Uncovering the History of Seattle’s Central Waterfront – 2023 Tours

Starts at Occidental Park and ends at Pier 62 | Free Tickets
Thursday April 20, 2023, 5:30–6:30 pm
Thursday May 4, 2023, 5:30–6:30 pm
Thursday June 1, 2023, 5:30–6:30 pm
Thursday July 6, 2023, 5:30–6:30 pm
Thursday August 3, 2023, 5:30–6:30 pm
Thursday September 7, 2023, 5:30–6:30 pm
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Walking Tours with HistoryLink. Join historian Jennifer Ott as she tells the stories of piers and people, ships and railroads, and Seattle's ever‑evolving landscapes. Free tickets will be available two weeks before each walking tour date!

Open to all ages!

The central Seattle waterfront has layers of stories, many of them hidden from view like the beach that once welcomed Coast Salish canoes. Join HistoryLink historian Jennifer Ott on a one-mile walking tour across time to explore the piers and people, ships and railroads, and ever-evolving landscape of the waterfront.

This walking tour starts at Occidental Park, makes its way along the waterfront, and finishes at Pier 62. See Eventbrite ticketing for more details. Recommended age: 4 years and older.  Group size is limited, register on Eventbrite to reserve free tickets. The entire session will be held outdoors, so please dress for the weather. Arrive 15 minutes early for check-in. See our Visit Pier 62 page for tips on getting to the waterfront and frequently asked questions.

You can also catch a self-guided tour curated by Jennifer Ott here.

Tickets will be available two weeks before each walking tour date! Need a reminder? Visit our Eventbrite page, choose the tour date you want, and click “Remind Me” to receive an email when tickets go on sale.

Walking Tour Gallery

Photo by Sunny Martini

Photo by Sunny Martini

Photo by Sunny Martini

A group of people walk along the Waterfront over glass tiles that dot the sidewalk. Pier 62's Floating Dock sits in the distance. In the background, the sun is setting, painting the sky a royal blue that fades into a pale orange that is covered by a smattering of dark clouds.

Photo by Sunny Martini

Photo by Sunny Martini

A black and white photo of the Seattle waterfront in 1898 shows various figures in dresses and pants with shirts gathering, large ships and their tall masts are visible in the back, plus a large sign that says 'Steamship Tickets'.

Seattle Waterfront, 1898.

In the foreground are railroad tracks, in the distance are buildings and beyond them the waterfront, the sky is painted blue with some fluffy clouds.

RR Ave N from Marion, c 1910.

About Jennifer Ott

Jennifer Ott is an environmental historian with a particular interest in Seattle’s history of moving dirt, rerouting waterways, and leveling hills. She is a senior historian for HistoryLink.org, and has written for Seattle magazine and the Oregon Historical Quarterly. She is the author of Olmsted in Seattle: Creating A Park System for a Modern City (2019), general editor and contributor to Seattle at 150: Stories of the City Through 150 Objects from the Seattle Municipal Archives (2019), co-author of Waterway: The Story of Seattle’s Locks and Ship Canal (2017).

Created in partnership with HistoryLink

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HistoryLink is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation established in 1997
to pioneer innovative approaches to historical research, education, and
publishing. Its primary public service activity is production of
HistoryLink.org, the free online encyclopedia of Washington state history
and the nation’s first original encyclopedia of community history created
expressly for the Internet.
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