1st Avenue (Seattle)

Major street in Seattle, Washington, US May 2025 April 2025 thumb|1st Avenue in 1910 1st Avenue is a major street in Seattle, Washington, United States. It traverses Downtown Seattle, including Pioneer Square and Belltown, as well as the adjacent neighborhoods of SoDo and Lower Queen Anne. Numerous landmarks including parks, museums, and historic buildings are located along the street, including Pike Place Market.https://themorningnews.org/gallery/a-stroll-down-first-avenue A Stroll Down First Avenue Matthew Baldwin Caitlin Burke July 20, 2009 The Morning News The Great Seattle Fire of 1889 destroyed much of it and it had to be rebuilt. Parades have taken place on it before and after the fire. History 1st Avenue is called "Seattle's oldest thoroughfare". Access Press 2003 19 Seattle's original street system was a misaligned grid created by three of the original settlers. Today's 1st Avenue was Front Street north of Yesler in Arthur A. Denny's plat, and Commercial Street to its south in Doc Maynard's. Crowley 1998 19 The grid persists in the 21st century and 1st Avenue makes two 20-degree bends where it enters and exits the Downtown Seattle core, or Denny's plat.KUOW Why is Seattle's street grid such a disaster? May 16, 2019 Caroline Chamberlain Gomez Deborah Wang https://kuow.org/stories/why-is-seattle-s-street-grid-such-a-disaster Great Seattle Fire and Underground Seattle thumb|View of 1st Avenue from Columbia Street after Great Seattle Fire of June 6, 1889 1st Avenue South in Pioneer Square is built over and adjacent to "areaways" comprising Underground Seattle, dating to rebuilding following the Great Seattle Fire of 1889.UPDATE: new rules for large trucks in Pioneer Square April 23, 2019 Casey Rogers SDOT Blog Seattle DOT https://sdotblog.seattle.gov/2019/04/23/changes-under-way-new-rules-for-large-trucks-in-pioneer-square/ The fire began where the Federal Office Building (Seattle) now stands. Street level was lifted one story in most of Pioneer Square. Rebuilding thumb|Parade on 1st Avenue in the early 1900s thumb|1st Avenue circa 1942 After the Great Fire, present-day Pioneer Square was rebuilt with fireproof materials including stone and brick, often with iron structural members. Historic buildings from this period on 1st Avenue that remained in the late 20th century include:Woodbridge Montgomery 1980 110–117 Pioneer Square pergola (1909) Pioneer Building (1889–90) Mutual Life Building (1892) on the site of Seattle's first community building, Yesler's cookhouse Yesler Building (1890–95) Schwabacher Building (1890) Terry-Denny Building (1889–90) Maynard Building (1892) Lippy Building (1900) The City Club (1906) State Hotel (1890) Grand Central Building (1889) Globe Hotel (1890) Bread of Life Mission (1889) Maud Building (1889) Squire Building (1900) Smith Building (1900) Seattle Quilt Building (1904) Pacific Marine Building (1905) Wax & Raine Building (1904) Seller Building (1906) Hambach Building (1907) Seattle Hardware (1904) Flatiron Building ( Triangle Hotel and BarSeattle: A National Register of Historic Places Travel Itinerary, National Park Service) (1908–10) Just north of Pioneer Square is the 1889 Colman Building.Woodbridge Montgomery 1980 120 Pike Place Market Pike Place Market (opened 1907), "one of Seattle's most famous cultural and commercial institutions",Woodbridge Montgomery 1980 134 faces 1st Avenue on its east side, between Pike Street and Virginia Street. Street description SoDo 1st Avenue South is an arterial through the center of the South of Downtown (SoDo) industrial area of Seattle. It is designated as one of three or four north-south "major truck streets" in the district. http://www.seattle.gov/Documents/Departments/SDOT/FreightProgram/MajorTruckStreets.pdf Major Truck Streets map City of Seattle DOT August 19, 2019 Starbucks Center, built in 1912 and headquarters of Starbucks since 1997, is on 1st Avenue South in SoDo. After it briefly joins State Route 99 then crossing the Duwamish River via the First Avenue South Bridge, the route becomes State Route 509 leading roughly to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Downtown towers thumb|upright|Old and new Federal Buildings on 1st Avenue Although the tallest Downtown towers are a few streets to the east in the Metropolitan Tract and elsewhere, 1st Avenue has some notable skyscrapers including the 37-story Henry M. Jackson Federal Building.Woodbridge Montgomery 1980 121 Stairclimbs Owing to the hilly terrain of Downtown Seattle, several notable public stairways run east-west intersecting 1st Avenue: the Spring Street steps and Harbor Steps connecting the Central Waterfront downhill from First; and steps on both sides of the Jackson Federal Building and the south side of the Seattle Art Museum leading uphill from First. Jaramillo Jaramillo 2012 Crime thumb|1st Avenue at Pike Place Market in 1972. Peepshows line the west side of the block. After World War II, 1st Avenue was nicknamed "Flesh Avenue", Eaves 2002 51 and from the 1950s to the 1980s, police raids at peep shows and other adult-oriented businesses in the First and Pike Street block were frequent and the corner was called a haven for "street crazies and druggies, prostitutes, players and partyers". Anderson 2010 The Seattle Times said in 2006, "For decades, the Pike-Pine corridor between First and Third avenues has been known for run-down buildings, parking lots prone to drug deals and heroin addicts ... effectively a dam separating Pike Place Market and its 9 million annual visitors from the city's shopping and convention areas."From vice to nice January 19, 2006 The Seattle Times Tom Boyer https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/20060119/pikepine19/from-vice-to-nice 1st Avenue between Bell and Blanchard, where Belltown meets Downtown, was ranked as Seattle's third most dangerous block in 2013, with 135 violent crimes reported.Where are Seattle's most dangerous streets? Henry Rosoff November 13, 2013 KIRO-TV https://www.kiro7.com/news/where-are-seattles-most-dangerous-streets/246026271 Gallery References Sources Access Press Access Seattle 5th HarperCollins Access Guides 2003 978-0-06-277293-0 https://books.google.com/books?id=R8vGEkc0EXEC&pg=PA19 Anderson R. Seattle Vice: Strippers, Prostitution, Dirty Money, and Crooked Cops in the Emerald City Sasquatch Books 2010 978-1-57061-714-0 https://books.google.com/books?id=kCdPBAAAQBAJ Walt Crowley Walt Crowley National Trust Guide Seattle: America's Guide for Architecture and History Travelers John Wiley & Sons 1998 0471180440 Eaves E. Bare: on women, dancing, sex, and power Alfred A. Knopf 2002 978-0-375-41233-2 https://archive.org/details/bare00elis registration Jaramillo J. Jaramillo C. Seattle Stairway Walks: An Up-and-Down Guide to City Neighborhoods Mountaineers Books 2012 978-1-59485-678-5 https://books.google.com/books?id=4YYVCgAAQBAJ Sally B. Woodbridge Roger Montgomery 1980 A Guide to Architecture in Washington State University of Washington Press 0-295-95779-4 Pioneer Square and Central Downtown and Pike Place Market 110–136 External links Category:Streets in Seattle