A historical investigation into the buildings and stories around downtown Yakima. We start with real archival anchors. Beneath them, the questions remain open.
Choose a research year. The view shows evidence known to be associated with that period, not a reconstructed street map or an assertion that every structure survived unchanged.
The Lund Building is documented by 1898–1899. The exact shape of its 1900 neighbors still needs period maps and address-level confirmation. No underground geometry is verified.
A postcard dated between 1905 and 1915 gives us a real street view looking east from the railroad tracks. Compare visible facades against Sanborn footprints before modeling them. No tunnel network is implied by the photograph.
The Capitol Theatre is dated to 1920. Historic Sanborn sheets can help relate lot lines and building uses, but they are not by themselves evidence of connected underground passages. This is a research lens, not a finished 1920 city.
The Union Pacific Freight Building dates to 1923–1924. It adds a documented rail-era anchor on West Yakima Avenue. Ground-level and below-grade construction must be verified independently.
Each entry names the document supporting it and exactly what it does not prove.
The Lund Building at 5 N. Front Street dates to 1898–1899. Its historic designation and location provide a firm starting point at North Front Street and East Yakima Avenue. The basement and any below-grade connection are not established by this record.
Explore the Lund Building architecture timeline (1899–1983) ↗
A Spokane Public Library postcard records the view looking east along Yakima Avenue from the railroad tracks. Its date is a range, not an exact year. It provides a street-level visual reference, not a survey of underground spaces.
The City of Yakima dates the Capitol Theatre at 9 S. 3rd Street to 1920. This anchors the growing downtown, but does not establish what lay beneath neighboring buildings.
The City records construction of the freight building at 104 W. Yakima Avenue in 1923–1924. It reflects the rail-centered city and gives us a second firm address near the corridor.
Ellen Allmendinger’s 2018 book Hidden History of Yakima explicitly mentions underground tunnels. That supports further investigation, not a mapped continuous network.
What we still need: parcel-level plans, period basement drawings, documented access rights, and qualified verification of any surviving structures.
Archive use and image publication rights must be checked separately. An accessible source does not automatically grant reuse rights.