Howe Street Stairs

 

5/1/25 Views from Blaine and Howe Streets

Gulp.

When I was in my 20s, I participated in a fundraiser that involved climbing to the top of Columbia Center – all 1,311 steps of the 73-story building. (Called The Big Climb, the annual fundraiser is still ongoing.) Needless to say, that was the greatest number of stairs I’ve ever climbed in one shot (although some areas of Porto often felt about the same).

When Ching first told me about the 293 steps of the Blaine Street stairs, she said she learned about them from her fellow mountain climbers who used the stairway to train. It turns out that other types of athletes as well as firefighters train on the same stairway, reputed to be the longest and steepest in Seattle.

I recalled reading about that stairway in a book I’ve had for a while: Seattle Stairway Walks: An Up-and-Down Guide to City Neighborhoods. Pulling it off a bookshelf (yes, it survived my massive bookcase downsizing), I read about many unique views seen from the walk, including the very well-hidden gem, Streissguth Garden. Intrigued, I waited for the next fair day to give it a go.

First I climbed down the Blaine Street stairs, sketching along the way, enjoying all those views. Unfortunately, what goes down must come up. Running parallel to Blaine a block away is Howe Street, which has only 270 steps. I took those – up. As for athletes in training, several passed me in both directions.

Although Howe Street pales in comparison with Columbia Center, my legs are now 40 years older. With ice cream as my reward, I lived to tell the tale.

Streissguth Garden

A peek-a-boo view of Lake Union from Streissguth Garden