This fascinating history weaves together first-person accounts, photographs, and varied cultural perspectives to shed light on the birthplace of modern Seattle. It reveals that Pioneer Square has always been a barometer of Seattle’s health and an incubator for trends that characterize the city today. In 1852, a group of settlers who had spent the winter on Alki Beach relocated to the east side of Elliott Bay and chose the only flat area along the shoreline for the first settlement in downtown Seattle, Pioneer Square. Called Djicjila'letc, "little crossing over place," by friendly Duwamish Indians, it was near the heart of their ancient homeland. By 1853, Henry Yesler’s steam-powered sawmill was processing and exporting timber from the densely forested hillsides. Other businesses sprang up near the mill, making Seattle the region's major commercial center and a magnet for workers and entrepreneurs. The assimilation of people of diverse ethnic, cultural, and economic backgrounds continues today, as one of Pioneer Square’s defining characteristics. After the Great Fire of 1889, Seattle rallied to build a modern city of brick and stone. Pioneer Square rose quickly from the ashes with elegant brick buildings that still give the area an architecturally harmonious feeling. The district formed the heart of the city upon the arrival of the Great Northern Railroad and during the Klondike Gold Rush. As the population exploded, city engineers scrambled to regrade steep hills and fill in tide flats to make them suitable for development. In the early twentieth century, overcrowded Pioneer Square burst at its seams: the downtown business district moved north, industries surged south onto reclaimed tide flats, and Chinatown and Japantown spread east into what is now the International District. As Pioneer Square deteriorated, a local minister dubbed it Skid Road, applying the name of the mill logslide (now Yesler Way) to people on the skids. The term later entered the national vernacular as a synonym for urban slum. From the late 1950s the neighborhood became a battleground between advocates of urban renewal and those who envisioned a restored district of handsome buildings, outdoor cafes, and an easy mingling of artists, merchants, and the down-and-out. Architects, gallery owners, activists, and many others recognized that Pioneer Square was not only a place of beautiful buildings, but a place of spirit as well. In 1971, the City of Seattle created the thirty-block Pioneer Square Historic District, the first designated landmark district in the city. In the ensuing decades the neighborhood, which never lost its Skid Road identity, became a vibrant center for the arts and a hub of regional transit, urban living, and professional sports.

Seattle's Pioneer Square--home of "Underground Seattle," the great 1889 fire, and once the provisioner of supplies for gold seekers during the Klondike gold rush--is today a destination for millions of locals and visitors each year. This was the homeland of Chief Sealth's Duwamish and Suquamish tribes prior to the arrival of new settlers in the 1850s, though the area's landscape and shoreline are drastically different today. Doc Maynard, Arthur Denny, and Henry Yesler, among others, were catalysts who created much of the social, economic, and environmental change that established Seattle as the largest city in the region. Pioneer Square, located on the shores of Puget Sound's Elliott Bay, is Seattle's oldest neighborhood.

Winner of Historic Seattle's Preservation Education and Publications Award Seattle Architecture: A Walking Guide to Downtown opens with an historical overview and timeline featuring the people and events that have shaped the Seattle that we know today. The guidebook is divided into nine tours beginning where Seattle did, at Pioneer Square, and ending at Seattle Center, the location of the futuristic-themed 1962 Century 21 World's Fair. The front flap folds out, providing a map of the areas covered in the book. Each tour is accompanied by an introduction and area map with points of interest identified by numbers that correspond to individual entries. Architect names and dates of completion are provided at the beginning of each entry, and an icon indicates when a building is on a local or national landmarks register.

Capturing the same charm and whimsy she brought to Seattle Walk Report, Instagram darling Susanna Ryan takes things a step further, revealing the forgotten history behind the people, places, and things that shaped Seattle. Cartoonist and creator of Seattle Walk Report, Susanna Ryan strolls on with a quirky new illustrated guide celebrating Seattle's historical treasures and outdoor wonders. In Secret Seattle, Ryan explores the weird and wonderful hidden history behind some of the city's most overlooked places, architecture, and infrastructure, from coal chutes in Capitol Hill, to the last remainder of Seattle's original Chinatown in Pioneer Square, to the best places in town to find century-old sidewalks. Discover pocket parks, beautiful boulevards, and great public gardens while learning offbeat facts that will make you see the Emerald City in a whole new way. Perfect for both the local history buff who never leaves a favorite armchair to a walking enthusiast looking for offbeat and off-the-beaten-path scavenger hunts.