History of Skid Row

Original Skid Row
Two photos of original “Skid Road” (Mill Street, now Yesler Way) in Seattle, Washington, — Top image: View looking west to Yesler’s Mill at the end of the street (see smokestack) and nearby cookhouse. The tall pole in the road on the right is where the Pioneer Square pergola stands today. — Bottom image: Yesler’s Mill, stores, and taverns on Skid Road

The term “Skid Row” derives from Seattle. Washington, where “skid roads” were the places that loggers slid their cut timber to the ports for shipment. By the 1930’s the term referred to the rundown areas of cities, characterized by bars, brothels and the like originally attracted by loggers, and began to include the presence of homeless and other extremely low income populations.

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