Pike Place Market

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Pike Place Public Market Historic District
(U.S. Registered Historic District)
Location: Seattle, Washington
Flag of the United States United States
Coordinates: 47°36′36.97″N 122°20′25.01″W / 47.6102694, -122.3402806Coordinates: 47°36′36.97″N 122°20′25.01″W / 47.6102694, -122.3402806
Built/Founded: 1903
Architect: Frank Goodwin
Added to NRHP: March 13, 1970
NRHP Reference#: 70000644[1]

Pike Place Market is a public market overlooking the Elliott Bay waterfront in Seattle, Washington, United States. The Market, which opened August 17, 1907, is one of the oldest continually-operated public farmer's markets in the United States.[citation needed] It is a place of business for many small farmers, craftspeople and merchants. It is also Seattle's most popular tourist destination.[citation needed] Located in Downtown, it occupies over 9 acres (36,000 m²). The Market is bounded by First Avenue to the east, Western Avenue to the west, Virginia Street to the north, and, to the south, a line drawn from First to Western Avenues halfway between Pike Street and Union Street. It is named after its central street, Pike Place, which runs northwest from Pike Street to Virginia Street.

The Market is built on the edge of a steep hill. It has several lower levels below the main level, featuring a variety of unique shops. Antique dealers, comic book sellers, and small family-owned restaurants are joined by one of the few remaining head shops in Seattle. The upper street level features fishmongers, fresh produce stands, and craft stalls operating in the covered arcades. Local farmers 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." The Market is also home to nearly 500 low income residents who live in 8 different buildings throughout the Market. The Market is run by the quasi-government Pike Place Market Preservation and Development Authority (PDA).

Contents

[edit] Location

Pike Place Market, looking west on Pike Street from First Avenue
Pike Place Market, looking west on Pike Street from First Avenue

The market is surrounded by Belltown on the north and the central business district and the central waterfront on the east and south, respectively. Boundaries are diagonal to the compass since the street grid is roughly parallel to the Elliott Bay shoreline.[2][3][4] The boundaries enclosing 17 acres are nearly those approved by the Washington Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, created by the 1966 National Historic Preservation Act. The concentration of historic buildings effectively defines the neighborhood. Compromise with pressure by developers and the Seattle Establishment[5] subsequently reduced the official Pike Place Market Historic District designation to the 9 acres, up from the 1.7 conceded by development interests.[6]

The neighborhood elevation is several hundred feet and the slope steep, so views can be impressive, but for the block-shaped Alaskan Way Viaduct built in 1953. The heart of the neighborhood is the Pike Place Market and Victor Steinbrueck Park.

The original shore was mudflats below the bluffs west of Pike Place. In the later 19th century, Railroad Avenue was built on pilings through filled mudflats along what is now Western Avenue, with Alaskan Way built farther out as the fill was extended. Piers with warehouses for convenient stevedoring were extended northwest as filling was completed by 1905.[7] The Pike Place Market is listed in the United States National Register of Historic Places.

[edit] History

Looking east from the Elliott Bay waterfront near Pike Street. The first Washington Hotel (1891-1906, center, background) sits atop the small, steep Denny Hill, regraded in 1906-1907. At the shore is Railroad Avenue on pilings, now Western Avenue. Alaskan Way apparently does not yet exist, so this is before the completion of filling in 1905.
Looking east from the Elliott Bay waterfront near Pike Street. The first Washington Hotel (1891-1906, center, background) sits atop the small, steep Denny Hill, regraded in 1906-1907. At the shore is Railroad Avenue on pilings, now Western Avenue. Alaskan Way apparently does not yet exist, so this is before the completion of filling in 1905.

Between 1906 and 1907 the price of onions rose from 10 cents per pound to $1.00 per pound. (By comparison, a pair of shoes cost $2). Seattle citizens, angry at price-gouging middlemen, pressured the city to establish a public market whereby customers could 'meet the producer' directly (this philosophy has more or less remained the same to this day). City councilman Thomas Revelle spearheaded the drive to start a Saturday morning market. And so on Saturday, August 17, 1907 City Council President [Charles H. Burnett] Jr. filling in for the elected Mayor as Acting Mayor of Seattle declared the day Public Market Day and cut the ribbon. [8] roughly ten farmers pulled up their wagons on a boardwalk adjacent to the Leland Hotel. Before noon that day, all their produce had sold out. After an enthusiastic response from local shoppers, the first building at the Market was opened in late 1907.[6] Within a decade, the Corner Market, Economy Market, Sanitary Market, and North Arcade were built.

By the 1940s, more than two-thirds of the stalls in Pike Place Market were owned by Japanese-Americans. Following the bombing of Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 February 19, 1942, which forced all Americans of Japanese ancestry in the "exclusion zone" of western Washington, western Oregon, California, and southern Arizona into internment camps in California. Their property, including any stalls at Pike Place, was confiscated and sold.

In 1963, a proposal was floated to demolish Pike Place Market and replace it with Pike Plaza, which would include a hotel, 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, and others from the board of Friends of the Market, and 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.

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.

Victor Steinbrueck Park, directly north of the market, was named in 1985 after the architect who was instrumental in the market's preservation.

[edit] Centennial

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 Steinbruek Park in the evening.[9]

[edit] Major attractions

Flying Fish attraction
Flying Fish attraction
The market is famous for stunning displays of fruits and vegetables
The market is famous for stunning displays of fruits and vegetables
The first Starbucks store, founded nearby in 1971, moved to its present location at Pike Place Market in 1976
The first Starbucks store, founded nearby in 1971, moved to its present location at Pike Place Market in 1976

As of 2006, the longest tenured vendor at the Pike Place Market is Sol Amon's Pure Food Fish. Inheriting the business from his father, Sol has donned his apron at Pure Food Fish for over fifty years. Sol's presence can often be seen outside his stall chatting with visitors and helping them choose the best fish to bring home to their families. He helps them package his special Alderwood Smoked Salmon or Copper River Salmon to enjoy in their homes after their trip. In honor of Sol, in 2006 the Seattle City Council permanently designated April 11 as Sol Amon Day commemorating his 50 years of service to the market.[10]

One of the Market's major attractions is Pike Place Fish Market, 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 fishmongers 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.

Starbucks Coffee was founded near Pike Place Market, at 2000 Western Avenue, in 1971. By three partners: Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegel and Gordon Bowker. They were inspired by Alfred Peet of Peet's Coffee to open the store and sell high-quality coffee beans. The first store relocated to Pike Place Market in 1976, where it is still in operation.[19] The sign outside this branch, unlike others, features the original logo - a bare-breasted siren that was modelled after a 15th century Norse woodcut. It also features a large pig statue, a landmark throughout the market.

Pike Place Market's official mascot, Rachel, a bronze cast piggy bank that weighs nearly 600 pounds, is located 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 $9,000USD annually in just about every type of world currency, which is collected by the Market Foundation to fund the Market's social services. Locals make a habit of emptying their pockets and rubbing Rachel's snout for good luck.

[edit] Notable buildings

The Pike Market neighborhood is largely defined by the concentration of historic buildings in the small area. Due to complexities and competing interests, only some if not few historic structures or places are officially designated. The Alaska Trade Building (1900–1924), 1915–1919 1st Avenue; the Late Victorian style Butterworth Building (1900-1924), 1921 1st Avenue, originally a mortuary; the Guiry and Schillestad Building (Young Hotel or Schillestad Buildings, 1900-1949), 2101-2111 1st Avenue; and the Renaissance style New Washington Hotel (Josephinum Hotel, (1900–1949), 1902 Second Avenue, are officially listed in the National Register of Historic Places.[11]

The Pike Place Market is also a building, the arcade (1907) which is the original Main Market, and a Historic District. Extant buildings are the arcade, the Outlook Hotel and Triangle Market (1908), Sanitary Market (1910), extended arcade (1911), Corner Market building (1912), Fairley Building (1914), and Economy Market (c. 1914–17, nee Bartell Building, 1900). The Sanitary Market was so named for its innovation at the time, that no horses were allowed inside.[6][12]

A postcard from the Moore Hotel and Theater, c. 1907.
A postcard from the Moore Hotel and Theater, c. 1907.

The Moore Theater (1907), on the corner of 2nd Avenue at Virginia Street, is the oldest still-active theater in Seattle. Innovative architecture, luxurious materials, and sumptuous decor characterized the Moore (including a once-segregated balcony with separate entrances, though the balcony was well-appointed for its day). The staging area was the largest of any theater in Seattle, with an electrical system that was state-of-the-art for its time, and unusually numerous dressing rooms. Seating 2436, the Moore was one the largest theatres in the U.S. at the time. Other innovations included a hotel, intended for the 10th anniversary 1907 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition (rescheduled for 1909). The Moore was a lavish social venue for the Robber Baron elite of Gilded Age and early 20th century Seattle. Excellent programming carried the Moore through the 1930s, but changes in entertainment gradually led to struggling to survive by the 1970s. The Moore Theatre and Hotel was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.[11] The Moore became the Moore Egyptian (after the luxury motion picture theatre on The Ave in the University District, converted to a drugstore c. 1960). The Moore Egyptian was rescued as a movie theatre with innovative programming, and became the original home for the Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF, founded 1976). Dan Ireland and Darryl Macdonald were the leading talents in the success. Moore owners declined to renew the lease, and the SIFF moved to the Masonic Temple on Capitol Hill. The Moore has hosted touring musicians and theatrical productions since the 1980s, currently seating about 1,400.[13]

The Seattle Aquarium (1977) is on the waterfront at Pier 59. The waterfront includes the turn of the century piers 59, 61, 62, and 63. The city purchased piers 59–61 in 1971 after the central waterfront had been abandoned by freight shipping for years, supplanted by container shipping. Historic Piers 60 and 61 were later removed for aquarium expansion. In 1979 an OMNIMAX theatre opened (now Seattle IMAXDome), at the time one of only about half a dozen in the world.[14] The theater is an early tilted dome iteration of IMAX.

[edit] Notable people

In addition to Dan Ireland and Darryl Macdonald, who were instrumental in rescuing the Moore Theater and in establishing the SIFF, 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,[15][16] 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.[6] 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.[6][12][17] 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. Sol Amon, owner of Pure Food Fish, is also notable as the longest running vendor at the Pike Place Market. He was named by the Seattle City Council as "King of the Market in 2006" in commemoration of Pure Food Fish's golden anniversary. Sol, aka "The Cod Father", is a large supporter of the Market Foundation and has helped in the Foundation's efforts to fund services for low-income people. On April 11, 2006, Sol Amon Day, he donated all of the day's profits from Pure Food Fish to the Market Foundation.[18]

[edit] Local farmers and the Market

Local Washington farmers have long been a staple at the market, but concerns were raised in 2008 that the Market had become more of a tourist attraction than venue for shopping for produce and groceries.[19]

[edit] Gallery

Approaching the entrance as crowds of people form during a spring day

The Pike Place Market is always busy with foot traffic

Inside, showing sign above staircase

Inside the market

Lowell's Restaurant

Chili peppers offered for sale at the Pike Place Market

A greengrocer

A fishmonger

Pike Place Fish Market

"The Seattle Squid" - life size giant squid sculpture

Market at night in Christmas season

Pike Place at night in Christmas season

Roses for Sale at the market

A display of apples and vegetables

Economy Market entrance, at the corner of 1st and Pike

An overhanging bridge, which contains vendors

The rear view of the Pike Place Market, as seen from the direction of Elliot Bay

Flower merchant displays

The Athenian in the Market, one of the oldest diners in Seattle

Golden Age Collectables, a comic store in the Market

King salmon sold by a fishmonger in the Sanitary Market

Entrance to the southern of Post Alley and the Market Theater

Pike Place, as seen from facing north

A skywalk to the official Market parking area

The southern end of the Sanitary Market, on the corner of 1st Avenue and Pike

The rear entrance to the market

The Sanitary Public Market

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ WASHINGTON - King County - Historic Districts. National Register of Historic Places. Retrieved on 2008-02-01.. See "Pike Place Public Market Historic District"
  2. ^ "Pike Market". Seattle City Clerk's Neighborhood Map Atlas. Office of the Seattle City Clerk (n.d.; image Jpeg dated 2002-06-13). Retrieved on 2006-07-21.
  3. ^ "About the Seattle City Clerk's On-line Information Services". Information Services. Seattle City Clerk's Office (Revised 2006-04-30). Retrieved on 2006-05-21.
    See heading, "Note about limitations of these data".
  4. ^ Shenk, Pollack & Dornfeld 2002
  5. ^ Speidel 1967
  6. ^ a b c d e Crowley 1999.
  7. ^ Phelps 1978, p. 71-73
  8. ^ History of the Market. Pike Place Market. Retrieved on December 15, 2005.
  9. ^ 100 Years, 100% Seattle, Pike Place Market, 2007. Accessed online 1 February 2008.
  10. ^ "King Gets His Day", Pike Place Market News, April 2006, Pike Place Market Merchant Association, p. 2. Accessed online 1 February 2008.
  11. ^ a b NRHP 2006
  12. ^ a b Lange 1999
  13. ^ Flom 2002
  14. ^ McRoberts 2000
  15. ^ Lehmann 2001
  16. ^ Long 2002
  17. ^ Wilma 1999
  18. ^ Erik Lacitis, Selling fish still his "first love", originally in Seattle Times, May 1, 2007, reproduced on FreshSeafood.com, accessed there 1 February 2008.
  19. ^ Pike Place Market becoming less-fertile ground for farmers. Seattle Times (2008). Retrieved on 2007-05-27.

19. "Starbucks". Wikipedia. Feb. 6 2008.

[edit] References

[edit] See also

  • List of farmers' markets

[edit] External links

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