Iron Pergola
The Iron Pergola in Pioneer Place Park is a landmark for the history of transportation in Seattle.
Pioneer Place marks a change of direction in the platting of streets south of Yester along a north-south axis and the streets north of Yesler at an angle to be parallel to the waterfront. The transition created a triangular piece of land that the City of Seattle purchased from Henry Yesler after the Fire of 1889 and converted into a landscaped park. The trolley, cable cars, and interurban railway all converged at Pioneer Place through the early twentieth century, making it one of the most important transportation hubs in the city.[1]
In preparation for the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, Seattle’s first world’s fair, the Seattle Parks Board commissioned an iron pergola for Pioneer Place as well as a drinking fountain and an underground comfort station so elegant it was dubbed the “Queen Mary of Johns.” Both the underground toilet and iron superstructure were completed in November 1909, in plenty of time for the summertime fair, though the pergola received additional improvements the following year.[2]
On January 15, 2001, a truck clipped a corner of the pergola and it collapsed. Seidelhuber Iron and Bronze Works, the company that had cast the original pieces in 1909 reassembled the structure and recast new pieces where needed. Upon reconstruction, new steel structural elements were hidden inside of the columns in order to withstand future earthquakes. The pergola has been struck by vehicles an additional three times since 2001.[3]
[1] Karin Link, “PROPERTY: #39406 Pioneer Square, Occidental Square,” in Washington Information System for Architectural and Archaeological Records Data (WISAARD), n.p. last modified June 20, 2004, accessed August 14, 2016, https://fortress.wa.gov/dahp/wisaardp3/.
[2] Link, “Pioneer Square,” n.p.; “Summary for Pioneer PL,” Seattle.gov (2004), http://web6.seattle.gov/DPD/HistoricalSite/QueryResult.aspx?ID=1706961227.
[3] “Link, “Pioneer Square,” n.p.; “Summary for Pioneer PL”; “Historic Pioneer Square Pergola Struck by Hit-and-Run Driver,” Kiro7 (Seattle), July 25, 2013, http://www.kiro7.com/news/vehicle-crash-near-historic-pioneer-square-pergola/246119531.
Credits and Sources:
Description by Madison Heslop on behalf of the American Society for Environmental History.
“Historic Pioneer Square Pergola Struck by Hit-and-Run Driver.” Kiro7 (Seattle). July 25, 2013. http://www.kiro7.com/news/vehicle-crash-near-historic-pioneer-square-pergola/246119531.
Link, Karin. “PROPERTY: #39406 Pioneer Square, Occidental Square (not to be confused with present Occidental Square).” In Washington Information System for Architectural and Archaeological Records Data (WISAARD). Last modified June 20, 2004. Accessed August 14, 2016. https://fortress.wa.gov/dahp/wisaardp3/.
“Summary for Pioneer PL.” Seattle.gov, 2004. http://web6.seattle.gov/DPD/HistoricalSite/QueryResult.aspx?ID=1706961227.
Williams, David B. Too High and Too Steep: Reshaping Seattle’s Topography. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2015.
