Seattle's founders settled at Pioneer Square in 1852. Henry Yesler built a sawmill at the foot of what is now Yesler Way. The neighborhood was once known as Skid Road and Skid Row.
The Great Seattle Fire of June 6, 1889 destroyed Pioneer Square. By the end of 1890, dozens of brick and stone buildings in the Richardsonian Romanesque style had replaced the wood ones. The Seattle Underground Tour shows old storefronts buried when streets were raised.
In 1899, citizens stole a Tlingit totem pole and set it in Pioneer Place Park. They paid a $500 settlement. After an arsonist damaged it in 1938, a replacement was installed in 1940. The Pioneer Square-Skid Road Historic District was added to the National Register on June 22, 1970.