Bulletin E-Edition:
Soul of Seattle
Pike Place Market has been a city institution since 1907
By John Gottberg Anderson / For The Bulletin
Last modified: November 24. 2009 7:58AM PST
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A freshly caught salmon flies from the hands of a fishmonger over the heads of patrons at Pike Place Fish. The seafood shop has won worldwide fame for the playful antics that have made it a “must stop” for Seattle visitors.
Barb Gonzalez / For The Bulletin
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SEATTLE —
For many, the Space Needle is the enduring symbol of Seattle. I'm going to argue that its soul is the Pike Place Market.
An urban institution since 1907, more than a half-century before the Needle was ever envisioned, the market opened as a public street market — the first farmers market in the United States, according to the Market Heritage Center — on a hot mid-August day. Eight area farmers drove their wagons to the corner of First Avenue and Pike Street, where they were promptly enshrouded by a crowd of shoppers estimated at 10,000. They sold all their produce by 11 a.m.
By the end of that year, the first market building opened and every space was filled. Today, 102 years later, there are more than 200 permanent businesses in a 17-acre district that sprawls across a bluff overlooking Seattle's Elliott Bay waterfront.
An additional 120 farmers and 190 craftspeople rent table space by the day. Two hundred forty musicians and street performers are licensed by the market, and 300 low-income apartment units overlook the scene. The market has its own government, historical association, merchants' groups, health clinic, preschool and senior center. The phrase may be hackneyed, but this is indeed a city within a city.
Saving the market
I have lived in Seattle at various times in my life, as long ago as 1972 and as recently as 2003, and I never get tired of exploring the Pike Place Market. Like a living organism, it is ever-changing.
The main arcade building's floor displays tiles with the names of those who donated to the “Save the Market” campaign when the aging buildings were slated for demolition. Famed architect Victor Steinbrueck spearheaded the rehabilitation campaign that gave new life to the designated historic district in the 1970s.
Shops come and go, people come and go, but it seems that most of the market's shops and people stick around for a very long time. Market Spice has been selling tea here since 1911. Owner John Yokoyama bought Pike Place Fish in 1965 and turned it into a tourist attraction famed worldwide for its “flying fish”; the original Starbucks Coffee opened nearby in 1971 and in 1976, moved into its current location, the toss of a salmon away from the fish market. I'm certain that some of the buskers have been sitting on the same street corners for decades.
Today, a new renovation project is under way, beginning with an upgrade of electricity, plumbing and structural stability. Subsequent work will improve downhill access and special-events space, while redesigning spaces within a few of the buildings. Thankfully, these new changes won't change the market's mood. A friend who joined me in Seattle last weekend astutely commented, “Everything here has a sort of Old World earthiness to it.”
I concur. From Post Alley (a pedestrian way that extends past retail shops and cafes, a wine shop and an Irish pub, between First Avenue and Pike Place) to the seemingly perpetual stairways that rise from parking lots and the Seattle waterfront, there's a sense of aging European urbanity not often noted in American cities.
The main arcade building is probably the best example. Discreet serpentine passages wind between wooden walls to restaurants that overlook the bay. Sets of staircases descend to a series of lower floors (“Down Under”) with antique stores, galleries and shops such as Double Dorjee (Tibetan ritual artifacts) and the Pike Place Magic Shop. Drop a quarter in a slot for a chance to glimpse the shoes worn by the tallest man who ever lived (8-foot 11-inch Robert Wadlow, who died at 22). Getting lost in the labyrinth almost guarantees you'll make plenty of new discoveries.
Elbow to elbow
Most visitors enter the Pike Place Market from that original First-and-Pike corner. Since 1986, Rachel, sculptor Georgia Gerber's 550-pound bronze piggy bank, has greeted new arrivals directly beneath the tall red-neon “PUBLIC MARKET CENTER” letters that rise on scaffolding above the main arcade building.
We approached this time from the north, from Victor Steinbrueck Park on Western Avenue at Pike Place. The two-block gauntlet to the heart of the market begins outdoors, passing the tables of craftspeople selling jewelry and wool hats, photographs and original art. Then the sidewalk dives under cover, into the open-walled main arcade.
Packed elbow to elbow with a sea of strangers, hoping no one sneezed in our general direction, we waded through the crowd. The names of the various stalls spoke for themselves. Johnson Berry Farm. Holmquist Hazelnut Orchards. Mech Apiaries. Blue Rose Dairy Goat Cheese. Chukar Cherries. Pappardelle's Pasta. Uli's Famous Sausage. Sosio's Fruit and Produce. Purple kale blossomed at one stand; red-and-yellow chile peppers hung from ropes at another. “If I lived here, I wouldn't shop anywhere else,” said my friend.
On the sidewalk outside, and just across Pike Place, buskers showed off their musical talent. A bluegrass duo, that called itself Squirrel Butter, sang and played guitar and banjo. Johnny Hahn banged away at his 64-key spinet piano. Brother Willie and the Market Crew moved listeners nearly to tears with a cappella gospel tunes.
Finally we reached Pike Place Fish. A visitor stepped toward the display shelves of fresh fish and shrieked as an ugly monkfish seemed to leap off the ice at her ... a standard prank of the fishmongers, who keep a hidden string handy to startle curious newcomers. Salmon and shrimp, enormous scallops and Australian lobster tails, drew plenty of attention.
A shopper requested a 5-pound salmon for shipment to the East Coast. With one shout of warning, a fishmonger scooped the sockeye from its bed of ice; in a single fluid motion, as cameras flashed almost in unison, he sent it flying over the heads of astonished onlookers to a colleague behind the main counter. There it was wrapped and packed for its evening flight.
The waterfront
It wouldn't be hard to spend an entire day at the Pike Place Market, but out-of-towners can take in much more within close proximity. Two steep blocks downhill, along Alaskan Way, the waterfront has plenty of attractions of its own, from seafood restaurants to gift shops.
We enjoyed a one-hour harbor cruise with Argosy Cruises. Aboard the Spirit of Seattle, whose enclosed decks allow tourists to stay warm and dry on chilly fall and winter days, we had wonderful views of the downtown Seattle skyline. They stretched from the lacy domes of Safeco and Qwest fields, home of the city's baseball and football franchises, north to the unmistakable Space Needle.
We also got new perspectives on the harbor facilities, especially of the container port and grain-terminal areas.
Back on land, we spent more than an hour in the Seattle Aquarium, many of whose denizens are native to the waters of Puget Sound. Because it was a Saturday, droves of young children wandered between the tanks with their parents, awestruck at odd creatures like sharks and octopuses and jellyfish.
Not as many kids made it to an adjoining building, however; here we walked down a ramp and emerged in an underwater dome, with the sea life of Elliott Bay swimming above and all around us. And we returned up a different ramp to view fur seals, sea otters and river otters in and out of the water. In particular, I found the river otters a thrill to watch. They are at home in Bend's own Deschutes River, of course, but it's difficult to watch their underwater cavorting without scuba gear.
From Piers 50 and 52, where Washington State Ferries depart for Bainbridge Island, Bremerton and other commuter communities, Yesler Way runs inland to Pioneer Square. This is Seattle's oldest urban neighborhood, a place of brick plazas, handsome turn-of-the-20th-century architecture and an intriguing mix of shops and cafes.
Skid Road
At the heart of Pioneer Square is the original “Skid Road,” as recalled in a book of the same name by historian Murray Morgan. Seattle grew around pioneer Henry Yesler's lumber mill, which he built on Elliott Bay in 1852. Timber felled from the steep hillside overlooking the village was slid down an earthen track to the mill, where the logs were cut and loaded on ships in the harbor.
The track became known as The Slot and later as Skid Road, with reputable merchants maintaining their businesses on its north side as seedier establishments proliferated on its south side. So infamous was Seattle's red-light district that the name “skid row” came to be applied to the bad parts of town throughout the United States.
Skid Road came to a Sodom-and-Gomorrah end in 1889 when a great fire destroyed the entire 25-block central business district of Seattle, which then had a population of about 40,000. The city rebuilt rapidly, replacing wood building with modern brick and stone architecture. Drainage issues dictated that the new structures be built on top of the original ones, literally burying the original town.
Today, Bill Speidel's Underground Tour whisks curious visitors through a historic neighborhood that was ostensibly abandoned more than 120 years ago ... although there are plenty of indications that Asian opium dens and Prohibition-era speakeasies, among other clandestine businesses, operated successfully in these catacombs for many years.
Seattle's main commercial center has moved several blocks north from Pioneer Square, but numerous landmarks make it an interesting place to visit. A Klondike Gold Rush museum, considered part of Alaska's Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park, recalls Seattle's role as the gateway to the north during the 1897-98 rush. Many Alaskan fortunes were put to good use in Seattle, notably that of young John Nordstrom, whose shoe store grew to become one of the country's leading department stores.
Pioneer Place Park, a brick-topped triangle at the intersection of Yesler Way, First Avenue South and James Street, is notable for its wrought-iron Victorian pergola, a Tlingit Indian totem pole and a bust of the city's namesake, Chief Sealth. Nearby is 38-story Smith Tower, the tallest building west of the Mississippi River when it was built in 1914.
The return walk to Pike Place Market is a mere 10 blocks on a gentle uphill grade. Art lovers will want to budget some time for a visit to the outstanding Seattle Art Museum, whose current exhibits feature the work of the great Michelangelo (through January) and modern sculptor Alexander Calder (through April 11). Opposite the museum is the 1-year-old Four Seasons Hotel Seattle, incorporating famed local chef Kerry Sear's restaurant, known merely as Art.
There are numerous places to stay and dine in the vicinity of the Pike Place Market. The Inn at the Market is a long-established oasis of modest luxury. Pensione Nichols is a budget-priced urban bed-and-breakfast inn just north, on First Avenue. Practically outside its front door is one of the city's favorite small French bistros, Le Pichet.
It's a little farther away — 15 minutes by foot, but a short taxi ride — to the Pan Pacific Hotel Seattle, which has just celebrated its third anniversary. Adjacent is the fine Seastar Restaurant and Raw Bar, specializing in seafood. You might almost think the fish came from the Pike Place Market the very day it was prepared. In fact, maybe it did.
John Gottberg Anderson can be reached at janderson@bendbulletin.com.
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