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Pergola remnants may be gone next week

Thursday, January 18, 2001

By KERY MURAKAMI
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Like on most days in the past seven years, Penny Truitt led her Underground Tour group through Pioneer Square.

And because old habits die hard, they stopped yesterday in front of the pergola -- even though it lay fenced off in a heap of iron and cracked glass.

  Metal from the pergola
  Larry Henderson, a hazardous-material technician working for the Department of Parks and Recreation's environmental services, takes samples of metal from the pergola yesterday to test for asbestos and other substances. Renee C. Byer / Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Click for larger photo
Most of the massive cast-iron canopy continued to lie where it fell Monday when a truck clipped it, destroying the glass-topped structure that had stood for 90 years.

Just as she has done before, Truitt explained to the group that the pergola was built on restrooms.

"I'm very sad about it," she said of the icon's destruction. "It was one of my favorite parts of the tour."

Seattle's sorrow over its fallen landmark also lingered in messages collected in a book at the Underground Tour, as well as on the impromptu shrine left on a wire fence separating the pergola from its public.

There appeared a wreath of holly, a bunch of tulips, a portrait of the pergola in its prime and black ribbons.

But as early as next week, the pergola may be gone. City officials don't know how much of it will ever come back.

City park Superintendent Ken Bounds said the city yesterday authorized a contractor, Seidelhuber Iron & Bronze Works, to begin planning how to carry the wreckage away -- leaving the Chief Seattle statue standing alone.

Bounds said the pieces probably will be removed early next week. Yesterday, the city began testing the pergola for lead-based paint and asbestos, which will dictate how the pieces will be moved.

"One question is when we'll do it. We'll probably need a crane, but we won't want to shut down a busy downtown street in the middle of the day," Bounds said.

Once it is moved, park spokeswoman Dewey Potter said, the city must decide whether the pergola can be restored.

"Our intent is to rebuild it as faithfully as possible. Hopefully, we can reuse the ornamental pieces and the glass," Potter said.

He did not know how much a restoration would cost.

The pergola gets another visitor this morning, when the executive director for Xpress Enterprises, whose driver knocked over the landmark, is expected to survey the damage.

The official, Dave Parker, called Mayor Paul Schell on Tuesday to apologize and accept full responsibility.

Most of the messages the Underground Tour is collecting for Schell urged the mayor to restore the landmark.

"Would Paris restore (the Eiffel Tower)? You bet," wrote Anita of Seattle.

P-I reporter Kery Murakami can be reached at 206-448-8029 or kerymurakami@seattle-pi.com

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