As the city's oldest neighborhood the history of Pioneer Square is in many ways the history of Seattle itself. It's a district that has gone by many names. Suquamish and Duwamish Indians called the area "Zechalalitch," (also spelled Tsehalalitch) meaning "the place to pass through" since it was a way to get from the mouth of the Duwamish River to Lake Washington. This name is still appropriate in that Pioneer Square is the city's transit hub, with access to light rail, Amtrak, and various regional bus systems.
The first white settlers called the area Duwamps after the river, until Dr. David (Doc) Maynard decided it should be named after Chief Sealth. Only a few decades after it was first settled there was already a sense of history to the place. At the end of the 1800s the triangular plaza where First Avenue shifts in angle was being called Pioneer Place.
Most people have heard how Yesler Way was the original "skid road," where lumber was skidded down the hill to the bay. This is how the area, as well as any other down and out district filled with drinking, vice, and transients became known by the term Skid Row. Directly south of Yesler Way the vice was particularly rampant in a red light district called the Lava Bed, and later the Tenderloin.
Prohibitionists and reformers fought to clean up the area, and eventually the whole neighborhood was known by the name of the plaza, Pioneer Square. In contesting Real Change's move, the Pioneer Square Community Association is trying once again to rid the area of transients. Really, if we wanted to contribute to the historic nature of the district, we should be opening a brothel.