls were built on either side of the old streets … how the space between the walls was filled in and later paved over to raise the streets, making them one story higher than the old sidewalks that still ran alongside them.  Really fascinating.

Until the new sidewalks were constructed, people who wanted to cross from one side to the other would have to climb ladders to go up and over the elevated street.  Note the new water lines (circular) and sewer line [rectangular] were buried under the raised streets.

I’ll keep the words to a minimum and share a few more photos of what we saw as we wandered through the original ground floors of the buildings … some of which stand to this day … though their functions may be different now.

On the left is a Drawing showing the Commerce Bank Building after the first floor
became the ground floor.  The teller cage is now in the basement … under the sidewalk.

On the left is one of the original “Crapper” flushing toilets installed after the fire.
Having a tub like the one on the right was the height of luxury back in the day.

The image on the left is what’s left of one of the original water lines.

I wonder if the mannequin belonged to one of Madam Lou’s “sewing girls?” ;-)

The tour ended in the museum/gift shop … of course.  Earlier, as we were directed down to the basement room for the introductory comments, we’d all had to take our turn posing in front of a green-screen.  Those shots were now available for purchase — $22 for the package — the green screen replaced by underground scenes.  We passed.

Though we still had a couple of hours before our dinner date, we decided to head to Kirkland before the rush hour traffic began in earnest.  Smart move.

When we arrived, we drove around first … remarking about the changes that have been wrought over the past years … no more Jack-in-the Box where we had our first fast food meal in the US … but the nearby supermarket we walked to as the snow fell on our first day [after being told it hardly ever snows] in Kirkland remains.

Then we found a place to park downtown and went for a stroll along the waterfront, enjoying views across Lake Washington.  At the Marina Park Pavilion beach, we sat on a bench and reminisced about the old days … and talked about what the future might hold for us.

Before we knew it, the time had come to meet up with our friends.

I mentioned in a previous post that when we first arrived in the US, we stayed with Jack and Patty — friends of friends — who opened their lives up to us even though they didn’t know us personally.  We lived with them — and their four kids — for three weeks before I landed a job in Tacoma, where we remained until Mui’s first USAF assignment took us to Utah in March 1983 … starting another chapter in our adventures in the USA.  Though we stayed in touch, we never had occasion to see our friends again after we left Washington State.  Our dinner date tonight was going to change that.

We met up with Jack and Patty at their condo for drinks.  From the way we chattered away, you would think that we’d last seen them 36 hours ago … not 36 years.  There was a lot to catch up on.  We continued our conversation at Anthony’s Homeport on the Kirkland waterfront.  We had a lovely meal at a window-side table with expansive marina views to accompany the frequent laughter emanating from the four of us.

Catching up with friends over dinner.

It was getting on towards 9:00p when we finally left Anthony’s.  Because of the long drive back to Gig Harbor, we took a raincheck on dessert at Jack & Patty’s place — caramel cake is what we missed.  We’ll have to make good on that raincheck before we leave.

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