Overview

Here, where the streets of downtown's business district angle down around Elliott Bay to the south, are the flatlands where Seattle was first built. Nightclubs, art galleries, tourist shops, design firms and restaurants dominate Pioneer Square. The area's First Thursday arts walk draws huge crowds to the studios, galleries and street performers, and the nightclubs keep the neighborhood hopping till the early morning hours. The kitschy Underground Tour explaining Seattle's early history is a perennial tourist favorite, as is the more sober Klondike Gold Rush Museum, which details the Yukon gold fever that made Seattle richer. Yesler Way, which slices the neighborhood in half, has a footnote in history as the original "skid row". There are also several small parks in the area, including the quiet Waterfall Park, the shady cobblestones of Occidental Park, and the totem-pole decorated triangle at First and Yesler, Pioneer Place Park.