13. Returning North on S Occidental
Occidental was repaved and landscaped as a pedestrian mall in 1972. Most of the buildings lining it date from Seattle's reconstruction in the 1890s. The State Building on the southeast corner of Occidental and S Main Street (Elmer Fisher, 1890) stands on the site of a blockhouse in which settlers took shelter during an attack by Salish warriors on January 26, 1856. The raiders were repulsed by Marines and cannon fire from the U.S.S. Decatur anchored in Elliott Bay, and Chief Leschi was later hanged (unjustly in the opinion of many) for his role in the Indian rebellions of 1855-1856.
A short walk east on S Main will lead you past the 1929 headquarters of the Seattle Fire Department on the south and Waterfall Garden on the north. The latter is a privately maintained oasis designed by Masao Kinoshita and built by the Annie E. Casey Foundation in 1977 to mark the birthplace of today's United Parcel Service. UPS co-founder James Casey got his start in 1907 serving a clientele largely made up of Pioneer Square's numerous saloons and bordellos.
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