Pike Place Market
Encyclopedia
Pike Place Market is a public market
overlooking the Elliott Bay
waterfront in Seattle, Washington, United States
. The Market opened August 17, 1907, and is one of the oldest continually operated public farmers' markets in the United States. It is a place of business for many small farmers, craft
speople and merchant
s. Named after the central street, Pike Place runs northwest from Pike Street to Virginia Street, and remains one of Seattle's most popular tourist destinations.
The Market is built on the edge of a steep hill, and consists of several lower levels located below the main level. Each features a variety of unique shops such as antique
dealers, comic book
sellers, and small family-owned restaurant
s, while the area contains one of the few remaining head shop
s left in Seattle. The upper street level contains fishmonger
s, fresh produce
stands and craft stalls operating in the covered arcade
s. Local farmers and craftspeople sell year-round in the arcades from tables they rent
from the Market on a daily basis, in accordance with the Market's mission and founding goal: allowing consumers to "Meet the Producer".
Pike Place Market is home to nearly 500 residents who live in 8 different buildings throughout the Market. Most of these buildings have been low income housing in the past; however, some of them no longer are, such as the Livingston Baker apartments. The Market is run by the quasi-government
Pike Place Market Preservation and Development Authority (PDA). The Pike Place Market sees 10 million visitors annually.
The Market is located roughly in the northwest corner of Seattle's central business district. To its north is Belltown
. To its southwest are the central waterfront and Elliott Bay
. Boundaries are diagonal to the compass since the street grid is roughly parallel to the Elliott Bay shoreline.
As is common with Seattle neighborhoods and districts, different people and organizations draw different boundaries for the Market. The City Clerk's Neighborhood Map Atlas gives one of the more expansive definitions, defining a "Pike-Market" neighborhood extending from Union Street northwest to Virginia Street and from the waterfront northeast to Second Avenue. Despite coming from the City Clerk's office, this definition has no special official status.
The smaller "Pike Place Public Market Historic District" listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places
is bounded roughly by First Avenue, Virginia Street, Western Avenue, and a building wall about halfway between Union and Pike Streets, running parallel to those streets.
In a middle ground between those two definitions, the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods' official 7 acres (28,328 m²) "Pike Place Market Historical District" includes the federally recognized Pike Place Public Market Historic District plus a slightly smaller piece of land between Western Avenue and Washington State Route 99
, on the side of the market toward Elliott Bay.
To some extent, these different definitions of the market district result from struggles between preservationists and developers. For example, the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966
created the Washington Advisory Council on Historic Preservation. Victor Steinbrueck
at one point in the late 1960s convinced the Advisory Council to recommend designating 17 acres (68,796.6 m²) as a historical district. Pressure by developers and the "Seattle establishment" soon got that reduced to a tenth of that area. The present-day historic district designations lie between these extremes.
Part of the market sits on what was originally mudflats below the bluffs west of Pike Place. In the late 19th century, West Street (now Western Avenue, angling away from Pike Place) was already a through street running more or less parallel to the shore. Railroad Avenue (now Alaskan Way) was built farther out on pilings; it was not filled in until the 1930s. Nearby piers with warehouses for convenient stevedoring
had already been completed by 1905, two years before the Market opened.
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Before the creation of the Pike Place Market in 1907, local Seattle area farmers sold their goods to the public in a three-square block area area called The Lots, located at Sixth Avenue and King Street. Most produce sold at The Lots would then be brought to commercial wholesale houses on Western Avenue, which became known as Produce Row. Most farmers, due to the amount of time required to work their farms, were forced to sell their produce on consignment through the wholesalers on Western Avenue. The farmers typically received a percentage of the final sale price for their goods. They would sell to the middleman on commission, as most farmers would often have no time to sell direct to the public, and their earnings would be on marked up prices and expected sales. In some cases, the farmers made a profit, but just as often found themselves breaking even, or getting no money at all due to the business practices of the wholesalers. During the existence of the wholesale houses, which far predated the Market, there were regular rumors as well as instances of corruption in denying payment to farmers.
, a Seattle city councilman
, lawyer, and newspaper editor, took advantage of an 1896 Seattle city ordinance that allowed the city to designate tracts of land as public markets. The area of Western Avenue above the Elliott Bay
tideflats and the area of the commission food houses had just been turned into a wooden planked road, called Pike Place, off of Pike Street and First Avenue. Through a city council ordinance vote, he had Pike Place designated temporarily as the city's first public market on August 17, 1907.
On Saturday, August 17, 1907 City Council President Charles Hiram Burnett Jr., filling in for the elected mayor as Acting Mayor of Seattle, declared the day Public Market Day and cut the ribbon. In the week leading up to the opening of the Pike Place Market, various rumors and stories of further corruption were reported by the Seattle Times. Roughly ten farmers pulled up their wagons on a boardwalk
adjacent to the Leland Hotel. The Times alleged several reasons for the low turnout of farmers: Western Avenue wholesale commission men who had gone to the nearby valleys and farms to buy all the produce out ahead of time to ruin the event; threats of violence by commission men against farmers; and farmers' fear of possible boycotts and lack of business with the commission men if the Market idea did not succeed in the long term. Hundreds of customers soon arrived, and before noon that day, all the farmers' produce had sold out.
In 1907 Frank Goodwin owned Goodwin Real Estate Company in Seattle, together with his brothers Frank and John. Headquarterd in the city's Alaska Building
, they owned the Leland Hotel on Pike Street and the undeveloped tracts of land that surrounded Pike Place along the Western Avenue bluff. On the opening day of the Market, Goodwin observed the early morning chaos of farmers dealing with large crowds. Sensing that their land was about to appreciate in value, they began to heavily advertise adjoining plots for sale. Work began immediately on what is today the Main Arcade of the Pike Place Market, northwest of and adjoining the Leland Hotel.
The first building at the Market, the Main Arcade, opened November 30, 1907. By 1911, demand for the Market had grown so much that the number of available stalls had doubled, and extended north from Pike Street to Stewart Street, doubling in size since the opening of the Main Arcade. The west side of the stall lines were soon covered in an overhead canopy and roofing, becoming known as the "dry row". The last of the core buildings of the Market for the coming decades was obtained in 1916 by the Goodwins, when they purchased a long-term lease on the Bartell Building at the corner of 1st Avenue and Pike Street. Renamed to the Economy Market, it became an expansion to the Main Arcade.
Throughout the early 1920s, the north side of the Corner Market became known as the Sanitary Market, housing delicatessens, butchers, restaurants, and bakeries. The so-called "mosquito fleet
", the precursor to the modern Washington State Ferry
system, would bring shoppers from various islands in Puget Sound
to shop, and Market vendors began to bring goods directly to the docks for sales. Colman Dock
and Pier 54 (then known as Pier 3)
were within walking distance, and the persons coming to sell their wares at the market would disembark from the steamers at these docks. The area became a social scene, where young Seattle locals went to see and be seen.
In September 1920, the Seattle City Council quietly passed an ordinance that farmer's stalls at the Market could no longer be placed in the street, in response to complaints from some local businesses about traffic flow. A public outcry immediately followed from the farmers, merchants, and various citizen's groups. In the midst of the turmoil, the Westlake Market Company pushed itself into the situation, proposing that they would build a two-floor underground market at a building they owned on Fifth Avenue, four blocks from the existing Pike Place Market. The Goodwins, in response, proposed another counter-plan to leverage insurance bonds to finance another further expansion of the Market. As the city government began to quickly lean towards the Westlake proposal, the farmers began to formally organize together for the first time to protect their interests. The deciding Seattle City Council vote in April 1921 was in favor of retaining the existing Market location, and the Goodwins immediately began work on their next expansions.
in December 1941, many of the farmers selling in Pike Place Market were Japanese-Americans. The late Seattle historian Walt Crowley
estimated that they might have been as many as four-fifths of the farmers selling produce from stalls. President Franklin D. Roosevelt
signed Executive Order 9066 February 19, 1942, which eventually forced all Americans of Japanese ancestry in an "exclusion zone" that included the entirety of the West Coast states and southern Arizona
into internment camps. On March 11, Executive Order 9095 created the Office of the Alien Property Custodian and gave it discretionary, plenary authority over all alien property interests. Many assets were frozen, creating immediate financial difficulty for the affected aliens, preventing most from moving out of the exclusion zones. Many Japanese Americans were effectively dispossessed.
, an apartment building, four office buildings, a hockey
arena, and a parking garage. This was supported by the mayor
, many on the city council
, and a number of market property owners. However, there was significant community opposition, including help from Betty Bowen
, Victor Steinbrueck
, Ibsen Nelsen, and others from the board of Friends of the Market. An initiative
was passed on November 2, 1971 that created a historic preservation
zone and returned the Market to public hands. The Pike Place Market Preservation and Development Authority was created by the city to run the Market. Over the course of the 1970s, all the Market's historic buildings were restored and renovated using the original plans and blueprints and appropriate materials.
The 1983 Hildt Amendment or Hildt Agreement (named after Seattle City Council
member Michael Hildt) struck a balance between farmers and craftspeople in the daystalls. The agreement set rules that would last for ten years from August 1, 1983, and that would be successively renewable for further terms of five years. The precise formula it laid out stood for over 15 years, and it set the precedent for today's allocation of daystalls, in that it gave craftspeople priority in the North Arcade and farmers priority elsewhere.
In 1998, the PDA decided to end the Hildt Agreement. While their proposed new rule to allocate daystalls was generally seen as more favorable to farmers, there were both farmers and craftspeople who objected, especially because the PDA's timing gave them little chance to study the changes. At their last meeting before the August 1 deadline, the PDA voted 8-4, to notify the City of its intent not to renew the Agreement. The City Council did not accept the proposed substitute. The Council and PDA extended the Hildt agreement 9 months and the council agreed to an extensive public review process in which the Market Constituency played a major role.
The public meetings did not result in a clear consensus, but did provide enough input for city councilmember Nick Licata
to draft a revised version of the Hildt Agreement. Adopted in February 1999, it became known as the Licata-Hildt Agreement. The bad blood generated by the conflict spurred an audit of PDA practices by the City Auditor; the audit was critical of the PDA for occasionally violating the "spirit" of its Charter, but exonerated it of any wrongdoing.
Pike Place Market celebrated its 100 year anniversary on August 17, 2007. A wide variety of activities and events took place, and a concert was held in Victor Steinbrueck Park in the evening, consisting entirely of songs related one or another way to Seattle. The "house band" for the concert called itself The Iconics, and consisted of Dave Dederer
and Andrew McKeag (guitarists of the Presidents of the United States of America
or PUSA); Mike Musberger (drummer of The Posies
and The Fastbacks); Jeff Fielder (bassist for singer/songwriter Sera Cahoone
); and Ty Bailie (keyboard player of Department of Energy). Other performers included Chris Ballew
(also of PUSA), Sean Nelson
of Harvey Danger
, Choklate, Paul Jensen of the Dudley Manlove Quartet, Rachel Flotard of Visqueen, Shawn Smith
of Brad
, Stone Gossard
and Mike McCready
of Pearl Jam
, John Roderick of the Long Winters
, Evan Foster of the Boss Martians, Artis the Spoonman
, Ernestine Anderson
, and the Total Experience Gospel Choir
.
(a form of government-owned corporation
) established under Washington State law. It is overseen by a 12-member volunteer council. Its members serve four-year terms. Four members are appointed by mayor, four by the current council, and four by the Pike Place Market Constituency. The Market PDA sets the policies by which the Pike Place Market is managed and hires an executive director to carry out those policies.
Established in 1973, the PDA manages 80% of the properties in the city-recognized Market Historical District. Its founding law—the Market Charter—requires it to preserve, rehabilitate and protect the Market's buildings; increase opportunities for farm and food retailing in the Market; incubate and support small and marginal businesses; and provide services for low-income people. PDA revenues derive from the Market's tenants through rent, utilities, and other property management activities.
The same 1973 charter that established the PDA also established the Pike Place Market Constituency. The Constituency elects one member to the PDA Council each year. Anyone 16 years of age or older who lives in Washington State can become a member of the Constituency by paying US$1 yearly dues.
Operating independently of the PDA, the Market Historical Commission (established by the 1971 initiative to preserve the Market) has the specific mandate to preserve the Market's physical and social character as "the soul of Seattle." The Commission must approve any substantive change in the use or design of buildings and signage in the Historical District, even when these actions are taken by the PDA itself. Members of the 12-member commission are appointed to three-year terms by the mayor. At any time, the commission consists of two members each from the Friends of the Market, Inc., Allied Arts of Seattle
, Inc., and the Seattle chapter of the American Institute of Architects
; two owners of property within the District; two Market merchants, and two District residents. They meet 22 times a year. The Seattle Department of Neighborhoods provides them with a staff person, and the city's Department of Design, Construction and Land Use (DCLU) can enforce their decisions.
Another key organization in the affairs of the Market is the Pike Place Merchants Association. Officially incorporated in 1973, it traces its history back to the Farm Association established in the 1920s. The Association connects market vendors to legal, accounting, bookkeeping, business insurance, and health insurance services and provides free online advertising for its members. It also represents its members and attempts to advance their interests and opinions. All PDA tenants are required to be members; daystall vendors also have the option to join. Since 1974, the Association has published the monthly Pike Place Market News, which promotes the Market and its neighborhood. For over three decades, the Association sponsored a Memorial Day
fair at the market; financial difficulties caused cancellation of the fair in 2004.
A separate Daystall Tenants Association (DTA) formed in the late 1980s to represent the specific interests of daystall vendors. The DTA formed in response to proposed increases in daystall rental rates. Most members pay a US$2 annual membership fee; the fee is optional. The DTA meets on the Desimone Bridge in the Market at least once each quarter and "as needed". Similarly, the United Farmers Coalition (UFC) formed in 1998 to represent daystall farmers who sell produce, flower, and processed food; the UFC represents only these food vendors, as against craft vendors. The Pike Market Performers' Guild, founded 2001, represents Market street performers. Among its members are Artis the Spoonman
and Jim Page
.
Friends of the Market, which spun out of Allied Arts in 1964 and over the next seven years spearheaded the activist work that saved the Market is no longer a driving force in the Market. Still, as noted above, they have two seats on the Historical Commission. The also give tours of the Market.
The Market Foundation (established 1982) was originally founded to support the Market's services for low-income people. The foundation now also supports heritage programs, improvements and repairs to historic buildings, and programs that assist the Market's farmers.
The PDA is a public trustee charged with many potentially conflicting goals. Its charter mandates it to "ensure that the traditional character of the Public Market is preserved." It is specifically mandated to
The City Auditor's office has stated that there is an "inherent conflict... between the PDA's need to operate the Market as a successful business entity and its Charter obligation to support small owner-operated tenant businesses." As early as 1974, a Seattle Department of Community Development study noted space conflicts between farmers and craft vendors. Conflicts can be exacerbated because the stakeholders with conflicting needs are not talking to one another. Quoting the same City Auditor's report:
Language barriers also play a role. For example, most of the flower vendors in the Market are H'mong
; during the difficult negotiations in 1999 over replacing the Hildt Agreement, many were apparently under a misimpression that the proposed agreement would have halved the vending space they received for a day's rent; in fact, this was unchanged.
Further, the farmers who were the Market's original raison d'etre do not necessarily do well when the Market becomes more of a tourist attraction than venue for shopping for produce and groceries. "Craft vendors, antique and curio merchants, and booksellers…" wrote the City Auditor's office, "derive much of their business from tourists; fresh food vendors do not." Conversely, farmers have far more selling opportunities outside the Market than in the early and mid-20th century. As late as 1990, there were about ten farmers markets in Washington. By 1999 there were more than sixty. Most are seasonal weekend markets without most of the Pike Place Market's amenities, but they are not swarmed with tourists, parking is free or inexpensive parking and relatively plentiful, and food is the main focus of those markets, not crafts or flowers.
As a result, increasingly Pike Place Market daystalls are devoted to flowers and crafts rather than edible produce. "The Market," wrote the City Auditor's office,
The Market's "Meet the Producer" mandate now includes craftspeople as well as farmers. Both can rent daystalls. Farmers take historic precedence, but the PDA "acknowledges the rightful and permanent position of handmade arts and crafts as an integral use of the Market's Daystalls" and their rules seek to encourage a lively mix. Some "grandfathered" vendors are allowed to sell merchandise not of their own making on essentially the same terms as craftspeople. Currently, there are rules to make sure that new crafts vendors demonstrate themselves to be skilled craftspeople making their own wares with minimal use of assistants.
A standard Farm Table consists of two adjacent daystalls; a standard Craft Table is a single daystall. Daystalls are between 4 feet (1.2 m) and 5.5 feet (1.7 m) wide. Craftspeople have priority on the Desimone Bridge, the west side of the Market arcade north of the Desimone Bridge and the outdoor slabs between the arcade and Virginia Street; farmers have priority everywhere else. If farmers do not fill their priority tables, craftspeople may rent those, and vice versa. Priority is further set by separate seniority lists, one for farmers and one for craftspeople. For farmers, other factors besides seniority come into play, mainly how often the person sells at the Market. Farmers can pass permits through their family. The rules for joint and family crafts businesses are far more complex.
While farmers and craftspeople may make some use of "agents" to sell on their behalf (including vendors functioning on different days as one another's agents), in order to maintain their seniority farmers must be physically present one day a week and craftspeople two days a week. To sell on a Saturday, vendors must sell at the Market a minimum of two weekdays of the preceding week. There are also allowances for taking vacations and sabbaticals without losing one's seniority. Senior Crafts Permit Holders—craftspeople who have sold in the Market for 30 years or more—need only rent (and use) a daystall once a week to maintain their seniority.
The definition of permitted farm products includes (among other items) produce, flowers, eggs, cultivated mushrooms, meat, cultured shellfish, and dairy products. There is also a broader category of supplemental farm products such as wild-harvested berries and mushrooms, non-edible bee products, or holiday wreaths. These may be sold in conjunction with permitted farm products, but there are strict limitations to prevent these from becoming anyone's primary products. Rules vary significantly at different times of year.
Farmers, craftspeople, and performers all must pay for an annual permit. As of 2008, the fee is $35 for farmers and craftspeople, $30 for performers. Craftspeople who vend "off season"—January through March—pay an additional $35 for a separate permit. For performers, this annual fee is their only fee. Farmers and craftspeople pay day rent for any daystalls they use. Depending on the season and the day of the week, a daystall may rent for anywhere from $5.85 for a stall on a Monday-Thursday off season to $32.85 on a Sunday in peak season. There are also separate rents for lockers and coolers.
Compared to farmers and craftspeople, performers have a lesser role in the Market, but still one formally recognized by the PDA. "The PDA's mission with regard to performers is to maintain locations within the Market where performing artists may entertain Market shoppers in a fashion consistent with and complimentary (sic) to the needs of the Market's commercial business activities and Market residents. Performers may receive donations and may display their recordings for sale, but prohibited from active solicitation of donations and from active sale of "any product associated with the performance".
In keeping with their lack of day fees, individual performers are not assigned specific places and times to perform. There are only positions in a (virtual) "line" or "queue" for each marked, sanctioned performance location. Queuing runs on an honor system. Each performance is limited to one hour if any other licensed performer is waiting for the spot. Electronic amplification is not allowed, nor are brass instruments or drums. Certain performance locations are further limited to "quiet" performances where (for example) even hand-clap percussion is not allowed.
Although they do not have the same strict requirements as for daystalls, most "commercial" Market merchants are owner-operated businesses. In the 1970s, when the Market was undergoing extensive rehabilitation and the future of the Market was somewhat unstable, the PDA consolidated its merchant base by giving merchant tenants very favorable leases, with longer terms and lower rates than were available elsewhere in Downtown Seattle. This policy was part of the reason that the PDA ran into the financial difficulties that led to its dealings with the Urban Group. The PDA now gives below-market rates only to start-up businesses, businesses or organizations designed to serve low and moderate income persons, and to "the Market’s unique character-defining businesses." The latter include produce, fish, and meat businesses. The PDA often will not renew multi-year leases for businesses with poor sales performance or other problems, but typically will allow them to remain indefinitely on a month-to-month basis. About once a year, the PDA has occasion to refuse to renew when a merchant's lease ends.
s and meal programs. The money placed in the Market's giant piggybank goes to this foundation, as do the funds raised by several annual or intermittent fundraisers, including Pigs on Parade.
About 500 people live in the market. Approximately 90% are low-income seniors with subsidized rents. Their average income is only $11,095 a year. Among the low-income units in the Market are 41 in the LaSalle Hotel, 51 in Market House, 44 in the Stewart House and 96 in the Livingston-Baker.
The Pike Market Medical Clinic provides primary care and ancillary services to 3,600 patients. Most of these are either elderly, HIV
-positive, or working poor. One third homeless, 30% are physically disabled, and 60% have severe mental illness and/or chemical addiction. The clinic provides basic medical care, subsidized prescriptions, lab work, mental health counseling, drug and alcohol counseling, connections to other community services, and sometimes even assistance in finding housing.
Approximately 900 people use the Market's senior center. Services include hot lunches for low-income seniors, help in finding housing and jobs, and a variety of classes ranging from physical fitness and health to language, geography, art, and computer training.
The Downtown Food Bank, located in the Public Market Parking Garage on Western Avenue provides groceries to approximately 1,000 people a week. About 265 bags of groceries are delivered weekly to homebound downtown residents. About 160 families receive infant milk, baby food and diapers.
The child care and preschool serves 90-100 families with children ages 2–5 each year. 84% of families with children attending are low-income and receive tuition assistance. Besides its educational aspects, the school provides these children with breakfast, lunch, and afternoon snacks and has a full-time, onsite child and family support professional to identify resources children their families might need and to link them to those resources.
, where employees throw three-foot salmon and other fish to each other rather than passing them by hand. When a customer orders a fish, an employee at the Fish Market's ice-covered fish table picks up the fish and hurls it over the countertop, where another employee catches it and preps it for sale.
According to the employees, this tradition started when the fishmonger
s got tired of having to walk out to the Market's fish table to retrieve a salmon each time someone ordered one. Eventually, the owner realized it was easier to station an employee at the table, to throw the fish over the counter. The "flying fish" have appeared in an episode of the television sitcom Frasier
that was shot on location and have been featured on The Learning Channel and was also in the opening credits of MTV
's The Real World: Seattle
. This attraction has also appeared on numerous prime-time installments of NFL games when the Seahawks
host games at nearby Qwest Field.
The first Starbucks Coffee store, founded in 1971, was originally located at 2000 Western Avenue. In 1977 it moved one block away to 1912 Pike Place where it has been in continuous operation ever since. The store was opened by three partners: Jerry Baldwin
, Zev Siegl and Gordon Bowker
. They were inspired by Alfred Peet
of Peet's Coffee to open the store and sell high-quality coffee beans and coffee making equipment and accessories. The sign outside this branch, unlike others, features the original logo - a bare-breasted siren
that was modeled after a 15th century Norse woodcut. It also features a pig statue called "Pork'n Beans," purchased in the 2001 Pigs on Parade fundraiser. Starbucks now owns the Seattle's Best Coffee
(SBC) brand, which traces its history back to Stewart Brothers' Coffee, which arrived in the Market several months before Starbucks was founded.
After more than 30 years in the Market, the herbal apothecary Tenzing Momo has become an institution both for obtaining herbs and advice on their use. Founded in 1977, the name (which is Tibetan
) means "divine dumpling". Nearby, Market Spice (founded 1911) sells slightly less exotic herbal substances.
The Market Heritage Center at 1531 Western Avenue is a small museum about the history of the Market.
Pike Place Market's unofficial mascot, Rachel, a bronze
cast piggy bank
that weighs 550 pounds (249.5 kg), has been located since 1986 at the corner of Pike Place under the "Public Market Center" sign. Rachel was designed by local artist Georgia Gerber and modeled after a pig (also named Rachel) that lived on Whidbey Island
and was the 1977 Island County prize-winner. Rachel receives roughly US$6,000–$9,000 annually in just about every type of world currency, which is collected by the Market Foundation to fund the Market's social services.
Rachel provided the theme for the Pigs on Parade fundraiser that was first held in 2001 and was one of several events in various cities modeled on a similar 1998 event in Zurich
; the Zurich event centered on cows and was the first of what have come to be known as CowParade
s. A similar Pigs On Parade fundraiser was held in 2007 on the occasion of the Market centennial, which happened to coincide with the Chinese Zodiac Year of the Pig
.
Since at least the 1960s, Pike Place Market has been known for street entertainers. Besides the aforementioned virtuoso spoons
player Artis the Spoonman and world-renowned songwriter Jim Page, Market performers in years past or present have included steel guitar
ist Baby Gramps
; Johnny Hahn, who routinely hauls around a 64-key spinet
piano; retro-jazzer Howlin' Hobbit, who more often settles for an easily-carried ukelele; blind autoharp
ist and singer Jeanne Towne; Kirsten "Mother Zosima" Anderberg, who for many years sang feminist and other political songs while dressed in a nun's habit; a cappella
gospel
singers Brother Willie and the Market Crew; the old-timey Tallboys; Johnny Cash sound-alike Vince Mira
; the eclectic jazz-tinged sounds and painfully bad jokes of Amber Tide (Thaddeus Spae and his late wife Sandahbeth); alternative-jazz-pop singer-songwriter Alyse Black
, and the late folksinger Jim Hinde, a Vietnam War
veteran and PTSD survivor.
Jump blues
musician PK Dwyer
is credited with forming the first-ever street band to busk at the Market. He formed that band, Felix & the Freelicks, shortly after he arrived in the Pacific Northwest in 1971. The band evolved into various other alignments, including (successively) the Dynamic Logs, the Jitters, Throbbing Gems, the Royal Famille du Caniveaux / Gutter People of Paris, all of whom played at the Market. Some of these alignments also included Ron Bailey; the Dynamic Logs included Orville Johnson
as well.
during Prohibition
, then Virginia Inn; passed into current management 1980 and slowly gentrified) and Place Pigalle (originally Lotus Inn, name dates from 1950s, remodeled 1982) retain their names, but both have gone upmarket. The Athenian Inn in the Main Market traces its history back to a 1909 bakery and is a relatively ungentrified bar and restaurant. Three Girls Bakery dates back to 1912 and may have been the first Seattle business started by women. While it is not in its original Corner Market location, no longer bakes on premises, and its current owner Jack Levy is a man, it still sells a vast variety of baked goods, does a brisk business in takeaway sandwiches, and has an old-style lunch counter.
For a different type of dining experience, the Pink Door (founded 1981), entered by a nearly unmarked door on upper Post Alley, is a favorite first-date restaurant, with solid Italian food, a fantasia of a dining room, a bar that sometimes features live jazz, and an outdoor deck overlooking Elliott Bay. Another restaurant combining Italian food and romantic ambience is the "grottolike" Il Bistro, located below grade in the Economy Market, off a cobblestone ramp that leads to Lower Post Alley. When it was founded in 1977 it was played an important role in the rise of fine dining in Seattle.
Other longstanding Market restaurants and bars include Lowell's (founded 1957), an old Main Market standby self-described as "almost classy"; French bistro Maximilien, founded in 1975 by François Kissel, owned since 1997 by host Axel Macé and chef Eric Francy, and highly praised by Julia Child
; and the Copacabana (founded 1964), Seattle's only Bolivian restaurant, upstairs in the Triangle Market with a balcony overlooking Pike Place.
Giuseppe "Joe" Desimone was born about 40 miles (64.4 km) east of Naples
, Italy. He arrived in America from Italy as a stowaway, but soon became a successful farmer with land in South Park
, Tukwila
and the Kent
Valley along the Green River
. A longtime Market vendor, was one of those who bought shares in the Market in 1925, and eventually became its owner by slowly buying out Arthur Goodwin. He was president of the Market until his death in 1946. Outside of the Market, he is credited with keeping Boeing
in the Seattle area in 1936 by selling them a large tract of land for a nominal fee.
His son Richard Desimone succeeded him as president of the market and served in that position until 1974. He kept the Market alive in dark times for farmers' markets, doing nearly all business on handshake deals rather than through formal leases. He later served on the Market Historical Commission.
Victor Steinbrueck
was the leading architect-activist in defining the Pike Market neighborhood, and artist Mark Tobey
in visualizing and recording, in developing his "Northwest Mystic" style of the internationally-recognized Northwest School of art. Internationally recognized in the 1940s, Tobey explored the neighborhood with his art in the 1950s and early 1960s, as the area was being increasingly characterized by the Seattle Establishment as overdue for urban renewal
, particularly replacement with a parking garage, high-rise housing and modern, upscale retail. People of city neighborhoods and citizen preservation activists struggled through the 1960s, culminating in 1971 with 2 to 1 passage of a citizen initiative for protection and citizen oversight of the core Pike Place Market that has since largely protected the neighborhood.
George Rolfe, the first director of the Pike Place Market Preservation and Development Authority (PDA), played a key role in the economic revitalization of the Market after it was saved by the 1971 referendum. It was under his management that the direction of automobile traffic on Pike Place was reversed and the pedestrian-friendly brick paving was introduced. Rolfe also emphasized the construction of pedestrian routes to the waterfront so that the Market became the center of a pedestrian network.
For many years, Sol "The Cod Father" Amon of Pure Food Fish has been the longest-tenured vendor at Pike Place Market. His father, Jack Amon, began selling fish in the Market in 1911 as a partner in the Philadelphia Fish Market. From about 1920 to 1935, he owned and operated the American Fish Company. In 1951 he bought the Pure Food Fish Company (founded 1917–1918), which Sol Amon largely took over in 1956. Sol had worked in the Market since 1947 and has been sole proprietor of Pure Food Fish since his father's death in 1966. He can often be seen outside his stall chatting with visitors and helping them choose their fish, including a brisk tourist trade in salmon packed to travel. The Seattle City Council
honored him in 2006 on the 50th anniversary of his taking over the business: they named him "King of the Market" and permanently designated April 11 as Sol Amon Day. Amon is a longtime major supporter of the Market Foundation. On the first Sol Amon Day in 2006, Amon donated all of the day's profits from Pure Food Fish to the Foundation.
The two-story Triangle Market (Thompson & Thompson, 1908; rehabilition by Fred Bassetti & Co.
, 1977) originally housed the South Park Poultry Company. The 1977 rehabilitation joined it with the adjacent 3-story Silver Oakum Building (unknown, 1910; Bassetti, 1977). The Outlook Hotel (now LaSalle Hotel; architect unknown; rehabilitation by Bartholick, 1977) also dates from 1908. A legitimate seaman's and workingman's hotel until 1942, its Japanese American
operators Rosuke and T.K. Kodama were forcibly interned
during World War II. Nellie Curtis took it over, changed the name, and ran it as a brothel into the 1950s. Since 1977 the building has been joined to the adjacent Cliff House (c. 1901), and largely devoted to low-income housing. Shops and the Market PDA office are on the ground floor. Its roof provides outdoor seating for the restaurant Maximilien.
The Sanitary Market (Daniel Huntington, 1910; reconstructed 1942, McClelland and Jones; rehabilitated and extended 1981, Bassetti Norton Metler
) reputedly was so named for its innovation at the time, that no horses were allowed inside. A fire on December 15, 1941, eight days after the attack on Pearl Harbor
, severely damaged the building. Although the true cause of the fire was never determined, newspapers at the time speculated that the Japanese were to blame. The building was reconstructed as a 2-story building with rooftop parking. Nearly four decades later the parking lot was eliminated, replaced by two floors of residences.
The North Arcade (1911 and 1922, John Goodwin; rehabilitation by Bartholick, 1977) constituted a major northward extension of the Main Market, extending it 1200 feet (365.8 m) to the northwest and adding 160 covered stalls.
The 3-story Corner Market building (Harlan Thomas & Clyde Grainger 1912; rehabilitation by Karlis Rekevics, 1975) sits on the right as one enters the Market along Pike Street. In its early years it included daystalls, and the businesses facing onto First Avenue were open-fronted. The Three Girls Bakery, the first known business in the Corner Market, is now located in the adjacent Sanitary Market. The basement was home to Patti Summers' jazz club for over two decades before becoming Can Can in 2006; the building is also home to anarchist
bookstore Left Bank Books
, as well as numerous other businesses.
Across Pike Street from the Corner Market is the Economy Market (unknown, 1900, as Bartell Building; remodeled by John Goodwin & Andrew Willatsen 1916; rehabilitation by Bartholick, 1978). The 1978 rehabilitation occurred in conjunction with the construction of the adjacent South Arcade at the corner of First Avenue and Union Street (Olsen / Walker, 1985). The South Arcade lies outside of the protected historic Market areas. It includes condominium
apartments, but also the Pike Pub & Brewery and several other retail businesses of a similar character to those within the Market boundaries. Its owner, Harbor Properties, describes it a "adjacent to" the Market.
The Joe Desimone Bridge across Western Avenue originally connected the North Arcade to the Municipal Market Building (unknown, 1922 or 1924; demolished after a 1974 fire). The bridge is now enclosed on three sides (1985, James Cutler Architects) and used for craft-priority daystalls.
Other old buildings in the Market include the Champion Building (unknown, 1928; rehabilitation by the Champion/Turner Partnership 1977), originally a garage for the Dollar Cab Company, then a meat packing company, now ground floor retail with offices above; the Soames-Dunn Building (unknown, 1918; rehabilitation by Arne Bystrom 1976), once home to Dunn's Seeds and Soames Paper Company (who supplied paper bags to farmers selling in the Market), now retail, including the "original" Starbucks; Stewart House Hotel (unknown, 1902–1911; rehabilitation by Ibsen Nelson & Associates, 1982), a former workingmen's hotel, now retail and low-income housing; Seattle Garden Center (W. C. Geary, 1908; Art Deco
details added 1930s; rehabilitation and addition, Arne Bystrom 1976) was once the Gem Egg Market and now houses Sur le Table; and the Fix-Madore Building (1916, unknown; rehabilitation by Bumgardner Partnership 1979), now an office and retail building on the west side of Western Avenue, connected to the Main Market by a footbridge.
Newer buildings in the Market include the Post Alley Market at First and Pine (Bassetti Norton Metler, 1983), the Inn at the Market (Ibsen Nelson & Associates, 1985); and The Pike and Virginia Building (Olson/Walker, 1978); and the Market Heritage Center (Scot Carr & Thomas Schaer, 1999). All of these echo at aspects of the architecture of the historic Market buildings. The Pike Hill Climb (Calvin and Gorasht, 1976) connects the Market to the waterfront; it occupies the same corridor that once (roughly 1911–1935) held a wooden overpass used by farmers to bring produce up to the Market after arriving by boat.
Along the southwest side of First Avenue, within the present-day historic district but outside of the original Market, the Alaska Trade Building (1915), 1915–1919 1st Avenue and the Late Victorian style Butterworth Building (originally the Butterworth mortuary, 1903), 1921 1st Avenue, are both listed in the National Register of Historic Places
(NRHP). Outside the historic districts but within the City Clerk's definition of the Pike-Market neighborhood are the J. S. Graham Store (1919, designed by A. E. Doyle
), 119 Pine Street; and the U.S. Immigration Building (1915), 84 Union Street. Other NRHP-listed buildings near the Market but outside of those boundaries include the Guiry and Schillestad Building (Young Hotel or Guiry Building 1903, Mystic Hotel or Schillestad Building 1908), 2101-2111 1st Avenue; the Renaissance-style New Washington Hotel (now Josephinum Hotel, built 1900–1949), 1902 Second Avenue; and the Moore Theatre and Hotel
(1907), 1932 2nd Avenue.
Also in the Pike-Market neighborhood but outside the historic districts are at least two city-designated landmark not on the NRHP: the Terminal Sales Building (1923–1925), 1932 1st Avenue; and Pier 59, now home to the Seattle Aquarium
.
(1907) on the corner of 2nd Avenue at Virginia Street is the oldest still-active theater in Seattle.
The Seattle Aquarium
(1977) is on the waterfront at Pier 59. In 1979 an OMNIMAX theatre (now Seattle IMAXDome) opened at the Aquarium, at the time one of only about half a dozen in the world. The theater is an early tilted dome iteration of IMAX
.
Besides Pier 59 (built 1893; pier shed built 1905), the nearby waterfront includes the turn-of-the-century piers 57 (built 1902), 62 (built 1901), and 63 (built 1905). The city purchased Piers 57–61 in 1978 after the central waterfront had been abandoned by freight shipping for years, supplanted by container ship
ping. Pier 58 was removed to build Waterfront Park
, and Pier 57 was traded in 1989 for Piers 62 and 63. The latter two piers had long since lost their sheds (which were similar to the one on Pier 59). For many years they were the site of the Summer Nights at the Pier concert series, but the "aged and deteriorating" piers can no longer handle the weight of a stage and a crowd. As of 2006, the city is considering plans to replace these piers. Historic Piers 60 and 61 were removed for successive aquarium expansions.
Public market
Public markets are markets, in public spaces, where independent merchants can sell their products to the public. Typical products sold at public markets include fresh produce and baked goods, locally raised meats and dairy products, and various other food items and handcrafted goods...
overlooking the Elliott Bay
Elliott Bay
Elliott Bay is the body of water on which Seattle, Washington, is located. A line drawn from Alki Point in the south to West Point in the north serves to mark the generally accepted division between the bay and the open sound...
waterfront in Seattle, Washington, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The Market opened August 17, 1907, and is one of the oldest continually operated public farmers' markets in the United States. It is a place of business for many small farmers, craft
Craft
A craft is a branch of a profession that requires some particular kind of skilled work. In historical sense, particularly as pertinent to the Medieval history and earlier, the term is usually applied towards people occupied in small-scale production of goods.-Development from the past until...
speople and merchant
Merchant
A merchant is a businessperson who trades in commodities that were produced by others, in order to earn a profit.Merchants can be one of two types:# A wholesale merchant operates in the chain between producer and retail merchant...
s. Named after the central street, Pike Place runs northwest from Pike Street to Virginia Street, and remains one of Seattle's most popular tourist destinations.
The Market is built on the edge of a steep hill, and consists of several lower levels located below the main level. Each features a variety of unique shops such as antique
Antiques
An antique is an old collectible item. It is collected or desirable because of its age , beauty, rarity, condition, utility, personal emotional connection, and/or other unique features...
dealers, comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
sellers, and small family-owned restaurant
Restaurant
A restaurant is an establishment which prepares and serves food and drink to customers in return for money. Meals are generally served and eaten on premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services...
s, while the area contains one of the few remaining head shop
Head shop
A head shop is a retail outlet specializing in drug paraphernalia used for consumption of cannabis, other recreational drugs, legal highs, legal party powders and New Age herbs, as well as counterculture art, magazines, music, clothing, and home decor; some head shops also sell oddities, such as...
s left in Seattle. The upper street level contains fishmonger
Fishmonger
A fishmonger is someone who sells fish and seafood...
s, fresh produce
Produce
Produce is a generalized term for a group of farm-produced goods and, not limited to fruits and vegetables . More specifically, the term "produce" often implies that the products are fresh and generally in the same state as where they were harvested. In supermarkets the term is also used to refer...
stands and craft stalls operating in the covered arcade
Arcade (architecture)
An arcade is a succession of arches, each counterthrusting the next, supported by columns or piers or a covered walk enclosed by a line of such arches on one or both sides. In warmer or wet climates, exterior arcades provide shelter for pedestrians....
s. Local farmers and craftspeople sell year-round in the arcades from tables they rent
Renting
Renting is an agreement where a payment is made for the temporary use of a good, service or property owned by another. A gross lease is when the tenant pays a flat rental amount and the landlord pays for all property charges regularly incurred by the ownership from landowners...
from the Market on a daily basis, in accordance with the Market's mission and founding goal: allowing consumers to "Meet the Producer".
Pike Place Market is home to nearly 500 residents who live in 8 different buildings throughout the Market. Most of these buildings have been low income housing in the past; however, some of them no longer are, such as the Livingston Baker apartments. The Market is run by the quasi-government
Public development authority
In the U.S. state of Washington, a public development authority is a government-owned corporation...
Pike Place Market Preservation and Development Authority (PDA). The Pike Place Market sees 10 million visitors annually.
Location and extent
Belltown, Seattle, Washington
Belltown is a neighborhood in Seattle, Washington, United States, in the 98121 Zip Code, located on the city's downtown waterfront, on land that was artificially flattened as part of a regrading project...
. To its southwest are the central waterfront and Elliott Bay
Elliott Bay
Elliott Bay is the body of water on which Seattle, Washington, is located. A line drawn from Alki Point in the south to West Point in the north serves to mark the generally accepted division between the bay and the open sound...
. Boundaries are diagonal to the compass since the street grid is roughly parallel to the Elliott Bay shoreline.
As is common with Seattle neighborhoods and districts, different people and organizations draw different boundaries for the Market. The City Clerk's Neighborhood Map Atlas gives one of the more expansive definitions, defining a "Pike-Market" neighborhood extending from Union Street northwest to Virginia Street and from the waterfront northeast to Second Avenue. Despite coming from the City Clerk's office, this definition has no special official status.
The smaller "Pike Place Public Market Historic District" listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
is bounded roughly by First Avenue, Virginia Street, Western Avenue, and a building wall about halfway between Union and Pike Streets, running parallel to those streets.
In a middle ground between those two definitions, the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods' official 7 acres (28,328 m²) "Pike Place Market Historical District" includes the federally recognized Pike Place Public Market Historic District plus a slightly smaller piece of land between Western Avenue and Washington State Route 99
Washington State Route 99
State Route 99, abbreviated SR 99, commonly called Highway 99, is a numbered state highway in the U.S. state of Washington extending just under from Fife in the south to Everett in the north, with a gap in Tukwila.-Southern division:...
, on the side of the market toward Elliott Bay.
To some extent, these different definitions of the market district result from struggles between preservationists and developers. For example, the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966
National Historic Preservation Act of 1966
The National Historic Preservation Act is legislation intended to preserve historical and archaeological sites in the United States of America...
created the Washington Advisory Council on Historic Preservation. Victor Steinbrueck
Victor Steinbrueck
Victor Steinbrueck was a Seattle architect, and University of Washington faculty member, and best known for his efforts to preserve the city's Pioneer Square and Pike Place Market.-Biography:...
at one point in the late 1960s convinced the Advisory Council to recommend designating 17 acres (68,796.6 m²) as a historical district. Pressure by developers and the "Seattle establishment" soon got that reduced to a tenth of that area. The present-day historic district designations lie between these extremes.
Part of the market sits on what was originally mudflats below the bluffs west of Pike Place. In the late 19th century, West Street (now Western Avenue, angling away from Pike Place) was already a through street running more or less parallel to the shore. Railroad Avenue (now Alaskan Way) was built farther out on pilings; it was not filled in until the 1930s. Nearby piers with warehouses for convenient stevedoring
Stevedore
Stevedore, dockworker, docker, dock labourer, wharfie and longshoreman can have various waterfront-related meanings concerning loading and unloading ships, according to place and country....
had already been completed by 1905, two years before the Market opened.
Before the Market
Founding
As consumers and farmers grew increasingly vocal in their unhappiness over the situation, Thomas P. RevelleThomas P. Revelle
Thomas P. Revelle the proponent for the founding of Seattle's Pike Place Market. Revelle was born in Maryland but moved to Seattle in 1898 where he arrived to serve as a minister at a local church. He studied law at the University of Washington and became a member of the bar. He ran for City...
, a Seattle city councilman
Seattle City Council
The Seattle City Council is committed to ensuring that Seattle, Washington, is safe, livable and sustainable. Nine Councilmembers are elected to four-year terms in nonpartisan elections and represent the entire city, elected by all Seattle voters....
, lawyer, and newspaper editor, took advantage of an 1896 Seattle city ordinance that allowed the city to designate tracts of land as public markets. The area of Western Avenue above the Elliott Bay
Elliott Bay
Elliott Bay is the body of water on which Seattle, Washington, is located. A line drawn from Alki Point in the south to West Point in the north serves to mark the generally accepted division between the bay and the open sound...
tideflats and the area of the commission food houses had just been turned into a wooden planked road, called Pike Place, off of Pike Street and First Avenue. Through a city council ordinance vote, he had Pike Place designated temporarily as the city's first public market on August 17, 1907.
On Saturday, August 17, 1907 City Council President Charles Hiram Burnett Jr., filling in for the elected mayor as Acting Mayor of Seattle, declared the day Public Market Day and cut the ribbon. In the week leading up to the opening of the Pike Place Market, various rumors and stories of further corruption were reported by the Seattle Times. Roughly ten farmers pulled up their wagons on a boardwalk
Boardwalk
A boardwalk, in the conventional sense, is a wooden walkway for pedestrians and sometimes vehicles, often found along beaches, but they are also common as paths through wetlands, coastal dunes, and other sensitive environments....
adjacent to the Leland Hotel. The Times alleged several reasons for the low turnout of farmers: Western Avenue wholesale commission men who had gone to the nearby valleys and farms to buy all the produce out ahead of time to ruin the event; threats of violence by commission men against farmers; and farmers' fear of possible boycotts and lack of business with the commission men if the Market idea did not succeed in the long term. Hundreds of customers soon arrived, and before noon that day, all the farmers' produce had sold out.
First expansion years
Alaska Building
Courtyard by Marriott Seattle Downtown/Pioneer Square, formerly the Alaska Building is a 15-floor building in Seattle, Washington completed in 1904 to designs by St. Louis architects Eames and Young. At the time of its completion, it was the tallest building in Seattle.The building was purchased by...
, they owned the Leland Hotel on Pike Street and the undeveloped tracts of land that surrounded Pike Place along the Western Avenue bluff. On the opening day of the Market, Goodwin observed the early morning chaos of farmers dealing with large crowds. Sensing that their land was about to appreciate in value, they began to heavily advertise adjoining plots for sale. Work began immediately on what is today the Main Arcade of the Pike Place Market, northwest of and adjoining the Leland Hotel.
Puget Sound Mosquito Fleet
The Puget Sound Mosquito Fleet was a large number of private transportation companies running smaller passenger and freight boats on Puget Sound and nearby waterways and rivers. This large group of steamers and sternwheelers plied the waters of Puget Sound, stopping at every waterfront dock...
", the precursor to the modern Washington State Ferry
Washington State Ferries
Washington State Ferries is a passenger and automobile ferry service owned and operated by the Washington State Department of Transportation that serves communities on Puget Sound and in the San Juan Islands. It is the most used ferry system in the world and the largest passenger and automobile...
system, would bring shoppers from various islands in Puget Sound
Puget Sound
Puget Sound is a sound in the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected marine waterways and basins, with one major and one minor connection to the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Pacific Ocean — Admiralty Inlet being the major connection and...
to shop, and Market vendors began to bring goods directly to the docks for sales. Colman Dock
Colman Dock
Colman Dock, also called Pier 52 is an important ferry terminal in Seattle, Washington. The original pier is no longer in existence, but the terminal used by the Washington State Ferry system, and is still called “Colman Dock”-Location:...
and Pier 54 (then known as Pier 3)
Pier 54, Seattle
Pier 54 is a tourist pier Seattle, Washington. Previously an active shipping pier and warehouse, Pier 54 was originally known as Pier 3 until it was renumbered during World War Two. This pier was also known as Galbraith dock and the Galbraith Bacon dock...
were within walking distance, and the persons coming to sell their wares at the market would disembark from the steamers at these docks. The area became a social scene, where young Seattle locals went to see and be seen.
In September 1920, the Seattle City Council quietly passed an ordinance that farmer's stalls at the Market could no longer be placed in the street, in response to complaints from some local businesses about traffic flow. A public outcry immediately followed from the farmers, merchants, and various citizen's groups. In the midst of the turmoil, the Westlake Market Company pushed itself into the situation, proposing that they would build a two-floor underground market at a building they owned on Fifth Avenue, four blocks from the existing Pike Place Market. The Goodwins, in response, proposed another counter-plan to leverage insurance bonds to finance another further expansion of the Market. As the city government began to quickly lean towards the Westlake proposal, the farmers began to formally organize together for the first time to protect their interests. The deciding Seattle City Council vote in April 1921 was in favor of retaining the existing Market location, and the Goodwins immediately began work on their next expansions.
World War II era
At the time of the bombing of Pearl HarborAttack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941...
in December 1941, many of the farmers selling in Pike Place Market were Japanese-Americans. The late Seattle historian Walt Crowley
Walt Crowley
Walter Charles Crowley was a Washington political celebrity. He first became a public figure in Seattle through his involvement with the social and political movements of the 1960s, especially the underground press...
estimated that they might have been as many as four-fifths of the farmers selling produce from stalls. President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
signed Executive Order 9066 February 19, 1942, which eventually forced all Americans of Japanese ancestry in an "exclusion zone" that included the entirety of the West Coast states and southern Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
into internment camps. On March 11, Executive Order 9095 created the Office of the Alien Property Custodian and gave it discretionary, plenary authority over all alien property interests. Many assets were frozen, creating immediate financial difficulty for the affected aliens, preventing most from moving out of the exclusion zones. Many Japanese Americans were effectively dispossessed.
Preservation and second expansion of the Market
In 1963, a proposal was floated to demolish Pike Place Market and replace it with Pike Plaza, which would include a hotelHotel
A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. The provision of basic accommodation, in times past, consisting only of a room with a bed, a cupboard, a small table and a washstand has largely been replaced by rooms with modern facilities, including en-suite bathrooms...
, an apartment building, four office buildings, a hockey
Hockey
Hockey is a family of sports in which two teams play against each other by trying to maneuver a ball or a puck into the opponent's goal using a hockey stick.-Etymology:...
arena, and a parking garage. This was supported by the mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
, many on the city council
City council
A city council or town council is the legislative body that governs a city, town, municipality or local government area.-Australia & NZ:Because of the differences in legislation between the States, the exact definition of a City Council varies...
, and a number of market property owners. However, there was significant community opposition, including help from Betty Bowen
Betty Bowen
Betty Bowen , was an American journalist and art promoter. She was born in Kent, Washington, and earned an English degree from the University of Washington. She worked briefly as a reporter for The Seattle Times, and later as women’s editor for the Seattle Star...
, Victor Steinbrueck
Victor Steinbrueck
Victor Steinbrueck was a Seattle architect, and University of Washington faculty member, and best known for his efforts to preserve the city's Pioneer Square and Pike Place Market.-Biography:...
, Ibsen Nelsen, and others from the board of Friends of the Market. An initiative
Initiative
In political science, an initiative is a means by which a petition signed by a certain minimum number of registered voters can force a public vote...
was passed on November 2, 1971 that created a historic preservation
Historic preservation
Historic preservation is an endeavor that seeks to preserve, conserve and protect buildings, objects, landscapes or other artifacts of historical significance...
zone and returned the Market to public hands. The Pike Place Market Preservation and Development Authority was created by the city to run the Market. Over the course of the 1970s, all the Market's historic buildings were restored and renovated using the original plans and blueprints and appropriate materials.
Battle for ownership of the Market
In the 1980s, federal welfare reform squeezed the social services based in the Market. As a result, a nonprofit group, the Pike Place Market Foundation, was established by the PDA to raise funds and administer the Market's free clinic, senior center, low-income housing, and childcare center. Also in the 1980s the wooden floors on the top arcade were replaced with tiles (so as to prevent water damage to merchandise on the lower floors) that were laid by the PDA after staging a hugely successful capital campaign - people could pay $35 to have their name(s) inscribed on a tile. Between 1985 and 1987, more than 45,000 tiles were installed and nearly 1.6 million dollars was raised.The 1983 Hildt Amendment or Hildt Agreement (named after Seattle City Council
Seattle City Council
The Seattle City Council is committed to ensuring that Seattle, Washington, is safe, livable and sustainable. Nine Councilmembers are elected to four-year terms in nonpartisan elections and represent the entire city, elected by all Seattle voters....
member Michael Hildt) struck a balance between farmers and craftspeople in the daystalls. The agreement set rules that would last for ten years from August 1, 1983, and that would be successively renewable for further terms of five years. The precise formula it laid out stood for over 15 years, and it set the precedent for today's allocation of daystalls, in that it gave craftspeople priority in the North Arcade and farmers priority elsewhere.
Victor Steinbrueck Park
Victor Steinbrueck Park directly north of the market was originally Market Park. From about 1909 the site held an armory, which was damaged by fire in 1962. The land was taken over by the city in 1968, and the remnant of the armory was razed. In 1970 the land passed to park usage. The resulting Market Park was majorly redesigned in 1982. After Steinbrueck's 1985 death, it was renamed after the architect who was instrumental in the market's preservation.Modern day
The public meetings did not result in a clear consensus, but did provide enough input for city councilmember Nick Licata
Nick Licata
Nick Licata is a past president of the Seattle City Council and is currently serving his fourth term on the Council. He has chaired numerous committees, including Parks, Public Safety, Human Services, Housing, Arts and Culture. His aides Newell Aldrich, Lisa Herbold, and Frank Video have worked...
to draft a revised version of the Hildt Agreement. Adopted in February 1999, it became known as the Licata-Hildt Agreement. The bad blood generated by the conflict spurred an audit of PDA practices by the City Auditor; the audit was critical of the PDA for occasionally violating the "spirit" of its Charter, but exonerated it of any wrongdoing.
Centennial
Dave Dederer
Dave Dederer, best known as guitarist and singer for The Presidents of the United States of America, was born on October 5, 1964. An alumnus of Seattle, Washington's The Bush School and Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, he founded The Presidents with fellow Bush School alumnus...
and Andrew McKeag (guitarists of the Presidents of the United States of America
Presidents of the United States of America (band)
The Presidents of the United States of America, commonly referred to as Pot USA or "PUSA" or The Presidents, are a twice Grammy-nominated American alternative rock band. The band formed in Seattle, USA, in 1993. The three-piece group currently comprises vocalist and "basitarist" Chris Ballew,...
or PUSA); Mike Musberger (drummer of The Posies
The Posies
The Posies are an alternative rock/power pop group. The band was formed in 1987 in Bellingham, Washington by primary songwriters Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow. They are best known for their radio hits "Golden Blunders" , as well as "Dream All Day", "Solar Sister" and "Flavor of the Month"...
and The Fastbacks); Jeff Fielder (bassist for singer/songwriter Sera Cahoone
Sera Cahoone
Sera Cahoone is a singer-songwriter from Seattle, Washington. Cahoone's music combines elements of both classic country-western and modern indie rock and lo-fi....
); and Ty Bailie (keyboard player of Department of Energy). Other performers included Chris Ballew
Chris Ballew
Christopher "Chris" Ballew is a member of the alternative rock group The Presidents of the United States of America and performs as a children's artist under the pseudonym Caspar Babypants....
(also of PUSA), Sean Nelson
Sean Nelson
Sean Nelson is an American singer, songwriter, and keyboardist, notable as the frontman for the alternative rock group Harvey Danger.- Career :...
of Harvey Danger
Harvey Danger
Harvey Danger was an American indie rock band that formed in Seattle, Washington in 1993, and rose to prominence in 1998 with the single "Flagpole Sitta." On August 29, 2009, the band played its final show at the Crocodile Cafe in Seattle....
, Choklate, Paul Jensen of the Dudley Manlove Quartet, Rachel Flotard of Visqueen, Shawn Smith
Shawn Smith
Shawn Smith is a Seattle-based songwriter, vocalist and musician in several bands and also as a solo artist. He was born in Spokane, Washington.Smith has cited Freddie Mercury, Prince and KISS as early influences...
of Brad
Brad (band)
Brad is an American rock band that formed in Seattle, Washington in 1992. Brad's sound is influenced by the wide variety of influences brought by its members, including Stone Gossard of Pearl Jam, Regan Hagar , Shawn Smith , and Jeremy Toback...
, Stone Gossard
Stone Gossard
Stone Carpenter Gossard is an American musician who serves as the rhythm and lead guitarist for the American rock band Pearl Jam. Along with Jeff Ament, Mike McCready, and Eddie Vedder, he is one of the founding members of Pearl Jam...
and Mike McCready
Mike McCready
Michael David McCready is an American musician who serves as the lead guitarist for the American rock band Pearl Jam. Along with Jeff Ament, Stone Gossard, Dave Krusen, and Eddie Vedder, he is one of the founding members of Pearl Jam...
of Pearl Jam
Pearl Jam
Pearl Jam is an American rock band that formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1990. Since its inception, the band's line-up has included Eddie Vedder , Jeff Ament , Stone Gossard , and Mike McCready...
, John Roderick of the Long Winters
The Long Winters
The Long Winters is an American indie rock band based in Seattle, Washington.-Early history:Singer-songwriter John Roderick was born in Seattle, Washington, and grew up in Anchorage, Alaska. He later returned to Seattle, formed the Bun Family Players and the The Western State Hurricanes...
, Evan Foster of the Boss Martians, Artis the Spoonman
Artis the Spoonman
Artis the Spoonman is an American street performer from Seattle, Washington, who uses spoons as a musical instrument....
, Ernestine Anderson
Ernestine Anderson
Ernestine Anderson is an American jazz and blues singer. In a career spanning more than five decades, she has recorded over 30 albums. She was nominated four times for a Grammy Award. She has sung at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Monterey Jazz Festival , as well as at jazz festivals all...
, and the Total Experience Gospel Choir
Total Experience Gospel Choir
The Total Experience Gospel Choir is a gospel music group based in Seattle, Washington, USA, founded in 1973 by Patrinell "Pat" Wright, who continues to lead the group as of 2009...
.
Organizations
The Pike Place Market is overseen by the Pike Place Market Preservation & Development Authority ("the PDA"), a public development authorityPublic development authority
In the U.S. state of Washington, a public development authority is a government-owned corporation...
(a form of government-owned corporation
Government-owned corporation
A government-owned corporation, state-owned company, state-owned entity, state enterprise, publicly owned corporation, government business enterprise, or parastatal is a legal entity created by a government to undertake commercial activities on behalf of an owner government...
) established under Washington State law. It is overseen by a 12-member volunteer council. Its members serve four-year terms. Four members are appointed by mayor, four by the current council, and four by the Pike Place Market Constituency. The Market PDA sets the policies by which the Pike Place Market is managed and hires an executive director to carry out those policies.
Established in 1973, the PDA manages 80% of the properties in the city-recognized Market Historical District. Its founding law—the Market Charter—requires it to preserve, rehabilitate and protect the Market's buildings; increase opportunities for farm and food retailing in the Market; incubate and support small and marginal businesses; and provide services for low-income people. PDA revenues derive from the Market's tenants through rent, utilities, and other property management activities.
The same 1973 charter that established the PDA also established the Pike Place Market Constituency. The Constituency elects one member to the PDA Council each year. Anyone 16 years of age or older who lives in Washington State can become a member of the Constituency by paying US$1 yearly dues.
Operating independently of the PDA, the Market Historical Commission (established by the 1971 initiative to preserve the Market) has the specific mandate to preserve the Market's physical and social character as "the soul of Seattle." The Commission must approve any substantive change in the use or design of buildings and signage in the Historical District, even when these actions are taken by the PDA itself. Members of the 12-member commission are appointed to three-year terms by the mayor. At any time, the commission consists of two members each from the Friends of the Market, Inc., Allied Arts of Seattle
Allied Arts of Seattle
Allied Arts of Seattle is a non-profit organization in Seattle, Washington, USA. The organization advocates for public funding of the arts, better urban planning and architecture, and other civic improvements...
, Inc., and the Seattle chapter of the American Institute of Architects
American Institute of Architects
The American Institute of Architects is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to support the architecture profession and improve its public image...
; two owners of property within the District; two Market merchants, and two District residents. They meet 22 times a year. The Seattle Department of Neighborhoods provides them with a staff person, and the city's Department of Design, Construction and Land Use (DCLU) can enforce their decisions.
Memorial Day
Memorial Day is a United States federal holiday observed on the last Monday of May. Formerly known as Decoration Day, it originated after the American Civil War to commemorate the fallen Union soldiers of the Civil War...
fair at the market; financial difficulties caused cancellation of the fair in 2004.
A separate Daystall Tenants Association (DTA) formed in the late 1980s to represent the specific interests of daystall vendors. The DTA formed in response to proposed increases in daystall rental rates. Most members pay a US$2 annual membership fee; the fee is optional. The DTA meets on the Desimone Bridge in the Market at least once each quarter and "as needed". Similarly, the United Farmers Coalition (UFC) formed in 1998 to represent daystall farmers who sell produce, flower, and processed food; the UFC represents only these food vendors, as against craft vendors. The Pike Market Performers' Guild, founded 2001, represents Market street performers. Among its members are Artis the Spoonman
Artis the Spoonman
Artis the Spoonman is an American street performer from Seattle, Washington, who uses spoons as a musical instrument....
and Jim Page
Jim Page
Jim Page born in 1949, is a folk singer-songwriter and social activist.-Early life:Page was born in Palo Alto, California in 1949 and moved to Seattle in 1971.-Music career and activism:...
.
Friends of the Market, which spun out of Allied Arts in 1964 and over the next seven years spearheaded the activist work that saved the Market is no longer a driving force in the Market. Still, as noted above, they have two seats on the Historical Commission. The also give tours of the Market.
The Market Foundation (established 1982) was originally founded to support the Market's services for low-income people. The foundation now also supports heritage programs, improvements and repairs to historic buildings, and programs that assist the Market's farmers.
Conflicts
...afford... a continuing opportunity for Public Market farmers, merchants, residents, shoppers, and visitors to carry on their tradition and market activities... upgrad[e] structures and public amenities... initiate programs to expand food retailing in the Market Historical District, especially the sale of local farm produce; to preserve and expand the residential community, especially for low-income people; to promote the survival and predominance of small shops, marginal businesses, thrift shops, arts and crafts, and other enterprises, activities, and services which are essential to the functioning of the Public Market.
The City Auditor's office has stated that there is an "inherent conflict... between the PDA's need to operate the Market as a successful business entity and its Charter obligation to support small owner-operated tenant businesses." As early as 1974, a Seattle Department of Community Development study noted space conflicts between farmers and craft vendors. Conflicts can be exacerbated because the stakeholders with conflicting needs are not talking to one another. Quoting the same City Auditor's report:
Most Market tenants do not routinely communicate with tenants in other areas of the Market. As a result, they sometimes criticize the PDA for not implementing suggestions they believe would work for them and their close neighbors--e.g., closing all or part of Pike Place to auto traffic--not realizing that their “solutions” would create problems for tenants in other parts of the Market. Then they conclude that the PDA is not taking their comments and suggestions seriously.
Language barriers also play a role. For example, most of the flower vendors in the Market are H'mong
Hmong people
The Hmong , are an Asian ethnic group from the mountainous regions of China, Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand. Hmong are also one of the sub-groups of the Miao ethnicity in southern China...
; during the difficult negotiations in 1999 over replacing the Hildt Agreement, many were apparently under a misimpression that the proposed agreement would have halved the vending space they received for a day's rent; in fact, this was unchanged.
Further, the farmers who were the Market's original raison d'etre do not necessarily do well when the Market becomes more of a tourist attraction than venue for shopping for produce and groceries. "Craft vendors, antique and curio merchants, and booksellers…" wrote the City Auditor's office, "derive much of their business from tourists; fresh food vendors do not." Conversely, farmers have far more selling opportunities outside the Market than in the early and mid-20th century. As late as 1990, there were about ten farmers markets in Washington. By 1999 there were more than sixty. Most are seasonal weekend markets without most of the Pike Place Market's amenities, but they are not swarmed with tourists, parking is free or inexpensive parking and relatively plentiful, and food is the main focus of those markets, not crafts or flowers.
As a result, increasingly Pike Place Market daystalls are devoted to flowers and crafts rather than edible produce. "The Market," wrote the City Auditor's office,
can be “lost” in either of two ways: It can stray from its traditional character or it can fail financially as a business entity. If the Market is to survive and thrive as a business entity in the face of increasing competition from other farmers’ markets, modern full-service grocery stores, and retail shopping destinations in Seattle’s Central Business District, the PDA must strike a balance between the Market’s original old-world market character and modern business practices.
Policies
A standard Farm Table consists of two adjacent daystalls; a standard Craft Table is a single daystall. Daystalls are between 4 feet (1.2 m) and 5.5 feet (1.7 m) wide. Craftspeople have priority on the Desimone Bridge, the west side of the Market arcade north of the Desimone Bridge and the outdoor slabs between the arcade and Virginia Street; farmers have priority everywhere else. If farmers do not fill their priority tables, craftspeople may rent those, and vice versa. Priority is further set by separate seniority lists, one for farmers and one for craftspeople. For farmers, other factors besides seniority come into play, mainly how often the person sells at the Market. Farmers can pass permits through their family. The rules for joint and family crafts businesses are far more complex.
While farmers and craftspeople may make some use of "agents" to sell on their behalf (including vendors functioning on different days as one another's agents), in order to maintain their seniority farmers must be physically present one day a week and craftspeople two days a week. To sell on a Saturday, vendors must sell at the Market a minimum of two weekdays of the preceding week. There are also allowances for taking vacations and sabbaticals without losing one's seniority. Senior Crafts Permit Holders—craftspeople who have sold in the Market for 30 years or more—need only rent (and use) a daystall once a week to maintain their seniority.
Farmers, craftspeople, and performers all must pay for an annual permit. As of 2008, the fee is $35 for farmers and craftspeople, $30 for performers. Craftspeople who vend "off season"—January through March—pay an additional $35 for a separate permit. For performers, this annual fee is their only fee. Farmers and craftspeople pay day rent for any daystalls they use. Depending on the season and the day of the week, a daystall may rent for anywhere from $5.85 for a stall on a Monday-Thursday off season to $32.85 on a Sunday in peak season. There are also separate rents for lockers and coolers.
Compared to farmers and craftspeople, performers have a lesser role in the Market, but still one formally recognized by the PDA. "The PDA's mission with regard to performers is to maintain locations within the Market where performing artists may entertain Market shoppers in a fashion consistent with and complimentary (sic) to the needs of the Market's commercial business activities and Market residents. Performers may receive donations and may display their recordings for sale, but prohibited from active solicitation of donations and from active sale of "any product associated with the performance".
In keeping with their lack of day fees, individual performers are not assigned specific places and times to perform. There are only positions in a (virtual) "line" or "queue" for each marked, sanctioned performance location. Queuing runs on an honor system. Each performance is limited to one hour if any other licensed performer is waiting for the spot. Electronic amplification is not allowed, nor are brass instruments or drums. Certain performance locations are further limited to "quiet" performances where (for example) even hand-clap percussion is not allowed.
Although they do not have the same strict requirements as for daystalls, most "commercial" Market merchants are owner-operated businesses. In the 1970s, when the Market was undergoing extensive rehabilitation and the future of the Market was somewhat unstable, the PDA consolidated its merchant base by giving merchant tenants very favorable leases, with longer terms and lower rates than were available elsewhere in Downtown Seattle. This policy was part of the reason that the PDA ran into the financial difficulties that led to its dealings with the Urban Group. The PDA now gives below-market rates only to start-up businesses, businesses or organizations designed to serve low and moderate income persons, and to "the Market’s unique character-defining businesses." The latter include produce, fish, and meat businesses. The PDA often will not renew multi-year leases for businesses with poor sales performance or other problems, but typically will allow them to remain indefinitely on a month-to-month basis. About once a year, the PDA has occasion to refuse to renew when a merchant's lease ends.
Housing and social services
The Market is also a significant provider of low-income housing and social services. The Market Foundation supports the Pike Market Medical Clinic, Pike Market Senior Center, Downtown Food Bank, and Pike Market Childcare and Preschool (all within the Market), as well as low-income housing in and near the Market. They provide Market Fresh coupons to their low-income tenants, redeemable for Market produce, and implement the FoodLink program that distributes unsold Market produce to other Seattle food bankFood bank
A food bank or foodbank is a non-profit, charitable organization that distributes mostly donated food to a wide variety of agencies that in turn feed the hungry. The largest sources of food are for-profit growers, manufacturers, distributors and retailers who in the normal course of business have...
s and meal programs. The money placed in the Market's giant piggybank goes to this foundation, as do the funds raised by several annual or intermittent fundraisers, including Pigs on Parade.
About 500 people live in the market. Approximately 90% are low-income seniors with subsidized rents. Their average income is only $11,095 a year. Among the low-income units in the Market are 41 in the LaSalle Hotel, 51 in Market House, 44 in the Stewart House and 96 in the Livingston-Baker.
HIV
Human immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome , a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive...
-positive, or working poor. One third homeless, 30% are physically disabled, and 60% have severe mental illness and/or chemical addiction. The clinic provides basic medical care, subsidized prescriptions, lab work, mental health counseling, drug and alcohol counseling, connections to other community services, and sometimes even assistance in finding housing.
Approximately 900 people use the Market's senior center. Services include hot lunches for low-income seniors, help in finding housing and jobs, and a variety of classes ranging from physical fitness and health to language, geography, art, and computer training.
The Downtown Food Bank, located in the Public Market Parking Garage on Western Avenue provides groceries to approximately 1,000 people a week. About 265 bags of groceries are delivered weekly to homebound downtown residents. About 160 families receive infant milk, baby food and diapers.
The child care and preschool serves 90-100 families with children ages 2–5 each year. 84% of families with children attending are low-income and receive tuition assistance. Besides its educational aspects, the school provides these children with breakfast, lunch, and afternoon snacks and has a full-time, onsite child and family support professional to identify resources children their families might need and to link them to those resources.
Attractions
One of the Market's major attractions is Pike Place Fish MarketPike Place Fish Market
The Pike Place Fish Market, founded in 1930, is an open air fish market located in Seattle, Washington's Pike Place Market, at the corner of Pike Street and Pike Place. It is known for their tradition of fishmongers throwing fish that customers have purchased, before they are wrapped...
, where employees throw three-foot salmon and other fish to each other rather than passing them by hand. When a customer orders a fish, an employee at the Fish Market's ice-covered fish table picks up the fish and hurls it over the countertop, where another employee catches it and preps it for sale.
According to the employees, this tradition started when the fishmonger
Fishmonger
A fishmonger is someone who sells fish and seafood...
s got tired of having to walk out to the Market's fish table to retrieve a salmon each time someone ordered one. Eventually, the owner realized it was easier to station an employee at the table, to throw the fish over the counter. The "flying fish" have appeared in an episode of the television sitcom Frasier
Frasier
Frasier is an American sitcom that was broadcast on NBC for eleven seasons, from September 16, 1993, to May 13, 2004. The program was created and produced by David Angell, Peter Casey, and David Lee in association with Grammnet and Paramount Network Television.A spin-off of Cheers, Frasier stars...
that was shot on location and have been featured on The Learning Channel and was also in the opening credits of MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
's The Real World: Seattle
The Real World: Seattle
The Real World: Seattle is the seventh season of MTV's reality television series The Real World, which focuses on a group of diverse strangers living together for several months in a different city each season, as cameras follow their lives and interpersonal relationships. First airing in 1998, the...
. This attraction has also appeared on numerous prime-time installments of NFL games when the Seahawks
Seattle Seahawks
The Seattle Seahawks are a professional American football team based in Seattle, Washington. They are currently members of the Western Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The team joined the NFL in 1976 as an expansion team...
host games at nearby Qwest Field.
Jerry Baldwin
Jerry Baldwin, along with Gordon Bowker and Zev Siegl, founded Starbucks in Seattle in 1971.Baldwin learned the coffee trade from Alfred Peet, whose store Peet's Coffee & Tea was the inspiration for Starbucks. Starbucks purchased roasted coffee beans from Peet's during its first year of operation...
, Zev Siegl and Gordon Bowker
Gordon Bowker
Gordon Bowker is an American entrepreneur. He began as a writer and went on to co-found Starbucks along with Jerry Baldwin and Zev Siegl. He was later a co-owner of Peet's Coffee & Tea and Redhook Ale Brewery...
. They were inspired by Alfred Peet
Alfred Peet
Alfred H. Peet was a Dutch-American entrepreneur and the founder of Peet's Coffee & Tea in Berkeley, California, in 1966. He is most famous for introducing custom coffee roasting to the United States....
of Peet's Coffee to open the store and sell high-quality coffee beans and coffee making equipment and accessories. The sign outside this branch, unlike others, features the original logo - a bare-breasted siren
Siren
In Greek mythology, the Sirens were three dangerous mermaid like creatures, portrayed as seductresses who lured nearby sailors with their enchanting music and voices to shipwreck on the rocky coast of their island. Roman poets placed them on an island called Sirenum scopuli...
that was modeled after a 15th century Norse woodcut. It also features a pig statue called "Pork'n Beans," purchased in the 2001 Pigs on Parade fundraiser. Starbucks now owns the Seattle's Best Coffee
Seattle's Best Coffee
Seattle's Best Coffee, a wholly owned subsidiary of Starbucks, is a specialty coffee retailer and wholesaler based in Seattle, Washington.Seattle's Best Coffee has retail stores and grocery sub-stores in 20 states and provinces and the District of Columbia. Sub-stores can also be found within many...
(SBC) brand, which traces its history back to Stewart Brothers' Coffee, which arrived in the Market several months before Starbucks was founded.
After more than 30 years in the Market, the herbal apothecary Tenzing Momo has become an institution both for obtaining herbs and advice on their use. Founded in 1977, the name (which is Tibetan
Tibetan language
The Tibetan languages are a cluster of mutually-unintelligible Tibeto-Burman languages spoken primarily by Tibetan peoples who live across a wide area of eastern Central Asia bordering the Indian subcontinent, including the Tibetan Plateau and the northern Indian subcontinent in Baltistan, Ladakh,...
) means "divine dumpling". Nearby, Market Spice (founded 1911) sells slightly less exotic herbal substances.
The Market Heritage Center at 1531 Western Avenue is a small museum about the history of the Market.
Rachel and Pigs on Parade
Bronze
Bronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive. It is hard and brittle, and it was particularly significant in antiquity, so much so that the Bronze Age was named after the metal...
cast piggy bank
Piggy bank
Piggy bank is the traditional name of a coin accumulation and storage receptacle; it is most often, but not exclusively, used by children. The piggy bank is known to collectors as a "still bank" as opposed to the "mechanical banks" popular in the early 20th century. These items are also often used...
that weighs 550 pounds (249.5 kg), has been located since 1986 at the corner of Pike Place under the "Public Market Center" sign. Rachel was designed by local artist Georgia Gerber and modeled after a pig (also named Rachel) that lived on Whidbey Island
Whidbey Island
Whidbey Island is one of nine islands located in Island County, Washington, in the United States. Whidbey is located about north of Seattle, and lies between the Olympic Peninsula and the I-5 corridor of western Washington...
and was the 1977 Island County prize-winner. Rachel receives roughly US$6,000–$9,000 annually in just about every type of world currency, which is collected by the Market Foundation to fund the Market's social services.
Rachel provided the theme for the Pigs on Parade fundraiser that was first held in 2001 and was one of several events in various cities modeled on a similar 1998 event in Zurich
Zürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
; the Zurich event centered on cows and was the first of what have come to be known as CowParade
CowParade
CowParade is an international public art exhibit that has been featured in major world cities. Fiberglass sculptures of cows are decorated by local artists, and distributed over the city centre, in public places such as train stations, important avenues, and parks. They often feature artwork and...
s. A similar Pigs On Parade fundraiser was held in 2007 on the occasion of the Market centennial, which happened to coincide with the Chinese Zodiac Year of the Pig
Year of the Pig
Year of the Pig is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who.-Plot:...
.
Buskers
Spoon (musical instrument)
Spoons can be played as a makeshift percussion instrument, or more specifically, an idiophone related to the castanets. "Playing the spoons" originated in Ireland as "playing the bones," in which the convex sides of a pair of sheep rib bones were rattled in the same way.- Techniques :# A pair of...
player Artis the Spoonman and world-renowned songwriter Jim Page, Market performers in years past or present have included steel guitar
Steel guitar
Steel guitar is a type of guitar or the method of playing the instrument. Developed in Hawaii in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a steel guitar is usually positioned horizontally; strings are plucked with one hand, while the other hand changes the pitch of one or more strings with the use...
ist Baby Gramps
Baby Gramps
Baby Gramps is a guitar performer, who, though born in Miami, Florida, has been based in the Northwest USA for at least the last 40 years. He is famous for his palindromes...
; Johnny Hahn, who routinely hauls around a 64-key spinet
Spinet
A spinet is a smaller type of harpsichord or other keyboard instrument, such as a piano or organ.-Spinets as harpsichords:While the term spinet is used to designate a harpsichord, typically what is meant is the bentside spinet, described in this section...
piano; retro-jazzer Howlin' Hobbit, who more often settles for an easily-carried ukelele; blind autoharp
Autoharp
The autoharp is a musical string instrument having a series of chord bars attached to dampers, which, when depressed, mute all of the strings other than those that form the desired chord. Despite its name, the autoharp is not a harp at all, but a chorded zither. -History:There is debate over the...
ist and singer Jeanne Towne; Kirsten "Mother Zosima" Anderberg, who for many years sang feminist and other political songs while dressed in a nun's habit; a cappella
A cappella
A cappella music is specifically solo or group singing without instrumental sound, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. It is the opposite of cantata, which is accompanied singing. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato...
gospel
Gospel music
Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....
singers Brother Willie and the Market Crew; the old-timey Tallboys; Johnny Cash sound-alike Vince Mira
Vince Mira
Vince Mira is a young singer/songwriter from Seattle, Washington who specializes in country and rock and roll music. His deep bass-baritone voice has drawn comparisons to Johnny Cash. His repertoire consists of several Johnny Cash and Hank Williams songs, as well as his own originals.-Life:Born...
; the eclectic jazz-tinged sounds and painfully bad jokes of Amber Tide (Thaddeus Spae and his late wife Sandahbeth); alternative-jazz-pop singer-songwriter Alyse Black
Alyse Black
Alyse Black is an American singer and songwriter. Black's music is described as indie pop with jazz influences, in the vein of artists such as Fiona Apple, Regina Spektor and Norah Jones...
, and the late folksinger Jim Hinde, a Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
veteran and PTSD survivor.
Jump blues
Jump blues
Jump blues is an up-tempo blues usually played by small groups and featuring horns. It was very popular in the 1940s, and the movement was a precursor to the arrival of rhythm and blues and rock and roll...
musician PK Dwyer
PK Dwyer
PK Dwyer who has also worked under the names Kevin Dwyer, Hollywood Dick Doll, and George Michael Jackson is a jump blues musician credited with forming the first-ever street band to busk at Pike Place Market, Seattle, Washington, USA. He formed that band, Felix & the Freelicks, shortly after he...
is credited with forming the first-ever street band to busk at the Market. He formed that band, Felix & the Freelicks, shortly after he arrived in the Pacific Northwest in 1971. The band evolved into various other alignments, including (successively) the Dynamic Logs, the Jitters, Throbbing Gems, the Royal Famille du Caniveaux / Gutter People of Paris, all of whom played at the Market. Some of these alignments also included Ron Bailey; the Dynamic Logs included Orville Johnson
Orville Johnson
Orville Johnson is an American resonator guitar player and musician, born in 1953 in Edwardsville, Illinois. He came up in the St. Louis, Missouri music scene and now lives in Seattle, Washington. A frequent session musician, he also has released a number of solo and group albums...
as well.
Dining and drinking in the Market
While one can easily graze one's way through the Market food stalls and shops, the Pike Place Market offers numerous other eating (and drinking) options. The once endemic workingmen's and sailors' taverns are gone; at roughly opposite corners of the Market, the Virginia Inn (founded as Virginia Bar, approximately 1908; operated as a cardroomCardroom
A cardroom or card room is a gaming establishment that exclusively offers card games for play by the public. The term poker room is generally synonymous, since the gambling games played in such establishments are typically, and sometimes exclusively, variations of poker such as Texas hold 'em.Such...
during Prohibition
Prohibition
Prohibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, is the practice of prohibiting the manufacture, transportation, import, export, sale, and consumption of alcohol and alcoholic beverages. The term can also apply to the periods in the histories of the countries during which the...
, then Virginia Inn; passed into current management 1980 and slowly gentrified) and Place Pigalle (originally Lotus Inn, name dates from 1950s, remodeled 1982) retain their names, but both have gone upmarket. The Athenian Inn in the Main Market traces its history back to a 1909 bakery and is a relatively ungentrified bar and restaurant. Three Girls Bakery dates back to 1912 and may have been the first Seattle business started by women. While it is not in its original Corner Market location, no longer bakes on premises, and its current owner Jack Levy is a man, it still sells a vast variety of baked goods, does a brisk business in takeaway sandwiches, and has an old-style lunch counter.
For a different type of dining experience, the Pink Door (founded 1981), entered by a nearly unmarked door on upper Post Alley, is a favorite first-date restaurant, with solid Italian food, a fantasia of a dining room, a bar that sometimes features live jazz, and an outdoor deck overlooking Elliott Bay. Another restaurant combining Italian food and romantic ambience is the "grottolike" Il Bistro, located below grade in the Economy Market, off a cobblestone ramp that leads to Lower Post Alley. When it was founded in 1977 it was played an important role in the rise of fine dining in Seattle.
Other longstanding Market restaurants and bars include Lowell's (founded 1957), an old Main Market standby self-described as "almost classy"; French bistro Maximilien, founded in 1975 by François Kissel, owned since 1997 by host Axel Macé and chef Eric Francy, and highly praised by Julia Child
Julia Child
Julia Child was an American chef, author, and television personality. She is recognized for introducing French cuisine to the American public with her debut cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and her subsequent television programs, the most notable of which was The French Chef, which...
; and the Copacabana (founded 1964), Seattle's only Bolivian restaurant, upstairs in the Triangle Market with a balcony overlooking Pike Place.
Notable people
Frank Goodwin and his brothers developed most of the core Market buildings. He was largely responsible for the decision to keep ornament to a minimum, in order to keep the emphasis on the products rather than the institution and in order not to scare off people looking for good prices on their produce. Upon his retirement in 1925, his nephew Arthur Goodwin took over most of the Market ownership, selling some shares to people outside of the family.Giuseppe "Joe" Desimone was born about 40 miles (64.4 km) east of Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
, Italy. He arrived in America from Italy as a stowaway, but soon became a successful farmer with land in South Park
South Park, Seattle, Washington
South Park is a neighborhood in the city of Seattle, in the U.S. state of Washington. It is located just south of Georgetown across the Duwamish River, and just north of the city of Tukwila. Its main thoroughfares are West Marginal Way S. , S. Cloverdale Street and 14th Ave. S...
, Tukwila
Tukwila, Washington
Tukwila is a city in King County, Washington, United States. The northern edge of Tukwila borders the city of Seattle. The population was 19,107 at the 2010 census.-History:...
and the Kent
Kent, Washington
Kent is a city located in King County, Washington, United States, and is the third largest city in King County and the sixth largest in the state. An outlying suburb of Seattle, Kent is also the corporate home for companies such as REI and Oberto Sausage...
Valley along the Green River
Green River (Washington)
The Green River is a long river in the state of Washington in the United States, arising on the western slopes of the Cascade Mountains south of I-90....
. A longtime Market vendor, was one of those who bought shares in the Market in 1925, and eventually became its owner by slowly buying out Arthur Goodwin. He was president of the Market until his death in 1946. Outside of the Market, he is credited with keeping Boeing
Boeing
The Boeing Company is an American multinational aerospace and defense corporation, founded in 1916 by William E. Boeing in Seattle, Washington. Boeing has expanded over the years, merging with McDonnell Douglas in 1997. Boeing Corporate headquarters has been in Chicago, Illinois since 2001...
in the Seattle area in 1936 by selling them a large tract of land for a nominal fee.
His son Richard Desimone succeeded him as president of the market and served in that position until 1974. He kept the Market alive in dark times for farmers' markets, doing nearly all business on handshake deals rather than through formal leases. He later served on the Market Historical Commission.
Victor Steinbrueck
Victor Steinbrueck
Victor Steinbrueck was a Seattle architect, and University of Washington faculty member, and best known for his efforts to preserve the city's Pioneer Square and Pike Place Market.-Biography:...
was the leading architect-activist in defining the Pike Market neighborhood, and artist Mark Tobey
Mark Tobey
Mark George Tobey was an American abstract expressionist painter, born in Centerville, Wisconsin. Widely recognized throughout the United States and Europe, Tobey is the most noted among the "mystical painters of the Northwest." Senior in age and experience, Tobey had a strong influence on the...
in visualizing and recording, in developing his "Northwest Mystic" style of the internationally-recognized Northwest School of art. Internationally recognized in the 1940s, Tobey explored the neighborhood with his art in the 1950s and early 1960s, as the area was being increasingly characterized by the Seattle Establishment as overdue for urban renewal
Urban renewal
Urban renewal is a program of land redevelopment in areas of moderate to high density urban land use. Renewal has had both successes and failures. Its modern incarnation began in the late 19th century in developed nations and experienced an intense phase in the late 1940s – under the rubric of...
, particularly replacement with a parking garage, high-rise housing and modern, upscale retail. People of city neighborhoods and citizen preservation activists struggled through the 1960s, culminating in 1971 with 2 to 1 passage of a citizen initiative for protection and citizen oversight of the core Pike Place Market that has since largely protected the neighborhood.
George Rolfe, the first director of the Pike Place Market Preservation and Development Authority (PDA), played a key role in the economic revitalization of the Market after it was saved by the 1971 referendum. It was under his management that the direction of automobile traffic on Pike Place was reversed and the pedestrian-friendly brick paving was introduced. Rolfe also emphasized the construction of pedestrian routes to the waterfront so that the Market became the center of a pedestrian network.
For many years, Sol "The Cod Father" Amon of Pure Food Fish has been the longest-tenured vendor at Pike Place Market. His father, Jack Amon, began selling fish in the Market in 1911 as a partner in the Philadelphia Fish Market. From about 1920 to 1935, he owned and operated the American Fish Company. In 1951 he bought the Pure Food Fish Company (founded 1917–1918), which Sol Amon largely took over in 1956. Sol had worked in the Market since 1947 and has been sole proprietor of Pure Food Fish since his father's death in 1966. He can often be seen outside his stall chatting with visitors and helping them choose their fish, including a brisk tourist trade in salmon packed to travel. The Seattle City Council
Seattle City Council
The Seattle City Council is committed to ensuring that Seattle, Washington, is safe, livable and sustainable. Nine Councilmembers are elected to four-year terms in nonpartisan elections and represent the entire city, elected by all Seattle voters....
honored him in 2006 on the 50th anniversary of his taking over the business: they named him "King of the Market" and permanently designated April 11 as Sol Amon Day. Amon is a longtime major supporter of the Market Foundation. On the first Sol Amon Day in 2006, Amon donated all of the day's profits from Pure Food Fish to the Foundation.
Notable buildings
Few of the historic buildings in the Pike-Market neighborhood (and none of the Market buildings as such) are individually designated as landmarks or registered as historic places. Buildings included in the federally and locally designated historic districts gain most of the benefits that would accrue from individual designation, so there is little reason to go through the difficult process of obtaining separate designation.Market buildings
The Market began on a boardwalk adjacent to the 3-story Leland Hotel (1900, architect unknown). The Leland was incorporated in 1907 by engineer John Goodwin into the Main Arcade. In 1914–1915 he and architect Andrew Willatsen extended this complex further into the Fairley Building, which includes Lowell's, the Athenian, and the "Down Under". The complex was rehabilitated in 1977 by George Bartholick. As of 2008, the upper two stories of the Leland continue to be housing. Together, all of these constitute today's Main Market.The two-story Triangle Market (Thompson & Thompson, 1908; rehabilition by Fred Bassetti & Co.
Bassetti Architects
Bassetti Architects is an architectural firm based in Seattle, Washington with a second office in Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1947, the firm has designed several well-known Seattle landmarks and many schools in the greater Seattle-Tacoma area, including several buildings at the Pike Place...
, 1977) originally housed the South Park Poultry Company. The 1977 rehabilitation joined it with the adjacent 3-story Silver Oakum Building (unknown, 1910; Bassetti, 1977). The Outlook Hotel (now LaSalle Hotel; architect unknown; rehabilitation by Bartholick, 1977) also dates from 1908. A legitimate seaman's and workingman's hotel until 1942, its Japanese American
Japanese American
are American people of Japanese heritage. Japanese Americans have historically been among the three largest Asian American communities, but in recent decades have become the sixth largest group at roughly 1,204,205, including those of mixed-race or mixed-ethnicity...
operators Rosuke and T.K. Kodama were forcibly interned
Japanese American internment
Japanese-American internment was the relocation and internment by the United States government in 1942 of approximately 110,000 Japanese Americans and Japanese who lived along the Pacific coast of the United States to camps called "War Relocation Camps," in the wake of Imperial Japan's attack on...
during World War II. Nellie Curtis took it over, changed the name, and ran it as a brothel into the 1950s. Since 1977 the building has been joined to the adjacent Cliff House (c. 1901), and largely devoted to low-income housing. Shops and the Market PDA office are on the ground floor. Its roof provides outdoor seating for the restaurant Maximilien.
The Sanitary Market (Daniel Huntington, 1910; reconstructed 1942, McClelland and Jones; rehabilitated and extended 1981, Bassetti Norton Metler
Bassetti Architects
Bassetti Architects is an architectural firm based in Seattle, Washington with a second office in Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1947, the firm has designed several well-known Seattle landmarks and many schools in the greater Seattle-Tacoma area, including several buildings at the Pike Place...
) reputedly was so named for its innovation at the time, that no horses were allowed inside. A fire on December 15, 1941, eight days after the attack on Pearl Harbor
Attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941...
, severely damaged the building. Although the true cause of the fire was never determined, newspapers at the time speculated that the Japanese were to blame. The building was reconstructed as a 2-story building with rooftop parking. Nearly four decades later the parking lot was eliminated, replaced by two floors of residences.
The 3-story Corner Market building (Harlan Thomas & Clyde Grainger 1912; rehabilitation by Karlis Rekevics, 1975) sits on the right as one enters the Market along Pike Street. In its early years it included daystalls, and the businesses facing onto First Avenue were open-fronted. The Three Girls Bakery, the first known business in the Corner Market, is now located in the adjacent Sanitary Market. The basement was home to Patti Summers' jazz club for over two decades before becoming Can Can in 2006; the building is also home to anarchist
Anarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
bookstore Left Bank Books
Infoshop
An infoshop is a storefront or social center that serves as a node for the distribution of political information, typically in the form of books, zines, stickers and posters. Infoshops often serve as a meeting space and resource hub for local activist groups....
, as well as numerous other businesses.
Across Pike Street from the Corner Market is the Economy Market (unknown, 1900, as Bartell Building; remodeled by John Goodwin & Andrew Willatsen 1916; rehabilitation by Bartholick, 1978). The 1978 rehabilitation occurred in conjunction with the construction of the adjacent South Arcade at the corner of First Avenue and Union Street (Olsen / Walker, 1985). The South Arcade lies outside of the protected historic Market areas. It includes condominium
Condominium
A condominium, or condo, is the form of housing tenure and other real property where a specified part of a piece of real estate is individually owned while use of and access to common facilities in the piece such as hallways, heating system, elevators, exterior areas is executed under legal rights...
apartments, but also the Pike Pub & Brewery and several other retail businesses of a similar character to those within the Market boundaries. Its owner, Harbor Properties, describes it a "adjacent to" the Market.
Other old buildings in the Market include the Champion Building (unknown, 1928; rehabilitation by the Champion/Turner Partnership 1977), originally a garage for the Dollar Cab Company, then a meat packing company, now ground floor retail with offices above; the Soames-Dunn Building (unknown, 1918; rehabilitation by Arne Bystrom 1976), once home to Dunn's Seeds and Soames Paper Company (who supplied paper bags to farmers selling in the Market), now retail, including the "original" Starbucks; Stewart House Hotel (unknown, 1902–1911; rehabilitation by Ibsen Nelson & Associates, 1982), a former workingmen's hotel, now retail and low-income housing; Seattle Garden Center (W. C. Geary, 1908; Art Deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
details added 1930s; rehabilitation and addition, Arne Bystrom 1976) was once the Gem Egg Market and now houses Sur le Table; and the Fix-Madore Building (1916, unknown; rehabilitation by Bumgardner Partnership 1979), now an office and retail building on the west side of Western Avenue, connected to the Main Market by a footbridge.
Newer buildings in the Market include the Post Alley Market at First and Pine (Bassetti Norton Metler, 1983), the Inn at the Market (Ibsen Nelson & Associates, 1985); and The Pike and Virginia Building (Olson/Walker, 1978); and the Market Heritage Center (Scot Carr & Thomas Schaer, 1999). All of these echo at aspects of the architecture of the historic Market buildings. The Pike Hill Climb (Calvin and Gorasht, 1976) connects the Market to the waterfront; it occupies the same corridor that once (roughly 1911–1935) held a wooden overpass used by farmers to bring produce up to the Market after arriving by boat.
Listed buildings near the Market
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
(NRHP). Outside the historic districts but within the City Clerk's definition of the Pike-Market neighborhood are the J. S. Graham Store (1919, designed by A. E. Doyle
A. E. Doyle
Albert Ernest Doyle was a prolific architect in the U.S. states of Oregon and Washington. He is most often credited for his works as A.E. Doyle....
), 119 Pine Street; and the U.S. Immigration Building (1915), 84 Union Street. Other NRHP-listed buildings near the Market but outside of those boundaries include the Guiry and Schillestad Building (Young Hotel or Guiry Building 1903, Mystic Hotel or Schillestad Building 1908), 2101-2111 1st Avenue; the Renaissance-style New Washington Hotel (now Josephinum Hotel, built 1900–1949), 1902 Second Avenue; and the Moore Theatre and Hotel
Moore Theatre (Seattle, Washington)
The Moore Theatre in Seattle, Washington, U.S.A. is a 1,419-seat performing arts venue located at the corner of 2nd Avenue and Virginia Street, two blocks from Pike Place Market in downtown Seattle. It is the oldest still-active theater in Seattle. The Moore hosts a mix of theatrical productions,...
(1907), 1932 2nd Avenue.
Also in the Pike-Market neighborhood but outside the historic districts are at least two city-designated landmark not on the NRHP: the Terminal Sales Building (1923–1925), 1932 1st Avenue; and Pier 59, now home to the Seattle Aquarium
Seattle Aquarium
The Seattle Aquarium is a public aquarium opened in 1977 and located on Pier 59 on the Elliott Bay waterfront in Seattle, Washington, USA. It is accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums .-History:...
.
Nearby attractions
The Moore TheatreMoore Theatre (Seattle, Washington)
The Moore Theatre in Seattle, Washington, U.S.A. is a 1,419-seat performing arts venue located at the corner of 2nd Avenue and Virginia Street, two blocks from Pike Place Market in downtown Seattle. It is the oldest still-active theater in Seattle. The Moore hosts a mix of theatrical productions,...
(1907) on the corner of 2nd Avenue at Virginia Street is the oldest still-active theater in Seattle.
The Seattle Aquarium
Seattle Aquarium
The Seattle Aquarium is a public aquarium opened in 1977 and located on Pier 59 on the Elliott Bay waterfront in Seattle, Washington, USA. It is accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums .-History:...
(1977) is on the waterfront at Pier 59. In 1979 an OMNIMAX theatre (now Seattle IMAXDome) opened at the Aquarium, at the time one of only about half a dozen in the world. The theater is an early tilted dome iteration of IMAX
IMAX
IMAX is a motion picture film format and a set of proprietary cinema projection standards created by the Canadian company IMAX Corporation. IMAX has the capacity to record and display images of far greater size and resolution than conventional film systems...
.
Besides Pier 59 (built 1893; pier shed built 1905), the nearby waterfront includes the turn-of-the-century piers 57 (built 1902), 62 (built 1901), and 63 (built 1905). The city purchased Piers 57–61 in 1978 after the central waterfront had been abandoned by freight shipping for years, supplanted by container ship
Container ship
Container ships are cargo ships that carry all of their load in truck-size intermodal containers, in a technique called containerization. They form a common means of commercial intermodal freight transport.-History:...
ping. Pier 58 was removed to build Waterfront Park
Waterfront Park (Seattle)
Waterfront Park is a public park on the Central Waterfront, Downtown, Seattle, Washington, USA. Designed by the Bumgardner Partnership and consultants, it was constructed on the site of the former Schwabacher Wharf .-History of the site:...
, and Pier 57 was traded in 1989 for Piers 62 and 63. The latter two piers had long since lost their sheds (which were similar to the one on Pier 59). For many years they were the site of the Summer Nights at the Pier concert series, but the "aged and deteriorating" piers can no longer handle the weight of a stage and a crowd. As of 2006, the city is considering plans to replace these piers. Historic Piers 60 and 61 were removed for successive aquarium expansions.
External links
- Official site
- Pike Place Market Centennial, Seattle Municipal Archives
- Movies that filmed at Pike Place Market, MoviePlaces.tv
- Pike Place Market Preservation and Development Authority
- Guide to the Department of Community Development's Pike Place Market Records 1894-1990, Washington State University.
- Guide to the Pike Place Market Visual Images Collection 1894-1984, Washington State University.
- Guide to the Pike Place Market Historical District Records 1971-1989, Washington State University.
- http://content.lib.washington.edu/cdm4/results.php?CISOOP1=all&CISOFIELD1=CISOSEARCHALL&CISORESTMP=results.php&CISOVIEWTMP=item_viewer.php&CISOMODE=thumb&CISOGRID=thumbnail%2CA%2C1%3Btitle%2CA%2C1%3Bsubjec%2CA%2C0%3Bdescri%2C200%2C0%3Bnone%2CA%2C0%3B20%3Btitle%2Cnone%2Cnone%2Cnone%2Cnone&CISOBIB=title%2CA%2C1%2CN%3Bsubjec%2CA%2C0%2CN%3Bdescri%2C200%2C0%2CN%3Bnone%2CA%2C0%2CN%3Bnone%2CA%2C0%2CN%3B20%3Btitle%2Cnone%2Cnone%2Cnone%2Cnone&CISOTHUMB=40+(4x5)%3Btitle%2Cnone%2Cnone%2Cnone%2Cnone&CISOTITLE=20%3Btitle%2Cnone%2Cnone%2Cnone%2Cnone&CISOHIERA=20%3Bsubjec%2Ctitle%2Cnone%2Cnone%2Cnone&CISOSUPPRESS=1&CISOBOX1=Pike+Place+Market&CISOROOT=all&x=0&y=0Pike Place Market] media images, University of Washington Library.
- Three Blocks, A photo a day, taken around Pike Place Market