Archive for the ‘Underground’ Category
An SCG History Lesson
Monday, January 25th, 2010
If you subscribe to George Santayana’s thought that those who forget history are doomed to repeat it, then rest assured that if any SCG employees go on to become city planners they won’t be building a city in tidal flats or leaving a 15 foot difference in elevation between sidewalks and streets. No, we didn’t take a field trip to city hall (as evidenced by the fact that we still have our work ethic), but we did take the semi-famous Seattle Underground Tour under our new Pioneer Square home.
While most of us knew about the almost-forgotten Seattle that resides about two stories below our 311 ½ Occidental Ave. S. offices, surprisingly not many in the group had been on the actual tour (Someone must have also given the tour guide a heads-up in regarding our senses of humor, because the tour read more like a standup show than a stuffy tour through history).
We learned about Seattle’s litigious side—a side that was present from the very start— with Henry Yesler suing the city using a loophole in the tax law. Oh yeah, and he got away with it three times while he was . . . wait for it . . . mayor.
We also learned that the second-largest donor to the Seattle Public School system was a madam by the name of Lou Graham, who owned and operated a brothel on the site of what is now the Union Gospel Mission. Back in the day, a large number of Seattle women were involved in the “oldest profession” (although they listed their professions as “seamstress” when asked by authorities) as Seattle was a lively port filled with freshly-rich travelers returning from the Yukon and wide-eyed prospectors about to make the journey north.
Proving just exactly how truly geeky I am, I downloaded a Ghost Radar application for my iPhone as we entered what was supposedly a “haunted” vault. The app costs $0.99, and while I’m fairly sure all I did was give nearly a dollar to some college kid sitting in his mom’s basement, I had to try it out – it’s technology. It basically told me exactly what the guys from Ghost Hunters found out – there’s nothing.
All in all, the tour was great. We learned a bit about the area we work and live in every day and got to spend some time outside the walls of SCG together. If you’re looking for a bit of history and don’t mind doing something that might be a tad bit cliché, definitely check out the Underground Tour for yourself.
