the Barnes Mural

Image of Barnes Mural with different sections for different eras of Belltown's history

THE MURAL

The Barnes Mural, painted on the south face of Belltown’s historic 1890 Barnes Building, was completed as part of the Belltown Mural Festival in the summer of 2026.

Created by five artists with the help of Belltown residents, local businesses, property owners, and neighborhood organizers, the mural celebrates the rich and colorful history of Belltown, from William Nathaniel Bell’s original land claim in 1852 to the neighborhood of today.

This site celebrates the people and stories behind the mural and their place in Belltown’s history. Thanks for your patience as it comes together. In the meantime, enjoy the view.

Black and white historic photograph of a construction site with large rocky formations, partially built structures, and dirt roads, possibly from the early 20th century.

DENNY REGRADE

The story of modern Belltown begins with the dramatic reshaping of its landscape. Between the late 1890s and 1930, five major regrading projects gradually carved away Denny Hill, a 220-foot rise that once stood between downtown Seattle and Queen Anne, fundamentally changing the geography of the neighborhood and the city around it.

As Seattle grew, city leaders increasingly viewed the hill as a barrier to expanding streets, businesses, and development. Crews used hydraulic hoses, steam shovels, and conveyor belts to remove millions of cubic yards of earth. Streets were lowered by more than 100 feet in places, while buildings were demolished, relocated, or temporarily left standing high above the newly lowered streets. Iconic early buildings stood alongside strange formations known as “spite mounds”—towering remnants of the original hill left behind when reluctant property owners resisted the regrade, if only temporarily.

Over three decades, Denny Hill was gradually carved away, with much of its soil deposited elsewhere, including Elliott Bay. The result was a dramatically flatter landscape—and the creation of the Denny Regrade.

Learn more

FILM ROW

From 1910 through the 1960s, Belltown was the region’s film distribution hub, serving theaters across the Pacific Northwest and Alaska.

In 1923, Seattle’s fire safety laws restricted the storage of highly flammable film stock to Belltown, concentrating film exchanges and creating what became known as “Film Row”

READ MORE