We were up early again. Becky went out for coffee but didn't stop at the bakery because we hoped to leave early and get something ourselves. By 8:30 we were on our way down Stewart Street again. It was a little cooler today so Mom had a jacket along. We stopped at the bakery - Mom & I got skinny chocolate filled eclairs and Becky got a pastry filled with ham & cheese and shredded cheese on top. Everything was $3.50 each.
Then we walked through some of the shops across from Pike Place Market. We were just killing time until we caught our next bus to Pioneer Square, which is considered the heart of Seattle. Again, this definitely is in walking distance from our hotel and Pike Place but it saved wear & tear on all of us, especially Mom.
We finally headed for the bus stop, we wanted to be at the Square in time to go on the Underground Tour. We got off the bus and looked at the Smith Building, 522 ft, built in 1914 and, at the time, was one of the 4 tallest buildings in the world and was the tallest structure west of the Mississippi for 50 years.
Across the square was the Underground Tour location in an old saloon. What a hoot! For $14 it was a lot of laughs and you had a hard time telling fact from fiction. We laughed at all the stories and only at the end of some of them would our guide say, "just kidding." So I'm thinking a lot of this is true but laughable.
Seattle was originally built on the flats of Puget Sound. It rains a lot here (winter season) plus when the tide came in there would be a lot of water in the streets - constant muck. Contributing to this mess was the stench of the outhouse's overflowing into the streets when the tide came in and washed them out.
Thomas Crapper, from England, designed the first flushable toilet for Queen Victoria. Seattle ordered a bunch of these that were shipped in with instructions to attach the pipe in back to the sewer system which Seattle didn't have. So they constructed one out of wood. In theory, everything worked well. This system worked w/gravity. Homes on the low end of the system could flush but everything might not clear out until the people on the top end of the system came home at night and flushed. Then everything would have enough force to get all the way down to Elliott Bay.
The reality of the system was that when the tides came in the pipes would back up. Between the pressure of that and someone flushing farther up the line you could literally be shot right off your toilet.
June 6, 1889, someone working in a cabinet shop was melting glue to use. It caught fire. Instead of smothering the fire he poured water on it - wrong thing to do. It spread rapidly through the sawdust and turpentine on the floor, moving upstairs where paint was stored, then moving on to two Hardware Stores next door that had just gotten in their supplies of ammunition and dynamite. There was a huge explosion which pretty much led to everything else in the area catching fire. If you couldn't see the fire from a distance you certainly could hear it.
Even if you always heard it rains all the time in Seattle, they were having a dry spell. Meanwhile the fire department was called out; they had to get the hoses into the bay so they could pump water. Of course it is now low tide. The "truck" got stuck trying to get out to the water and the hose was not long enough to reach anyway. The town burned down.
City fathers and businessmen wanted to rebuild fast. A law was passed that there would be no more wood structures; had to be brick or stone. The merchants complied and got their buildings up immediately, they didn't want to lose any money. The city fathers took a little more time. They wanted the sewer system to be improved and wanted the streets to stop turning to mud constantly. So they built a series of stone walls in a grid like manner up the slopes. They buried their new sewer system in these walls and filled them to the top with whatever material was available for the roads.
Now the streets were done but in most cases they were at least 8 feet above the sidewalks and first floors of all businesses. There were no guardrails on these raised streets either. To help people get from one side of the street to the other, or just to get to and from their horses, wagons, carriages,etc. the city fathers put a ladder by each intersection.
Miraculously there were no deaths in the fire of 1889, but later there were 17 recorded deaths from falling "off" the streets. These deaths were listed on the death certificates as "involuntary suicides".
Later they put some sort of iron girders across from the street wall to the top of the first floor of the buildings. Then brick arches were built. Finally they laid cobblestones over this for new sidewalks leading into the 2nd floor windows of al
l the buildings. At various intervals they installed skylights that are still in place along the sidewalks. In this way there was natural lighting for the underground city.
Mom had decided not to go on this tour because they had advertised uneven footing. Halfway through Becky and I knew that was a wise decision. A lot of up 2 steps, down 3, down 10, up 1, some steps were high, some short, lighting was poor. I didn't get a lot of pictures down here because it was too dark and I couldn't find postcards later.
As we ended our tour at their gift shop, Paul, our guide, told us when we tell others about the tour, don't tell them we had nice weather. It seems no one in Seattle wants that to get out. When finished we just sat in the square for awhile. Becky found the Mystery Book Store around the corner so she had to check it out and got an autographed copy of a book she was interested in. We walked back to Ivar's for lunch. Again Mom & I had baby shrimp & chips, Becky had fish & chips and salmon chowder. I tasted the chowder, it was very good.
We ate outside this time and fed the seagulls. Mom almost lost a finger - dainty eaters - I don't think so!
We grabbed our now favorite bus #16 and got back to our hotel around 3:30. Becky stopped at Bed, Bath & Beyond and found Mom another buckwheat pillow that we'll have to pack home.
As I stated before, this is an old hotel. We did laugh over the things that weren't here: no counter space in bathroom, no bathtub, no separate area for shower, no hair dryer, no coffee pot, no box of Kleenex, no free samples of shampoo. But, besides having computer availability in the lobby we had Bob, our favorite desk person. He was great, very friendly, very informative, always helpful. He gave us directions where to park our car, how to locate the things we wanted to see and where to eat at good prices. Tonight we wanted to stay in. We took our popcorn down by Bob and asked if there was a microwave anyplace we could use. He put a "Be Right Back" sign on the desk and took us to the 2nd floor where the staff break room was and let us use their microwave. What a guy!
We got in our pj's, ate our popcorn and Pepsi and watched tv. I don't even remember if one of us played Cribbage with Mom tonight.
Then we walked through some of the shops across from Pike Place Market. We were just killing time until we caught our next bus to Pioneer Square, which is considered the heart of Seattle. Again, this definitely is in walking distance from our hotel and Pike Place but it saved wear & tear on all of us, especially Mom.
We finally headed for the bus stop, we wanted to be at the Square in time to go on the Underground Tour. We got off the bus and looked at the Smith Building, 522 ft, built in 1914 and, at the time, was one of the 4 tallest buildings in the world and was the tallest structure west of the Mississippi for 50 years.
Across the square was the Underground Tour location in an old saloon. What a hoot! For $14 it was a lot of laughs and you had a hard time telling fact from fiction. We laughed at all the stories and only at the end of some of them would our guide say, "just kidding." So I'm thinking a lot of this is true but laughable.
Seattle was originally built on the flats of Puget Sound. It rains a lot here (winter season) plus when the tide came in there would be a lot of water in the streets - constant muck. Contributing to this mess was the stench of the outhouse's overflowing into the streets when the tide came in and washed them out.
Thomas Crapper, from England, designed the first flushable toilet for Queen Victoria. Seattle ordered a bunch of these that were shipped in with instructions to attach the pipe in back to the sewer system which Seattle didn't have. So they constructed one out of wood. In theory, everything worked well. This system worked w/gravity. Homes on the low end of the system could flush but everything might not clear out until the people on the top end of the system came home at night and flushed. Then everything would have enough force to get all the way down to Elliott Bay.
The reality of the system was that when the tides came in the pipes would back up. Between the pressure of that and someone flushing farther up the line you could literally be shot right off your toilet.
June 6, 1889, someone working in a cabinet shop was melting glue to use. It caught fire. Instead of smothering the fire he poured water on it - wrong thing to do. It spread rapidly through the sawdust and turpentine on the floor, moving upstairs where paint was stored, then moving on to two Hardware Stores next door that had just gotten in their supplies of ammunition and dynamite. There was a huge explosion which pretty much led to everything else in the area catching fire. If you couldn't see the fire from a distance you certainly could hear it.
Even if you always heard it rains all the time in Seattle, they were having a dry spell. Meanwhile the fire department was called out; they had to get the hoses into the bay so they could pump water. Of course it is now low tide. The "truck" got stuck trying to get out to the water and the hose was not long enough to reach anyway. The town burned down.
City fathers and businessmen wanted to rebuild fast. A law was passed that there would be no more wood structures; had to be brick or stone. The merchants complied and got their buildings up immediately, they didn't want to lose any money. The city fathers took a little more time. They wanted the sewer system to be improved and wanted the streets to stop turning to mud constantly. So they built a series of stone walls in a grid like manner up the slopes. They buried their new sewer system in these walls and filled them to the top with whatever material was available for the roads.
Now the streets were done but in most cases they were at least 8 feet above the sidewalks and first floors of all businesses. There were no guardrails on these raised streets either. To help people get from one side of the street to the other, or just to get to and from their horses, wagons, carriages,etc. the city fathers put a ladder by each intersection.
Miraculously there were no deaths in the fire of 1889, but later there were 17 recorded deaths from falling "off" the streets. These deaths were listed on the death certificates as "involuntary suicides".
Later they put some sort of iron girders across from the street wall to the top of the first floor of the buildings. Then brick arches were built. Finally they laid cobblestones over this for new sidewalks leading into the 2nd floor windows of al
l the buildings. At various intervals they installed skylights that are still in place along the sidewalks. In this way there was natural lighting for the underground city.Mom had decided not to go on this tour because they had advertised uneven footing. Halfway through Becky and I knew that was a wise decision. A lot of up 2 steps, down 3, down 10, up 1, some steps were high, some short, lighting was poor. I didn't get a lot of pictures down here because it was too dark and I couldn't find postcards later.
As we ended our tour at their gift shop, Paul, our guide, told us when we tell others about the tour, don't tell them we had nice weather. It seems no one in Seattle wants that to get out. When finished we just sat in the square for awhile. Becky found the Mystery Book Store around the corner so she had to check it out and got an autographed copy of a book she was interested in. We walked back to Ivar's for lunch. Again Mom & I had baby shrimp & chips, Becky had fish & chips and salmon chowder. I tasted the chowder, it was very good.
We ate outside this time and fed the seagulls. Mom almost lost a finger - dainty eaters - I don't think so!
We grabbed our now favorite bus #16 and got back to our hotel around 3:30. Becky stopped at Bed, Bath & Beyond and found Mom another buckwheat pillow that we'll have to pack home.
As I stated before, this is an old hotel. We did laugh over the things that weren't here: no counter space in bathroom, no bathtub, no separate area for shower, no hair dryer, no coffee pot, no box of Kleenex, no free samples of shampoo. But, besides having computer availability in the lobby we had Bob, our favorite desk person. He was great, very friendly, very informative, always helpful. He gave us directions where to park our car, how to locate the things we wanted to see and where to eat at good prices. Tonight we wanted to stay in. We took our popcorn down by Bob and asked if there was a microwave anyplace we could use. He put a "Be Right Back" sign on the desk and took us to the 2nd floor where the staff break room was and let us use their microwave. What a guy!
We got in our pj's, ate our popcorn and Pepsi and watched tv. I don't even remember if one of us played Cribbage with Mom tonight.
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