Pike Place Market Totally Explained

Everything about Pike Place Market totally explained

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 Seattle's most popular tourist destination. 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).

Location

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. 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 subsequently reduced the official Pike Place Market Historic District designation to the 9 acres, up from the 1.7 conceded by development interests.
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. The Pike Place Market is listed in the United States National Register of Historic Places.

History

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 [CharlesH. Burnett] Jr. filling in for the elected Mayor as Acting Mayor of Seattle declared the day Public Market Day and cut the ribbon. 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.

Major attractions

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.
   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 . 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's 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.

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.
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. 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.
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.

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, 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. 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.

Gallery

Image:Pike Place Market 06.JPG|Approaching the entrance as crowds of people form during a spring day image:PikePlace1_arf.JPG|The Pike Place Market is always busy with foot traffic Image:Pike1.jpg|Inside, showing sign above staircase Image:Pike Place Market 3.jpg|Inside the market Image:Pikeplacemarketlowellssign.jpg|Lowell's Restaurant Image:Chilis at Pike Place Market.JPG|Chili peppers offered for sale at the Pike Place Market Image:GreengrocerSeattle200511 KaihsuTai.jpg|A greengrocer Image:FishmongerSeattle200511 KaihsuTai.jpg|A fishmonger Image:Pike Place Fish.JPG|Pike Place Fish Market Image:Pike_place_giant_squid.jpg | "The Seattle Squid" - life size giant squid sculpture Image:Seattle - Pike Place Xmas 01.jpg|Market at night in Christmas season Image:Seattle - Pike Place Xmas 05.jpg|Pike Place at night in Christmas season Image:RainbowRoses.JPG|Roses for Sale at the market Further Information

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