- Seattle Neighborhoods: Pioneer Square — Thumbnail History (historylink.org)
First settled in 1852, Pioneer Square encompasses the birthplace of modern Seattle and its first downtown. Most of the Square’s buildings were erected within a decade of the disastrous Great Fire of June 6, 1889. The district began a slow decline during World War I and became better known as a derelict “Skid Road.” Preservationists rallied in the 1960s to save the area’s exquisite ensemble of Victorian and Edwardian Era architecture from “urban renewal.” Pioneer Square was protected by a 30-acre Historic District in 1969, followed by a slightly larger Special Review District. The core of the neighborhood lies between Cherry Street on the north, 2nd Avenue on the east, Alaskan Way on the west, and S. King Street on the south.
- Virginia (Wikipedia)
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The state’s capital is Richmond, its most populous city is Virginia Beach, and Fairfax County is the state’s most populous political subdivision. Virginia’s population in 2022 was over 8.68 million, with 35% living within the Greater Washington metropolitan area. The Blue Ridge Mountains cross the western and southwestern parts of the state, while the state’s central region lies mostly within the Piedmont. Eastern Virginia is part of the Atlantic Plain, with the Middle Peninsula forming the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay.
- Pioneer Square, Seattle (Wikipedia)
Pioneer Square is a neighborhood in the southwest corner of Downtown Seattle, Washington, US. It was once the heart of the city: Seattle’s founders settled there in 1852, following a brief six-month settlement at Alki Point on the far side of Elliott Bay. The early structures in the neighborhood were mostly wooden, and nearly all burned in the Great Seattle Fire of 1889. By the end of 1890, dozens of brick and stone buildings had been erected in their stead; to this day, the architectural character of the neighborhood derives from these late 19th century buildings, mostly examples of Richardsonian Romanesque.