From public potty, pergola became prized possession
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Born in controversy as a public potty, it lived on to become one of the city's most recognized features.
The Pioneer Square pergola, leveled by a truck yesterday morning, combines the architectural features of 1870s Boston and Victorian England.
More than 65,000 pounds of ironwork were used in the project, including a canopy with ornate cast-iron posts, brackets, cornice and ridgeline.
The glass-topped structure, finished in 1910, covered the entrances to a lavish underground "comfort station," described as the most ornate in the western United States.
White tile covered the walls, the floors were concrete finished with terrazzo, and gray slabs of Alaska marble separated the stalls. It included both free and pay restroom facilities.
Like many public restrooms, it initially drew opposition from some community leaders.
"I guess they figured it would just draw people coming out of the saloons," said Dana Cox, historian with Bill Speidel's Underground Tour.
For more than a year, the tour company has been offering to spend about $150,000 to add the underground restrooms to the tour, but not plumb them for actual use.
The restrooms were heavily used in the early 1900s, averaging 8,000 visitors a day during the week and 15,000 on Sunday, when the saloons (and their restrooms) were closed.
But by the 1920s, downtown activity was shifting north. The structure gradually fell into disrepair, and its glass top was replaced with sheet metal in the 1940s.
A $250,000 restoration in 1972 was funded largely by a donation from Jim Casey, founder of United Parcel Service, the delivery company born in Pioneer Square in the early years of the century.
The facility underwent another $100,000 in repairs and restoration in 1992.