Elliott Bay, Waterfront Park

Famous for its rain and bordered by Elliott Bay and ringed by lakes to the north and east, water may be Seattle’s most distinguishing and celebrated characteristic. After all, Seattle’s biggest civic celebration is Seafair—a ten-week-long summer festival includes parades, ...

Arctic Building

Tens of thousands of people went to Alaska and the Yukon during the Klondike gold rush of the late 19th century, but only a few ended up rich. In 1908, the men in Seattle who had made their fortune in ...

Iron Pergola

The Iron Pergola in Pioneer Place Park is a landmark for the history of transportation in Seattle.

Pioneer Place marks a change of direction in the platting of streets south of Yester along a north-south axis and the streets ...

Grand Pacific Hotel

The Grand Pacific Hotel is a multistory brick building in the Richardsonian Romanesque style typical of commercial buildings constructed in Seattle in the period following the Great Fire of 1889. The hotel has close ties to the Klondike gold rush, ...

Eastern Hotel

According to a 1913 Seattle directory, two years after opening the Eastern hotel housed a low-income lodging house, a barber, the business of Kozo Koyama—a collection agent and Japanese interpreter—and the Maynard Theatre, one of Seattle’s first cinemas. The building ...