Happy Birthday Pike Place Market
Pike Place Market celebrates its 119th birthday this year! The origins of the market can be traced to Ordinance 16636 passed on August 5, 1907, designating a portion of “Pike Place” as a location that could be used “for the sale of garden, farm and other food products from wagons, or other similar vehicles, under certain conditions.” Introduced by Council President Thomas Revelle on July 29, the new law was in response to high food costs in the city and anger from farmers who were receiving low prices for their crops from wholesale commission houses. The proposed new market would allow farmers and other producers to provide their goods directly to consumers, promising a better price for all involved.
Not long after the ordinance was passed by city council, Pike Place Market officially opened on August 17, 1907. Open hours were fixed between 5am and noon every day except Sunday. The new market was an immediate success and quickly grew in both size and popularity, averaging over 60 farmers and 300,000 visitors a day in just two years. Over the following decades, it continued to expand while facing challenges such as increasing traffic, proposed moves, competing interests and discrimination, eventual age and neglect, and a near demolition which led to the creation of the Pike Place Market Historical District in 1971.
Records about the market here at SMA include documents, photographs, audiovisual materials, drawings, and more. For example, Pike Place Market Records is a large collection with materials spanning 1907 to 1990 related primarily to the history, proposed redevelopment, and preservation of the Pike Place Market neighborhood. Pike Place Market Historical District records include minutes, subject files, and photographs. And Pike Place Market Visual Images and Audiotapes includes over 2,500 photographs and over 4,500 slides documenting market structures, activities, and celebrations, with over 6,300 items scanned and available to view and download at our Digital Collections site.
Learn much more about the history and evolution of the market at our Pike Place Market online exhibit!
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