Understandably, Denny and Boren believed that streets should generally conform to the hilly topography of their holdings. In the spring of 1853, Arthur Denny, Carson Boren, and Doc Maynard drew up plats for their claims, which abutted along Yesler Way. Captain Felker's home - which served as a hotel, restaurant, and bordello near 1st Avenue and Jackson Street - was also a popular gathering place under the management of a tart-tongued Irishwoman named Mary Conklin but better known as 'Mother (later Madame) Damnable.' The mill's cook house and a later Yesler's Pavilion at 1st Avenue and Cherry Street served as Seattle's first social center.

He built his mill on a pier at the foot of today's Yesler Way, first called Mill Street and later nicknamed 'Skid Road.' Henry and Sarah Yesler built their first home at 2nd Avenue and James Street, and he erected a crude aqueduct system of elevated log troughs to transport water from ridge-top springs to the growing village below. Seattle's early success was guaranteed in 1852 when Henry Yesler (1810-1892) chose the village as the site of Puget Sound's first steam-powered lumber mill (in exchange for generous chunks of the settler's claims). Doc Maynard built a second cabin at S Main Street and 1st Avenue S and established a general store, 'The Seattle Exchange.' Maynard also convinced his neighbors to rename their settlement, then called Duwamps, to honor Chief Seattle, and he used his political influence to have the Oregon Territorial Legislature name Seattle the seat of a new King County in December 1852. They filed claims on its narrow beach and ridges on February 14, 1852, while Maynard claimed Piner's Point and the mud flats to the south and east.Ĭarson Boren's younger sister Louisa (1827-1918) is credited with starting construction of the future town's first cabin at 2nd Avenue and Cherry Street in the spring of 1852. After sounding Elliott Bay, Arthur Denny, Carson Boren (1824-1912), and William Bell (1817-1887) decided it was better suited as a harbor for a future city. 'Doc' Maynard, a physician and merchant who was urged to relocate north by Chief Seattle.Īlthough Charles Terry (1830-1867) established a 'New York' store at Alki and found San Francisco customers for the area's timber, most of the Denny Party decided to relocate. They staked a claim on West Seattle's Alki Beach, and a total of 24 men, women, and children led by Arthur A. Soon after, three scouts arrived from a party of settlers waiting in Portland. King County's first permanent white settlers arrived in mid-September 1851 and staked Donation Claims to the fertile delta and shores of the Duwamish.

He named Elliott Bay for a member of his crew and sketched a shoreline of steep wooded slopes descending toward a level peninsula, Piner's Point, nearly surrounded by shallow tide flats. Navy expedition under the command of Charles Wilkes arrived in 1841. George Vancouver observed but did not note the Elliott Bay shoreline in 1792, and the area was not surveyed until a U.S. They named the vicinity Zechalalitch, 'the place to pass over,' because it offered a convenient route between the mouth of the Duwamps (Duwamish) River and Lake Washington on the east.īritish explorer Capt. Suquamish and Duwamish Indians occupied at least 17 villages in the general area of today's Pioneer Square. The core of the neighborhood lies between Cherry Street on the north, 2nd Avenue on the east, Alaskan Way on the west, and S. The district began a slow decline during World War I and became better known as a derelict 'Skid Road.' Preservationists rallied in the 1960s to save the area's exquisite ensemble of Victorian and Edwardian Era architecture from 'urban renewal.' Pioneer Square was protected by a 30-acre Historic District in 1969, followed by a slightly larger Special Review District. Most of the Square's buildings were erected within a decade of the disastrous Great Fire of June 6, 1889.

First settled in 1852, Pioneer Square encompasses the birthplace of modern Seattle and its first downtown.

Loft space pioneer square