Post Alley

Last updated
Post Alley
Post Alley.jpg
The street in 2013
Length2,000 ft (610 m)
Location Seattle, Washington, U.S.
Coordinates 47°36′27″N122°20′23″W / 47.60760°N 122.33966°W / 47.60760; -122.33966
North endVirginia Street
South endSeneca Street
Seattle, WA - Downtown - OpenStreetMap.png
Red pog.svg
Post Alley
Post Alley (Seattle WA Downtown)

Post Alley is a short street in Seattle. The northern end of the street runs under and through Pike Place Market. The alley is mostly paved with bricks. [1] It was called "Seattle's best-known alley for its pedestrian environment and abutting shops and restaurants" out of all 425 alleys in the city, [2] and has been described as having a "European feel". [1]

Contents

The pedestrian-only area of Post Alley at Harbor Steps Seattle - Post Avenue from Seneca.jpg
The pedestrian-only area of Post Alley at Harbor Steps

The street was originally named Post Street or Post Avenue for the first U.S. post office in Seattle, opened in 1880 on the corner of Yesler Way, which may also have been the city's first United States Government building. [3] [4] The alley reaches a pedestrian-only area at the Harbor Steps development a block uphill from the Seattle ferry terminal, Colman Dock. [5]

There are notable locations on the alley including Cafe Campagne, The Pink Door, [6] [1] Ghost Alley Espresso, the Gum Wall, Pike Place Chowder, and Post Alley Pizza. The Federal Office Building was built on an entire city block that was bisected by Post Alley until the early 1930s. [7] Other notable entities on still-extant Post Avenue south of the Federal Office Building include Seattle Steam Company. [8]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alley</span> Narrow street that usually runs between, behind, or within buildings

An alley or alleyway is a narrow lane, path, or passageway, often reserved for pedestrians, which usually runs between, behind, or within buildings in the older parts of towns and cities. It is also a rear access or service road, or a path, walk, or avenue in a park or garden.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Seattle Underground</span> Network of underground basements and walkways in Seattle, Washington

The Seattle Underground is a network of underground passageways and basements in the Pioneer Square neighborhood of Seattle, Washington, United States. They were located at ground level when the city was built in the mid-19th century but fell into disuse after the streets were elevated. In recent decades, they have become a tourist attraction, with guided tours taking place around the area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Downtown (Washington, D.C.)</span> United States historic place

Downtown is the central business district of Washington, D.C., located in Northwest D.C. It is the fourth largest central business district in the United States. The "Traditional Downtown" has been defined as an area roughly between Union Station in the east and 16th Street NW in the west, and between the National Mall on the south and Massachusetts Avenue on the north, including Penn Quarter. However, nowadays, Downtown D.C. usually refers to a larger area, as the DC Office of Planning states:

…most residents, workers, and visitors think of Downtown in a broader sense — including areas as far north as Dupont Circle, as far west as Foggy Bottom, and as far east as Capitol Hill. Only about half of the central city workforce is located within the city’s traditional Downtown.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry M. Jackson Federal Building</span> 37-story United States Federal Government skyscraper in downtown Seattle, Washington

The Henry M. Jackson Federal Building (JFB) is a 37-story United States Federal Government skyscraper in downtown Seattle, Washington. Located on the block bounded by Marion and Madison Streets and First and Second Avenues, the building was completed in 1974 and won the Honor Award of the American Institute of Architects in 1976. It received its current name after the death of U.S. Senator Henry M. Jackson in 1983. Architects for the project were Bassetti/Norton/Metler/Rekevics and John Graham & Associates.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alaskan Way</span> Street in Seattle, Washington

Alaskan Way, originally Railroad Avenue, is a street in Seattle, Washington, that runs along the Elliott Bay waterfront from just north of S. Holgate Street in the Industrial District—south of which it becomes East Marginal Way S.— to Broad Street in Belltown, north of which is Myrtle Edwards Park and the Olympic Sculpture Park. The right-of-way continues northwest through the park, just west of the BNSF Railway mainline, and the roadway picks up again for a few blocks at Smith Cove. It follows a route known in the late 19th century as the "Ram's Horn" because of its shape. The street gave its name to the Alaskan Way Viaduct, which until 2019 carried Washington State Route 99 through Downtown Seattle. The northern section of Alaskan Way is also signed as its honorary name, Dzidzilalich.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pike Place Market</span> Public market and tourist attraction in Seattle, Washington

Pike Place Market is a public market in Seattle, Washington, United States. It opened on August 17, 1907, and is one of the oldest continuously operated public farmers' markets in the United States. Overlooking the Elliott Bay waterfront on Puget Sound, it serves as a place of business for many small farmers, craftspeople and merchants. It is named for its central street, Pike Place, which runs northwest from Pike Street to Virginia Street on the western edge of Downtown Seattle. Pike Place Market is Seattle's most popular tourist destination and the 33rd most visited tourist attraction in the world, with more than 10 million annual visitors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Central Waterfront, Seattle</span> Neighborhood in Seattle

The Central Waterfront of Seattle, Washington, United States, is the most urbanized portion of the Elliott Bay shore. It runs from the Pioneer Square shore roughly northwest past Downtown Seattle and Belltown, ending at the Broad Street site of the Olympic Sculpture Park.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gum Wall</span> Tourist attraction in Seattle, Washington

The Gum Wall is a brick wall covered in used chewing gum under Pike Place Market in Downtown Seattle, Washington, United States. It is located on Post Alley near Pike Street, south of the market's main entrance off 1st Avenue. Parts of the gum coating alongside the walls are several inches thick, and the coating is 15 feet (4.6 m) high along a 50-foot-long (15 m) section. The Market Theater Gum Wall has become a tourist attraction and local landmark since it was unintentionally created in the 1990s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shippen Street (Weehawken)</span>

Shippen Street is an east-west street in Weehawken, New Jersey. The eastern terminal, a cobblestone double hairpin turn is listed on the New Jersey Register of Historic Places. Shippen Street was developed at the start of the 20th century as part of the Weehawken Heights, one of the town's residential neighborhoods.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Federal Office Building (Seattle)</span> Historic building in Seattle, Washington, United States

The Federal Office Building, Seattle, Washington is a historic federal office building located at Seattle in King County, Washington.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Butterworth Building</span> United States historic place

The Butterworth Building or Butterworth Block at 1921 First Avenue in Seattle, Washington was originally built as the Butterworth & Sons mortuary, which moved into this location in 1903 and moved to larger quarters in 1923. Located on a steep hill, the building has only three stories on the First Avenue side, but five on Post Alley. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP); adjacent to Pike Place Market, it falls within the NRHP's Pike Place Public Market Historic District and the city's Place Market Historical District. Now owned by the McAleese Family since 2005.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bell Street Park</span>

Bell Street Park is a 1.33-acre (0.54 ha) park, created in 2014 in Seattle, Washington's Belltown neighborhood. Situated in a neighborhood described as a former "hot-spot for low-level crime, drug-dealing and civil disorder", and intended in part to reduce crime rates on the street, the property was transferred from the city's transportation department to Parks and Recreation, and it was redeveloped as a woonerf or mixed-use pedestrian/vehicular traffic area without curbs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pike Street</span> Street in Seattle

Pike Street is an east-west street in Seattle. It extends from Pike Place above Seattle's saltwater waterfront at Elliott Bay through Downtown Seattle, across Capitol Hill to the freshwater shore of Lake Washington at Lake Washington Boulevard. A segment less than a block long exists at Alaskan Way on Elliott Bay, connected to the rest of the street only by the pedestrian Pike Street Hill Climb; the bottom of the hillclimb under the Alaskan Way Viaduct was the original shoreline of the city before major modification and construction of the Seattle Seawall. It is included in the south-to-north mnemonic "Jesus Christ Made Seattle Under Protest" for the street layout of Seattle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1st Avenue (Seattle)</span> Major street in Seattle, Washington, US

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. 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Main Seattle Post Office</span>

The Main Seattle Post Office has a significant history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Pink Door</span> Italian restaurant in Seattle, Washington, U.S.

The Pink Door is a restaurant in Seattle's Pike Place Market, in the U.S. state of Washington.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ghost Alley Espresso</span> Coffee shop in Seattle, Washington, U.S.

Ghost Alley Espresso is a coffee shop located at Pike Place Market in Seattle, Washington, United States. The business operates in a former service room for bathroom attendants on Post Alley, close to the Gum Wall. The current owner Michael Buchwald purchased the business from Mercedes Carrabba, who used the shop as a starting location for ghost tours. The space is supposedly haunted by the ghost of Arthur Goodwin, a former manager of Pike Place Market.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Triangle Building (Seattle)</span> Building in Seattle, Washington, U.S.

The Triangle Building is a two-story building in Seattle's Pike Place Market, in the U.S. state of Washington.

Pike Place Market is a public market in Seattle, Washington founded in 1907. Throughout its history, in spite of various challenges brought about by changing ordinances and planning initiatives, it has operated without major interruptions, making it one of the oldest continuously operated public farmers' markets in the United States. It was created when city councilman Thomas P. Revelle took advantage of the precedent of an 1896 Seattle city ordinance that allowed the city to designate tracts of land as public markets, and designated a portion of the area of Western Avenue above the Elliott Bay tideflats off Pike Street and First Avenue. The first building at the Market opened November 30, 1907. During the early 1920s, the north side of the Corner Market became known as the Sanitary Market, and the area developed into a social scene. A new ordinance forbidding farmers' stalls to be placed in the street resulted in proposals to move the market, but in 1921 council voted to retain the existing location and work on expanding in place.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Lilly LeClair (October 6, 2016). "The 10 Most Adorable Cobblestone Streets in the U.S." oyster.com. Tripadvisor. [T]he cobblestoned [sic] and very European-in-feel Post Alley [has] eccentric attractions like the chewing gum wall, and elegant restaurants like the Pink Door.
  2. "Alleys in context" (PDF), Alley congestion – Response to Statement of Legislative Intent 56-1-A-1, Seattle Department of Transportation, p. 3, retrieved October 31, 2022
  3. Williams, David B. (2017), Seattle Walks: Discovering History and Nature in the City, University of Washington Press, p. 14, ISBN   978-0-295-74129-1
  4. Jean Sherrard (June 25, 2020), "In challenging times, the Post Office delivers human connection", Pacific NW, The Seattle Times, retrieved October 31, 2022, Seattle's main post office was erected in 1880. Historian Greg Lange suggests that it might have been Seattle's first federal government building. (image caption) also posted on Paul Dorpat 's Seattle Now & Then blog
  5. Robert Chandler; Stephen A. Kliment; Joan Goody; John Clancy; David Dixon; Geoffrey Wooding (2010), "Housing and community – Case study: Harbor Steps", Building Type Basics for Housing, Wiley, pp. 21–25, ISBN   978-0-470-40464-5
  6. DK Eyewitness Travel Guide Pacific Northwest, 2015, p. 139
  7. "Federal Office Building, Seattle: Significance". General Services Administration. September 15, 2021. Retrieved October 31, 2022.
  8. John Caldbick (September 14, 2015), "Seattle Steam Heat & Power Company", HistoryLink , Seattle: History Ink, retrieved October 31, 2022