15 Best Historical Landmarks in Seattle

The Bruce Lee and Brandon Lee Grave Sites form a peaceful memorial destination within Seattle’s Lake View Cemetery. Set among a carefully maintained landscape of trees and shrubs, the graves offer a quiet place to pay respects to the martial arts and film legends and to reflect on their enduring influence.

Beneath the Streets offers guided underground history tours in Seattle, taking visitors through passageways and spaces connected to the city’s rebuilding after the Great Fire of 1889. Guides bring the setting to life with humor, vivid storytelling, and well-chosen details rather than treating the tour as a dry history lesson.

ASUW Shell House is a historic Seattle landmark tied to rowing heritage and the original Conibear Shellhouse. Tours bring visitors inside the building and connect its spaces with the University of Washington crews celebrated in The Boys in the Boat, making the site especially compelling for sports and local-history enthusiasts.

Statue of Liberty Plaza is a small but distinctive Seattle landmark along Alki, where a replica Statue of Liberty connects the waterfront with the story of West Seattle’s early settlement. The setting brings open-water views and, on clear days, striking mountain scenery.

The Fremont Troll is one of Seattle’s most distinctive pieces of public art: a giant concrete sculpture crouched beneath the Aurora Bridge, clutching a real Volkswagen Beetle. Its scale, oddball humor and under-bridge setting make the stop instantly recognizable and particularly rewarding for photographs.

The Jimi Hendrix Statue is a compact Seattle tribute set directly along a Capitol Hill sidewalk. Its lifelike rendering shows Hendrix with his guitar and captures the musician’s presence in a way that makes the stop especially rewarding for fans of music history and local artistic work.

The Chapel in Fort Lawton Historic District is a surviving World War II-era building within a larger Seattle park landscape. Constructed in 1942 from standardized U.S. Army plans, the former military chapel offers a tangible link to Fort Lawton’s history and adds architectural interest to a day spent exploring the district.

J. W. Bullock House is a Seattle historical landmark best appreciated from the public realm. Its residential character makes it a visual stop for architecture-minded visitors, but it is not presented as an open tourist attraction.

A respectful exterior look is the appropriate way to take in the property without disturbing the people who live there.

Montlake Spite House is a compact Seattle historical landmark known for its unusual wedge-shaped design and the neighborly dispute behind its creation. Today it remains a private residence, making a quiet exterior view from the road the most appropriate way to appreciate its ingenious use of a constrained parcel.

Its story and distinctive shape make it a quick, memorable addition to a neighborhood architecture walk.

The Birthplace of Seattle Monument stands near Alki Beach as an obelisk connected with the Denny Party landing of November 13, 1851. Its inscriptions present an early-settlement account of Seattle, while also briefly referencing Chief Seattle and the Duwamish people.

Historic Chinatown Gate marks a memorable entrance to Seattle’s Chinatown-International District, with detailed craftsmanship that rewards a close look. Dragons on nearby lightposts extend the visual character, while the surrounding streets lead naturally to restaurants, shops, Uwajimaya and the Wing Luke Museum.

Pioneer Square Totem Pole stands in Occidental Park amid Seattle’s oldest neighborhood, historic buildings and cobblestone streets. The carved monument is visually striking, but its significance extends beyond appearance: its Tlingit origins, removal from Alaska and later replica history give the piece a complicated cultural legacy worth considering.

The Statue of Lenin is one of Seattle’s most unusual public monuments, standing prominently in Fremont. The large bronze figure comes with a concise historical plaque and an intriguing story of how the sculpture traveled from Eastern Europe to the Pacific Northwest.

Queen Anne Blvd Historical Landmark is a brief but worthwhile Seattle stop for anyone interested in local history and city views. Set within a residential section of Queen Anne, the marked landmark offers striking outlooks toward Downtown Seattle, the Space Needle, and Puget Sound.

The Yesler Building is a Seattle historical landmark with a substantial civic past and an evolving present. Built in 1909 as the Old Public Safety Building, it was later recognized for its historic importance and continues to carry a strong sense of place.

The building has also hosted community activity while undergoing renovation. Its character comes through in the preserved architecture, the sense of renewal, and the considerate, patient approach associated with events and visits there.