Port Angeles, WA

At the turn of the century, the townsfolk of Port Angeles started pressuring the city council to do something, anything, about the smell.

The flooding of sewage and its accompanying stench in the downtown area was really becoming a problem. In 1914 the town finally could take it no longer and drastic measures were taken, raising the street about 10 to 14 feet so that the sewage remained where it belonged – underground.

Many buildings were torn down but some businesses opted to build a second story in order to stay in business. The street raising was done by sluicing dirt from the adjoining hill into the street via wooden pipes and concrete walls, an engineering feat accomplished, astoundingly, completely by hand.

It is now possible to tour the small remaining portion of the underground and the underground portions of some buildings, starting at the Port Angeles Visitors Center. Some of the tour is underground and some is above-ground. In some of the underground, places you can still see the original hand-mixed concrete retaining wall from 1914.