Seattle | Bill Speidel's Underground Tour

Another Seattle landmark we ventured out to explore is the slightly lesser known Pioneer Square, a neighborhood that marks the birthplace of Seattle, settled in 1852. It is here we experienced one of the most interesting and most unusual attractions in Seattle - Bill Speidel’s Underground Tour!

After a brief introduction to the town’s history from our tour guides we descended to the original “ground floor” of the city, a series of interconnected tunnels below street level.

Long before Microsoft, Starbucks and Boeing, in its infancy, Seattle started as a logging town. Lumber was accessible and inexpensive, and so was used to build nearly every building in town - but unfortunately, it was also combustible.

In 1889, the Great Seattle Fire burned down the entire town. A veritable tinder box made entirely of wood, it was leveled in a span of about 24 hours. Luckily, the town’s economy was doing well, and things were quickly rebuilt….1 - 2 stories ABOVE where the town’s original streets once stood. For a time, the lower street level remained open, with the actual street paved one floor above the shop’s entrances.

However, there were no sidewalks on either side of the road, which meant that if one wanted to cross the street, they would have to climb a ladder, walk across the street, and descend another ladder. Once sidewalks were finally in place, most merchants moved their businesses up to the new “ground level” on the second floor. Some businesses, however, continued for a time to use the lower, now underground storefronts. Skylights were added to the sidewalk above to provide light to the tunnels below.

Over time the tunnels began to deteriorate and were largely deserted, but they found a new life during prohibition! Almost as if they were purposely built to run bootleg hooch and hide speakeasies, these tunnels were a flurry with activity in the 1920’s! Then post-prohibition era they largely went abandoned again until 1965, when Bill Speidel began taking intrigued tourists down to explore. Most of the tunnels are still closed, but a small portion has been made accessible for the public, giving anyone with a love of history a chance to step back in time, to visit a city entombed, a time-capsule waiting to be discovered once again