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Pike Place Public Market Historic District
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. Historic district
Location	Seattle, Washington United States
Built	1903
Architect	Frank Goodwin
NRHP reference No.	70000644
Added to NRHP	March 13, 1970

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. It is a place of business for many small farmers, craftspeople and merchants. It is also one of Seattle's most popular tourist destinations. Located in Downtown, it occupies over 9 acres (36,000 m²). 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).

Location and extent

"Pike-Market" neighborhood as represented in the City Clerk's Seattle Neighborhood Atlas. The heavy line on the map labeled "Alaskan W[a]y Viad[uct]" is part of Washington State Route 99 (SR-99). The unlabeled street inland from SR-99 as it passes the market is Western Avenue.

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-acre (28,000 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.

The South Arcade at the corner of First Avenue and Union Street, built in 1985, lies outside of these protected historic areas. It includes condominium apartments, but also the 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.

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 (69,000 m²) as a historical district. Pressure by developers and the "Seattle establishment" soon got that reduced to a tenth of that acreage. 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, Railroad Avenue (now now Western Avenue) was built on pilings through filled mudflats. Alaskan Way was built farther out as the fill was extended. Piers with warehouses for convenient stevedoring were extended northwest as filling was completed by 1905.

History

Main article: History of the Pike Place Market

Before the Market

Looking east from the Elliott Bay waterfront between Stewart and Virginia Streets. The dirt track rising at left is part of Stewart Street. The first Washington Hotel (1891-1906, center, background) sits atop the small, steep Denny Hill, regraded in 1906-1907. This is taken from somewhere near Railroad Avenue, the present-day Alaskan Way.

This 1905 Sanborn map, dating from just before the founding of the Market (and before Pike Place was built), shows the the heart of today's Market. The intersection near the center of the map is the corner of First and Pike.

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.

Consumers were also unhappy with the system. Manipulated prices often forced them to pay unexpectedly high prices for staple foods. For example, in 1906 and 1907, the price of food skyrocketed mysteriously. Onion prices climbed from 10 cents a pound in 1906 to a dollar a pound in 1907 (from US$0.10 to $1.00). By comparison, a pair of shoes cost $2.00 at the time.

Founding

As consumers and farmers grew increasingly vocal in their unhappiness over the situation, Thomas P. Revelle, 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 5, 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.

As the ribbon was cut to open the Market, fifty customers, the ten farmers with produce wagons, a policeman, and various city officials were present. Once the opening ceremony completed, the fifty customers were reported to have pushed past and over the policeman, and began to buy out the first wagon of vegetables before the farmer could even pull the wagon to the curb. One porter, who worked for the Western Avenue wholesalers, apparently grew angry at the direct competition by the farmers, and climbed into one of the produce wagons. He began to freely give away the farmer's goods, before the angry spectators pulled him down. Other farmers complained of their goods being smashed in the street by young men and boys, who were accused of trying to start a riot. In Soul of the City, one farmer was quoted speaking to a reporter describing that first day:

"The next time I come to this place, I'm going to get police protection or put my wagon on stilts. I got rid of everything, all right, but I didn't really sell a turnip. You see, those society women stormed my wagon, crawled over the wheels and crowded me off to respectable distance, say 20 feet. When I got back the wagon was swept as clean as a good housewife's parlor, and there in a bushel basket was a quart of silver."

Hundreds of more customers soon arrived, and before noon that day, all the farmers' produce had sold out.

First expansion years

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. Goodwin immediately began to sketch plans for enclosures to house farmers along the company property he owned on Pike Place, and began to develop business plans to lease stalls in those enclosure them to farmers. Funded by Goodwin Real Estate, 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. At its opening, a forty-piece band performed for a large cheering crowd. During the early years of the Pike Place Market, Seattle city ordinances limited its hours of operation to only 5 am to 12 noon, Monday through Saturday, and placed initial supervision of the facility with the city Department of Streets and Sewers. Local police gave out vendor stalls to farmers on a first come, first served basis. 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 daily rent for any stall in 1911 was $0.20 a day.

Also in 1911, the City of Seattle created the first full-time jobs to support Market farmers and customers. The Market Inspector, his assistant, and a janitor were the first ever employees of the Pike Place Market. The Inspector, which was renamed Market Master shortly afterward, assigned stalls to farmers and collected their daily fees. The first Market Master, John Winship, initiated a lottery scheme to replace the previous first-come system. To buy a lottery ticket for a stall, farmers had to pay the next day's fee ahead of time. The Pike Place Market had many Japanese farmers, and Winship at first had them choose from a roll of tickets that made it more likely they would receive vendor stalls furthest from the heaviest customer foot traffic. Once the Japanese and other farmers complained about the practice, he quickly stopped it to ensure a fair lottery.

The Market Master and his assistant were also responsible to ensure that farmers used no questionable practices on their customers. Some farmers had weighed down bags of produce for the scales with rocks and gravel, had tried to sneak unripe or spoiled fruit into purchases and, according to one customer, a butcher let his hands "lovingly linger" whenever he weighed meat on his scales. Vendors caught cheating customers would be denied stall rentals for a period of time.

The Public Market & Department Store Company was founded in 1911 by the Goodwins to manage their Pike Place Market properties. They began to design a series of expansions to the Market properties they owned, including the North Arcade, which they planned to build down the bluff along Pike Place. They planned to have all their building expansions set at all times a minimum of ten feet from the sidewalk, to allow extra space for vendors. At the time Frank Goodwin's designs, plans, and intended visual appearance of the Market were considered idiosyncratic.

Pike Place Market in 2008, as seen from above Western Avenue. The top floor, above the painted text, is street level with Pike Place. The historic "Main Arcade" is on that level, and below this building a large bluff extends down to Western Avenue, which is the visible street level.

At the same time as the Goodwins were planning to dramatically expand the Market, the farmers began increasingly to complain about it. They wanted the per-day stall rental fee cut from $0.20 to $0.10, which they were granted. They complained about having to haul produce up the bluff from Western Avenue, and unsuccessfully demanded a mechanical conveyor. Complaints about overcrowding were constant. The farmers also wanted a wooden planked floor set up directly below the Main Arcade for storage. Quickly having grown unhappy with a lack of progress on the part of the city, the farmers used Washington State's then new ballot initiative system to obtain a $150,000 municipal bond issue for their desired improvements.

Seattle Mayor George Cotterill, an engineer, was not in favor of some of the farmer's plans and the idea of such a large muncipal bond. Cotterill appointed a committee to study the various requests and complaints of the farmers, and the committee came to the conclusion that the planned floor expansion and conveyor system the farmers wanted would be unsanitary, difficult to maintain, and far more expensive than they had projected. In response, Cotterill drafted an alternate ballot initiative, for a $25,000 municipal bond. Cotterill's initiative would result in Pike Place becoming a paved road rather than the wood road it currently was, would expand the sidewalks along the arcades by 15 feet, and would improve all the Market roadsides for wagon stalls and tables, placing them all under roofing. On March 13, 1913, Seattle voters rejected the farmer initiative, and passed the mayor's initiative. The first major expansion work on the Market began immediately.

In 1914, spurred by the public initiative of the preceding year, the Goodwins implemented the expansion plans they had been preparing for the Market properties they owned. The Main Arcade was expanded downward, along Pike Place's sheer bluff to Western Avenue below, creating five additional lower floors in a massive, "labyrinthine" structure. By the time the expansions were completed, Pike Place Market extended 240 feet to the west, past the edge of the bluff. New space was created for several restaurants, bakeries, a creamery, butchers, additional stalls and rows in the lower sections for farmers to sell their goods, grain markets, public toilets, two floors dedicated to storage of meats and produce, 100 retail stores, a theater, and a printing plant. The entire expansion was done modestly, aside from its scale. The basic design elements were steel and wood beams, simple railings of rounded metal, basic wooden banisters, and simple wood and tile floors. Frank Goodwin had wanted always to emphasize the Market's products, rather than its design. There was, at the time. little ornamentation, except for ornate columns at the Pike and Pike Place entrance, and occasional carved reliefs of seafood or produce on the various columns throughout the Market. Goodwin even went so far as to exclude a ceremonial cornerstone from the Market design.

• 1916: Goodwins buy the Bartell Building at First & Pike turning it into the Economy Market.

1917-1920s

• Life in the early market under the Goodwins, concluding with Frank selling the business to Arthur.

---

• 1921: City council vote, market control goes to farmer vendors.

• 1922: last building changes to the present 2008 form that remains.

• 1922: market library opens.

• 1926: market replacement plan rejected

• 1926: Art Goodwin buys buildings from Frank.

• 1927: the modern signs and clock go up

• 1929: farmer protests vs "full time" vendors and stores

Great Depression era

1935: Economy building hosts a dance hall for the first time

1938: Mark Tobey begins his art of the market

Market's role in the Depression

World War II era

1941: enter Joe Desimone

1941-42: Sanitary building fire days after Pearl Harbor attacks, loss of Japanese farmers and vendors, "yellow scare" in Seattle in the context of the market (Washington had one of the largest Japanese populations at the time)

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.

1942: Curtis brothel in the La Salle

1946, through 1949: death of Desimone, market business declines from suburban expansion and car life

Market threatened

1950: Harlan Edwards proposes replacing the market with a parking garage, plan is scuttled.

1951: Market vendor rates at all-time low

1953: Viaduct is built, market gets "seedy"

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.

Hippies & the rise of crafts in the Market

1968: Another parking lot proposal and battle is defeated.

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.

Preservation and second expansion of the Market

53,000 sign petitions in 1969 to save the market

1970, the historic district is created. Starbucks opens

1973: The PDA is formed

1974: Warren G. Magnuson arranges US$60 million in federal funds to go with US$75 million in private money to save and rebuild the market

1977: Senior center opens.

1978: Victor Steinbrueck Park

1980: Market Authority buys 80% of the market land footprint

New York ownership battle

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

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.

1980: Urban Group in NYC first aligns with the PDA to raise capital

The 1983 Hildt Amendment (named after Seattle City Council member Michael Hildt) struck a balance between farmers and craftspeople in the daystalls. 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.

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 US$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.

1986: enter Rachel

1989: the garage is completed

1991: Urban group is defeated in court for attempting to foreclose on and hijack the Market from the PDA deals it struck

A source of housing

Information on the expanded market housing that put in place around here

Centennial

Pike Place Market Centennial celebration, August 17, 2007: start of concert

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.

pigs on parade

Modern day

Victor Steinbrueck Park, September 2006

1998: End of the Hildt Amendment era, vendors' strike, etc. and emergence of a new consensus rather similar to Hildt.

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

How the Market functions

Organizations

The Pike Place Market is overseen by the Pike Place Market Preservation & Development Authority ("the PDA"), a public development authority (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. These now include 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. The foundation also supports heritage programs, improvements and repairs to historic buildings, and programs that assist the Market's farmers. The money placed in the Market's giant piggybank goes to this foundation, as do the funds raised by several annual fundraiser, including Pigs on Parade.

Conflicts and policies

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

...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. 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. "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.

>> distinguish stores, daystalls

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 $5.60 for a stall on a Monday-Thursday off season to $32.60 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.

Major attractions

Flying Fish attraction

The market is famous for its displays of fruits and vegetables

Currently, 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.

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. This attraction has also appeared on numerous prime-time installments of NFL games when the Seahawks host games at nearby Qwest Field.

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. 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.

Rachel and Pigs on Parade

Main article: Rachel (pig)

The Pike Place Market's official bronze mascot, Rachel

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 US$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. Locals make a habit of emptying their pockets and rubbing Rachel's snout for good luck.

Notable people

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. 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.

Notable buildings

The first Starbucks store, founded nearby in 1971, moved to its present location at Pike Place Market in 1976

Few of the historic buildings in the Pike-Market neighborhood 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.

Within the Market proper, the Main Arcade (1907) is the original Main Market. Other buildings that have contained market stalls for over 90 years include the Outlook Hotel and Triangle Market (1908), Sanitary Market (1910), North Arcade (1911), Corner Market building (1912), Fairley Building (1914), and Economy Market (c. 1914–17, née Bartell Building, 1900). The Sanitary Market was so named for its innovation at the time, that no horses were allowed inside.

Listed buildings near the Market

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.

Nearby attractions

The Moore Theatre (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. 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. The theater is an early tilted dome iteration of IMAX.

Additional Images

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

References

• Crowley, Walt (1999-07-29), "Pike Place Market (Seattle) -- Thumbnail History, HistoryLink.org, retrieved 2006-07-21{{citation}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link).
• Crowley, Walt (1978), National Trust Guide Seattle, New York: Preservation Press, John Wiley & Sons, Inc..
• Crowley, Walt; Dorpat, Paul (1998), National Trust Guide Seattle, New York: National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States / John Wiley & Sons, Inc., ISBN 0471180440.
• Flom, Eric L. (2002-06-20), Moore Theatre (Seattle), HistoryLink.org, retrieved 2006-07-21{{citation}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link).
• Jones, David G. (1999-12-08), Management Review of the Pike Place Market Preservation and Development Authority (PDF), Office of the City Auditor, retrieved 2008-10-07{{citation}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link). Jones was Deputy City Auditor at the time of publication.
• Lange, Greg (1 January 1999, lead paragraph updated 2006), Seattle's Pike Place Market opens on [[August 17]], [[1907]]., HistoryLink.org, retrieved 2006-07-21 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help); URL–wikilink conflict (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link).
• Lehmann, Thelma (2001-10-25), Masters of Northwest Art: Mark Tobey -- Guru of Seattle Painters, HistoryLink, retrieved 2006-04-21 {{citation}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link). Rewrite of work originally published in Hans and Thelma Lehmann, Out of the Cultural Dustbin: Sentimental Musings on the Arts & Music in Seattle from 1936 to 1992 (Seattle: Lehmann, 1992), 73-75.
• Long, Priscilla (2002-07-17), Mark Tobey paints the first of his influential white-writing style paintings in November or December 1935., HistoryLink, retrieved 2006-04-21 {{citation}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link)
• McRoberts, Patrick (2000-03-16), Seattle Aquarium, HistoryLink, retrieved 2006-04-21{{citation}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
• NRHP (2006), WASHINGTON - King County, National Register of Historic Places, retrieved 2006-07-21. Link is to first of 5 pages. "Alaska Trade Building" (added 1971) and "Butterworth Building" (added 1971) are on p. 1 of 5. "Guiry and Schillestad Building" (added 1985) is on p. 2 of 5. "Moore Theatre and Hotel" (added 1974) and "New Washington Hotel" (added 1989) are on p. 3 of 5.
• Phelps, Myra L. (1978), Public works in Seattle, Seattle: Seattle Engineering Department, ISBN 0-9601928-1-6.
• Pike Place Market (2008-03-25), Daystall Rules and Regulations (PDF), Pike Place Market {{citation}}: Unknown parameter |acccessdate= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link).
• Shenk, Carol; Pollack, Laurie; Dornfeld, Ernie; Frantilla, Anne; Neman, Chris (2002-06-26, maps .jpg c. 2002-06-15), "About neighborhood maps", Seattle City Clerk's Office Neighborhood Map Atlas, Office of the Seattle City Clerk, Information Services, retrieved 2006-04-21 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link). Shenk et al. provide a substantial bibliography with extensive primary sources.
• Seattle City Clerk (Revised 2006-04-30), "About the Seattle City Clerk's On-line Information Services", Information Services, Seattle City Clerk's Office, retrieved 2006-05-21 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link). See heading, "Note about limitations of these data".
• Speidel, William C. (1967), Sons of the profits; or, There's no business like grow business: the Seattle story, 1851-1901, Seattle: Nettle Creek Publishing Company, ISBN 0-914890-00-X {{citation}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help). Also ISBN 0-914890-06-9. Speidel provides a substantial bibliography with extensive primary sources.
• Wilma, David (1999-06-27), Voters preserve Seattle's historic Pike Place Market on [[November 2]], [[1971]]., HistoryLink, retrieved 2006-04-21 {{citation}}: URL–wikilink conflict (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link)
• Shorrett, Alice (2007-08-30), Soul of the City: The Pike Place Public Market, University of Washington Press, ISBN 978-0295987460 {{citation}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)

External links

• Official site
• Pure Food Fish - Celebrating over 50 Years at the Market
• Pike Place Market Food & Cultural Tours
• Pike Place Fish
• Market Ghost Tours
• The Great Wind-Up
• Pike Place Market: Thumbnail History
• Vote No on Initiative 1
• Movies that filmed at Pike Place Market
• Virtual Tour inside market
• The History of Pike Place Market Buskers Project
• Pike Place Market Preservation and Development Authority
• Guide to the Department of Community Development's Pike Place Market Records 1894-1990
• Guide to the Pike Place Market Visual Images Collection 1894-1984
• Guide to the Pike Place Market Historical District Records 1971-1989