HistoryLink Tours

Chief Seattle Fountain by James Wehn (1909)

Walking toward the pergola and looking to the left, you’ll find one of the first sculpture of the city’s namesake, Chief Seattle (Si’ahl, ca. 1780-1866), chief of the Suquamish and Duwamish tribes. James Wehn (1882-1973), a classically trained sculptor and the first chairman of the University of Washington’s Sculpture Department, created several sculptures of Chief Seattle, including a life-sized version for Tilikum Place (at Denny Way and 5th Avenue). In anticipation of the city hosting the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition (1909), the City’s Street and Sewer Department asked Wehn to create a sculptural work as part of a city-improvement endeavor. The result was a bust of Chief Seattle set upon a three-tiered ornamental watering fountain “suitable for man, horse and dog.” Made of bronze, and likely made alongside the life-sized model, Wehn used the only known studio photograph of Seattle, taken in 1865 by the E.M. Sammis photography studio, to create the chief’s likeness. Three castings were made of the bust: this one, a second for Tilikum Place that was later moved to Westlake and 4th Avenue, but vanished, and a third that ultimately ended up at a Renton fire station.