Pikes Peak Market

At the turn of the last century, Seattle was a city on the rise. On the heels of the gold rush, it had a population with money to spend. But when middleman food vendors began to jack local prices beyond belief, the public finally put its foot down around Pike and Western with the idea of a farmer's market. The farmer sold out in half a day. City Councilman Thomas Ravel issued the ordinance to establish Pike Place Market in 1907. T And soon, t Wonderful phrases that look a far way forward to what the market would become. That was always a people's market. That kind of language that was purple and appropriate to the time. Entrepreneur Frank Goodwin knew a good t He turned the chaos of produce and money changing hands into an organized system of stalls. He said t He immediately realized that t So he built the main arcade there and he built a couple other buildings in that. And it became the de facto mayor of the market right from the start, 1907 or so. Much of the market's main buildings were built during Goodwin's tenure leading up to World War I. Frank's nephew Arthur Goodwin had a flair for theatrics. In the 1920s, he added the feel of vaudeville and the cabaret. He had a lot of ideas that are seen here in the market. Theatrical lights along the main arcade looked A lot of the ornate col He just thought it added to the ambience, added to the excitement, added to the energy of the market and he was right about that. When the Goodwin family's fortune wore t But he was a shrewd farmer and frugal guy and as soon as he got any money together, he stopped renting and started buying land and planning He also found the market was a very fine place to sell that produce and he was a good farmer and he sold it. He kept adding to Joe looked During the depression, Seattle's main gathering place became a refuge for those living on the edge, a place for food, nearby shelter and a warm smile. But it was World War II that forever changed the face of the market, the internment of the Japanese. There were almost 600 farm permits issued in 1939, for instance, and clearly about two t In 1942, there were only 96 farm permits issued, none of them to Japanese Americans. So you saw that kind of a loss there. But there were a lot of small businesses that were Japanese American owned in the market. They also, they left the farms and they began running produce stands and that. And those were lost or held in trust for them until they got back. Many did not come back. They survived the war, they survived the internment, but they decided they didn't want to come back to the West Coast. By the 1950s and 60s, Pike Place Market was showing its age. The landlords had owned it, were now getting old and they weren't putting their money back into maintaining the buildings. It began looking scruffy and d The automobile and big Everyt Retail merchandising grew and changed. That whole area of individual face-to-face merchandising died and supermarket merchandising began. Pike Place spiraled downward, a tired remnant of yesteryear that the city wanted to replace with new development. But a group of concerned citizens led by arc Victor never, although he was a professor of arc These were built on the back of an envelope by contractors. He always said, Victor always said that the market is the people and it continues to be that way. With a public vote to save the market and its declaration as a national Future of the market is in good hands. It's in its own hands.