POINTS OF INTEREST
Doubletree Arctic Club Hotel doubletree.hilton.com, 700 3rd Ave., 206-340-0340
Smith Tower smithtower.com, 506 2nd Ave., 206-622-4004
Bill Speidel’s Underground Tour undergroundtour.com, 608 1st Ave., 206-682-4646
Pioneer Square seattle.gov/parks, 1st Ave. and Yesler Way
Qwest Field qwestfield.com, 800 Occidental Ave. S., 206-682-2900
King Street Station seattle.gov/transportation/kingstreet.htm, 303 S. Jackson St., 206-382-4125
Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park nps.gov/klse, 319 2nd Ave. S., 206-220-4240
Occidental Park seattle.gov/parks, Occidental Ave. S. and S. Washington St.
Waterfall Garden Park 219 2nd Ave. S.
Seattle Metropolitan Police Museum seametropolicemuseum.org, 317 3rd Ave. S., 206-748-9991
ROUTE SUMMARY
| 1. | Start at the Doubletree Arctic Club Hotel, 700 3rd Ave. Walk southeast on 3rd. | |
| 2. | Turn southwest on Cherry St. | |
| 3. | Turn southeast on 2nd Ave. | |
| 4. | Turn west on Yesler Way to Pioneer Square. | |
| 5. | Turn south on 1st Ave. S. | |
| 6. | Turn southeast on Railroad Way S. to Qwest Field. | |
| 7. | Turn north on Occidental Ave. S. | |
| 8. | Turn east on S. King St. | |
| 9. | Turn north on 2nd Ave. S. | |
| 10. | Turn west on S. Jackson St. | |
| 11. | Turn north through Occidental Mall and Occidental Park. | |
| 12. | Turn east on S. Main St. | |
| 13. | Turn north on 3rd Ave S. | |
| 14. | Turn west on S. Washington St. | |
| 15. | Turn northwest on Alaskan Way S. | |
| 16. | Turn east on Yesler, back to 1st Ave. |
Terra-cotta walrus heads at the Doubletree Arctic Club Hotel
2 DOWNTOWN: THE RETAIL CORE AND FINANCIAL DISTRICT: SKYSCRAPERS AND SHOPPING
BOUNDARIES: 9th Ave., Pine St., 3rd Ave., and James St.
DISTANCE: 2 miles
DIFFICULTY: Moderate (one uphill block)
PARKING: Limited metered street parking; pay lots and garages include Pacific Place Garage (6th Ave. north of Pine St).
PUBLIC TRANSIT: Seattle Transit Tunnel Convention Place Station, 9th Ave. and Pine Street; Metro routes #10, 11, 14, 43, and 49 serve Pike and Pine streets.
Seattle is blessed to have an active, dynamic downtown that never succumbed to the urban decay faced by other cities around the United States. It might not be a 24-hour place, but it’s at least a 16-hour place. And it’s devoted to more than the mere making and spending of money. It offers a wide range of live and filmed entertainments. It has a major art museum and many private galleries. It has occasional peekaboo views of the Elliott Bay waterfront and the Olympic Mountains. And as you’re about to see, it sports an array of architectural styles, from 1920s deco whimsy to postmodern color play and angularity.
| • | Start at the Paramount Theater, on the southeast corner of 9th Ave. and Pine St. Seattle’s master theater designer B. Marcus Priteca helped create this sumptuous 1928 film-and-vaudeville palace, with a handsome brick exterior and a Versailles-inspired interior. The blue vertical sign outside is a 2009 copy of the original. Looking northwest on 9th, you can see the rooftop Gothic neon announcing the 1926-built Camlin Hotel, now part of a time-share circuit. |
| • | Go southwest on Pine. At the southeast corner of 8th and Pine, the cylindrical Tower 801 apartment building houses a retro-modern Caffe Ladro coffeehouse at its base. Kitty-corner from there, the Paramount Hotel’s Dragonfish bar offers happy hour sushi bites and a wall of silent pachinko machines. At 7th, midcentury-esque bar and grill Von’s anchors the 1929 Roosevelt Hotel. |
| • | Cross Pine at the southeast corner with 7th Ave. toward the Pacific Place mall. Opened in 1998, it’s a single full-block building disguised with a variety of false facades. Within, upscale chain stores and a multiplex cinema surround a four-story atrium. Across 6th, the Nordstrom flagship store and headquarters building (a handsome white 1918 structure) was remodeled in 1998 from the former Frederick & Nelson, a classy (and still missed) department store that folded in 1992. |
| On the next block, the Westlake Center mall and office tower was built a decade before Pacific Place, when Seattle’s business leaders were less obsessed with high-end luxury everything. Pacific Place has Tiffany’s and the Italian-bistro chain Il Fornaio; Westlake Center has Hot Topic and a Sbarro pizza stand. Across Pine from Westlake Center, triangular Westlake Park is the site of high-profile political rallies and commercial publicity events. | |
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At the northwest side of 4th is Seattle’s other heritage department store, built in 1928 as The Bon Marché. It now bears the Macy’s brand, but old-timers still call it “the Bon.” Like the Frederick & Nelson (now Nordstrom) building,
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