Seattle's Potty Problems: A Brief History
Photo credit: The Museum of History and Industry via "Now and Then"
Seattle’s potty problem is nothing new. Since the beginning of the 1900s, public restrooms in Seattle have been few and far between, faced strong opposition, have been subjected to city budget cuts and are often neglected leaving them unsanitary and out of order.
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Yet one restroom stands above the rest in this long history, and just so happens to be the first. While there is no denying the underground comfort station below Pioneer Square had its fair share of opponents and downfalls, could this restroom be the guiding light for the future of public restrooms? Or, does it underscore the deep-rooted issues public restrooms elicit proving a true public facility is unattainable?
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Beginning at the start of the 20th century and ending in current-day Seattle, we’ll see how the past isn’t so different from the present and what that means for the future of public restrooms in the Emerald City.
1906
The City of Seattle’s finance committee agrees to tax the Pioneer Place business district, raising revenue to build a public restroom.
Opposition to public restrooms is nothing new.
While the Board of Public Works of the City of Seattle thought this build urgent, business owners expressed their rejection of the plan in letters to the editor submitted to the Seattle Daily Times, now known as the Seattle Times. In these letters, folks wrote that the public restrooms were a “scheme to ruin the appearance of the neighborhood” and that other locations would be more suitable for the facility.
Though the Seattle Daily Times itself opposed the restroom, running headlines calling the plan a “nuisance,” other publications like the Seattle Star were in full support. Editors of the paper wrote, “Those who object to it are urged to do so by selfish motives.”
Photo credit: The History Link
1909
Construction on the subterranean comfort station begins the same year as the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, the 1909 world’s fair held in Seattle.
With the world’s fair being hosted by Seattle in the same year construction on the restrooms began, some thought there was already too much construction happening in the city (a problem still relevant to Seattleites today) with the regrading of Belltown and sidewalk paving.
Still, construction moved forward and by September 23, 1909, the restrooms were officially opened to the public.
Despite all previous complaints, the restrooms received outstanding feedback. An article in the Pacific Builder and Engineer published in 1910 wrote, “The man of travels will find nowhere in the Eastern hemisphere a sub-surface public comfort station equal in character to that which has recently been completed in the downtown district of Seattle.”
According to History Link, the restrooms included free toilets and pay toilets with 25 toilets and eight urinals split between the men’s and women’s rooms. The facilities featured white-tiled walls, marble stalls, terrazzo floors, brass fixtures, oak chairs and a shoeshine stand with ventilation through hollow pillars in the pergola. Attendants were hired to maintain the facilities, cleaning them daily.
Regardless of the pushback the restrooms initially faced, there is no doubt they were an integral and necessary fixture in the community. The History Link reports the toilets were flushed around 5,000 times a day and 8,000 times on Sundays when saloons were usually closed.
Photo credit: "The Building Age" from October 1911 via KUOW
1943
The Pioneer Square public restroom closes.
Like all good things, the luxurious restrooms came to and end. Over time, the structure settled causing flooding and other issues requiring large sums of money to repair.
Four years into World War II with the city forced to make budget cuts, the great Pioneer Square public restroom finally came to an end. Boarded up, the restrooms were left as a relic of the past but left with the possibility that it could be repaired and reopened in the future.
No restrooms was built to replace this public facility.
2004
City spends $5 million to install five high-tech, self-cleaning toilets.
In less than five years, the toilets were ripped out and sold on eBay with the city citing drug use and prostitution as the main reasons for tearing them down. While the creation of spaces for people to relieve themselves is important, the upkeep and safety of the facilities might even be more crucial.
If there are no resources allocated to cleaning and maintaining the already existing restrooms, how can the city expect to see success with the building of new facilities?
Photo credit: Bigadoo, Inc.
2019
The “Portland Loo” is installed in Ballard at the Ballard Commons Park.
Constructed in Ballard at the Ballard Commons Park, the “Portland Loo” finally reached Seattle. Priced at $550,000, the bathroom is graffiti-resistant, features angled slats making it open-air to discourage drug use, has solar-powered lights, and an outdoor hand wash station.
While this might be a win for Ballard, Tim Harris, writer for Real Change, described the city’s efforts as moving at a “pathetic pace.” In the same year the city announced Ballard’s new public restroom, Real Change launched Everybody Poos, a campaign to install five mobile toilets modeled after San Fransisco’s Mobile Pit Stops.
These bathrooms were significantly cheaper than their predecessors at a price tag of $73,000 with an additional $83,000 annually to staff them and $193,000 for a service truck to maintain them. Real Change had convinced the city to appropriate $1.3 million to install five Pit Stops with two toilets each. Unfortunately, their efforts were squandered after COVID-19 shook the world prompting the city to reappropriate the money for other hygiene efforts.
Photo credit: My Ballard
2023
Changing perspectives: Public restrooms and public health
While the concept of providing public facilities to improve public health is by no means new, public health has been at the forefront of many people's minds after the COVID-19 pandemic shook the world in 2020. Keeping surfaces clean and washing hands became more than a habit, but a necessity to keep the virus away.
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Yet, as the world moves into the third year of the pandemic, transitioning into a post-COVID society, the number of hygiene stations has decreased rather than increased.
Restrooms in businesses closed during the pandemic to prevent the spread and some never opened back up after infection rates fell. Read more about public health and public restrooms here.
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Currently, public restroom numbers are abysmal with four facilities in Capitol Hill and just six 24/7 public restrooms in all of Seattle.
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What the future has in store for public restrooms in Seattle is unknown, but here's to hoping there's nowhere to go but up.
The history is not over yet...
Knowing what Seattle has done in the past and the failures the city has experienced should be seen as opportunities to improve rather than reasons public restrooms are not possible for Seattleites. There is much to learn from what has not worked in the past to create better solutions for the future.
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Whether the city will learn from these mistakes might prove to be an uphill battle filled with red tape. In the meantime, we can come together as a community to support solutions that make the world a nicer place for people to answer nature's call. From businesses opening their restrooms to the public to crowdsourcing restroom locations and allowing this issue to enter our daily conversations, the community has options to make sure the history of public restrooms in Seattle does not stop here.
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