Predating the settlement that became the city of Seattle, the Duwamish had an encampment with two longhouses situated along the north central waterfront, roughly at the intersection of present-day Bell Street and Alaskan Way. By around the 1860s, the longhouses were gone, leaving only modest beach structures. In the 1890s the waterfront from Pike Street north to Broad Street had developed into a community of small homes made from scrounged materials, including those deposited by the tides. Chief Si’ahl's (Chief Seattle) daughter Kikisoblu (Princess Angeline) also continued to live in the area until she died in 1896. The area was cleared around 1903 in conjunction with the regrading of Denny Hill and construction of the north approach to the Great Northern Railway tunnel beneath the city.

This image, taken from the beach near Broad Street and facing northeast, shows several of these small homes on the shoreline and the hill above. The one visible sign reads, "C. T. Albrecht, Contractor, Wharf and Ware-house Builder," which is listed in 1895 as located at Railroad Avenue, foot of Pike Street. The large pipes stacked on the dock may be part of the City of Seattle's project to build a combined sewer system to handle wastewater and storm drainage, which was completed in 1894. One of the two sewer trunk lines that began carrying sewage to Elliott Bay was located on the north side of downtown, at the base of Denny Hill (before it was regraded).

Caption information source: https://pauldorpat.com/2010/10/page/6
Caption information source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Waterfront,_Seattle
Caption information source: "City of Seattle adopts plan to build a combined sewer system, to handle sewage and stormwater, on November 30, 1891," by Jennifer Ott, HistoryLink.org Essay 11013