The joys of out of town company include visiting places usually reserved for tourist. On Monday we went on Bill Speidel’s Underground Tour in Downtown Seattle. The 90 minute tour began in Doc Maynard’s Public House (608 First Ave, in Seattle’s Pioneer Square, between Cherry Street and Yesler Way.) After opening remarks, the rather large group follows the excellent tour guide underground to explore the long deserted original sidewalks of the city. For those that don’t know, Seattle’s downtown burnt down in 1889. When it was rebuilt, the city founders determined that it should be elevated to help with the sewerage problem (the toilets were geysering during high tide) . Some of the property owners could not wait for the slow process of the government’s installation of fill, then roads and sidewalks. The property owners went ahead and built their stone and brick building and when the infrastructure was later installed, the main floor of the buildings became the basements. They were later condemned. The tour took us through a three block area and was very interesting and engaging.
