Pioneer Square Totem Pole - Seattle, WA - Civilian Conservation Corps on Waymarking.com

Visitors to the historic Pioneer Square are surrounded with many historical buildings and structures, many of which contain plaques and monuments strategically placed throughout the square to attest to this plaza's volatile history over the decades. The Pioneer Square Totem Pole is one of those structures that stand tall but unobtrusive in the middle of this square. It is actually a replica of a previous totem pole that was damaged by vandals in 1938 and restored by CCC carvers and then restored again in 1972. It is one of three structures that are listed as a National Historic Landmark as well as being a contributing structure (ID #65) in the Pioneer Square Skid-Road District (listed on FindTheData here and listed on NPS.gov here. It's also, coincidentally, listed as part of three structures in the National Register of Historic Places (you can waymark it here). The following text is taken from the National Park Service website and describes this pergola:

In the heart of Pioneer Square, the land from which Seattle's industrial base grew, stand the Iron Pergola and the Tlingit Indian Totem Pole. This property was originally the site of the city's first mill, built in 1853 by Henry Yesler. A massive street-straightening project in the 1880s led the city to condemn the land, and then turned it into a public square... The Totem Pole first appeared in 1899, after members of the Chamber of Commerce, vacationing in Alaska, stole it from Tlingit Indians. The men gave the object to the city as a gift, but the tribe justly sued for its return and $20,000 in damages. The courts found the men guilty of theft, but fined them only $500 and allowed the city to retain ownership. In 1938, the pieces that remained after vandals set the Totem Pole on fire were sent back to Alaska, where Tlingit craftsmen (working as CCC craftsmen from the Saxman workshop) graciously carved a reproduction. The new pole was soon dedicated, with tribal blessings, at a Potlatch celebration and has since remained unharmed on Pioneer Square. It now stands as symbol of the complicated relationship between American Indians and European Americans.

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I was able to locate a book online titled A New Deal for Native Art: Indian Arts and Federal Policy, 1933-1943 that says the following about the 1938 restoration of the totem pole by CCC craftsmen:

Saxman, three miles from Ketchikan, became the site of restored Tlingit carvings salvaged from former towns and cemeteries ... Saxman carvers also recarved a Tlingit pole originally from Tongass. The pole had been removed from the Alaskan village in 1899 by the Seattle Chamber of Commerce, who were touring Alaska ... After having suffered damage from fire and dry rot over the span of nearly 40 years, the pole was restored by the CCC. The pole was freighted to the Saxman workshop in 1938 (under the direction of the U.S. National Forest Service), where it was copied. Tlingit carvers Robert Harris, James Starfish, James and William Andrews, and William H. Brown recarved the pole under the direction of Charles Brown. The duplicate pole was erected on the same spot in Pioneer Square the same year and remains there today.

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