u/BeachBumWithACamera

igniting wood chips and turpentine covering the floor. Back stupidly threw water onto the glue pot, only to spark a blazing fire that came to be known as the Great Seattle Fire. Amazingly, the glue pot survived the fire, and can today be seen at Seattle’s Museum of History and Industry. Twelve hours later when the fire burned out, fifty-eight city blocks, about 116 acres, had been reduced to ashes. No lives were lost, but the city boasted that a million or so rats were eradicated. Fortunately for history, the many Seattle photographers of the time, some losing their photography studios to the fire, extensively documented the tragedy from beginning to end. Hundreds of spectacular photographs survive, capturing the early moments of the fire, the city’s ruination, the recovery and rebuilding.

To learn more about John Back and the Great Seattle Fire, follow this link to my Substack where I write about Seattle history: The Great Seattle Fire

Considered the most opulent comfort station west of the Mississippi, I was pleased to discover that Pacific Builder and Engineer magazine published a spread on the comfort station in their January 29, 1910 issue, going into considerable detail about the construction. The magazine is available through the Seattle Public Library's Seattle Room digital collections: Pacific Builder and Engineer, v. 9, no. 5, Jan. 29, 1910 - Page 1 - Pacific Builder and Engineer - Seattle Room Digital Collections

The comfort station operated daily, open 6 a.m. to midnight. Separate entrances to the men's and women's wings were located at opposite ends of the Pergola. The entire facility was steam heated with steam piped in from Seattle Steam Company. Four of the Pergola's columns served as ventilation shafts. Floors were laid of terrazzo tile. Stalls were divided with slabs of Alaska marble.

The facility included two men's rooms, one free and one paid. The women's room included free and paid toilets. Each ante-room for the men's and women's sections included a marble shine stand, three oak armchairs, and brass foot rests and accessories. Paid attendants sold toilet supplies and shoe shines, and cigars to the men. Shoe shines were 10 cents. A soap and towel cost 2 cents. The use of soap, towel, and a closet cost 5 cents. The facility had the capacity to serve 10,000 visitors per day.

Sadly, Pioneer Square deteriorated after World War II as Seattleites fled to the suburbs. The city closed the facility in 1948 and eventually paved over the entrances. Seattle's Underground Tour tried to arrange access to the facility in 1999, but the Nisqually Earthquake of 2001 caused too much structural damage to allow safe access.

Ice cream makes any day better. Especially if it's dark chocolate dipped purple vanilla soft serve from Pioneer Square's Pastry Project!

Theodore Peiser photograph ca 1884 looking SE from Occidental Hotel (today's Sinking Ship) across the Sawdust, Seattle's original Chinatown. Long two-story building this side of Washington Street is Oriental Hotel. Note two buildings far side of Washington tilting and sinking into literal sawdust:

One more Pioneer Square History Walk, starting 10 a.m. Saturday July 25 at the Pioneer Place Totem Pole, as a benefit for the Alliance for Pioneer Square. Since I have no affiliation with either of Seattle’s two underground tours, this 90 minute history walk will be above ground, all via sidewalk.

Arghh Matey. I'll Crush Ye Barnacles!

Arghh Matey. Thar Be Pirates at Alki Beach!

Pterodactyls flying over Seattle again for the first time in 66 million years! 😀 Elliott Avenue at Bell Street:

Another book anyone interested in Seattle and Pacific Northwest history should have in their library. Charles Smith's Pacific Northwest Americana, originally published 1909. Third and final edition revised and updated 1950 by Isabel Mayhew. 1950 edition contains 11,298 listings of virtually. . .

Wall to Wall People Pioneer Square's Occidental Park

Unusual to see a beached Sea Star on Alki Beach, even during super low tide. Very unusual to see a three-armed Sea Star with a new fourth limb just beginning to regenerate:

Where the Wild Things Live. Beneath West Seattle's Fauntleroy Ferry Dock during this morning's minus 3.9 foot super low tide:

Where the Wild Things Live. Beneath West Seattle's Fauntleroy Ferry Dock during this morning's minus 3.9 foot super low tide. Be sure to get out tomorrow morning for the lowest super low tide of the year, minus 4.3 feet at 11:30 a.m. Also, minus 4.2 feet Tuesday 12:20 p.m.

Osprey Sea Hawk bursting out of the water with a fishie off Alki Beach:

Snagged my very own Washington State Ferry today. And didn't have to pay 200 bucks on eBay! As an added bonus, glorious day for a ferry ride in Paradise: 😎⛴️🗻

Curious if anyone might recognize who this figure on the 1891 Terry-Denny Building in Pioneer Square represents. Building designed by English architect Edwin W. Houghton following Great Seattle Fire. Figure looks vaguely Egyptian to me. Unusual ornamentation for one of the post Great Fire buildings.

About 2:30 p.m., June 6, 1889, a 24-year-old Swedish carpenter named John Back allowed a pot of glue being heated over a gas fire in the Victor Clairmont and Company Cabinet Shop in the subbasement of the Pontius Building, located on the site of the Old Federal Building on First Avenue, to boil over

Attempted Murder Over Alki Beach 😀

The city recently installed a pair of free restrooms at Second and Washington in Pioneer Square for the FIFA World Cup. Which got me to looking into the comfort station the city installed under the Pioneer Place Pergola in 1909 for the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, Seattle's first World's Fair.

This from yesterday. Surprisingly late fresh snow on the Olympics:

Nearly a century ago, the Seattle Daily Times published an obituary for Seattle's "Skid Road", and it wasn't the one now popularized in Seattle myth. NEXT SATURDAY I'll be leading a FREE Pioneer Square History Walk. We'll talk about Seattle's real skid road, which had nothing to do with logging,

For anyone who wants to get a jump on my Pioneer Square history walk Saturday May 30, my guidebook is now available at Arundel Books at First & Jackson, as well as Elliott Bay Book Company on Capitol Hill: