When was pike place market founded

The aging Market buildings did little to entice many people away from brightly-lit grocery store aisles. Paint was peeling, walls were cracking, and a general lack of maintenance gave the Market an old and neglected appearance.

The number of transients in the neighborhood also served as a deterrent to many shoppers. To some in the community, the Market began looking more and more like an eyesore.

The first suggestion of impending change for the Market came in , when engineer Harlan Edwards recommended demolishing it in favor of a large parking garage.

While this idea went nowhere, in the business-oriented Central Association of Seattle put forward a proposal that would replace the Market with high-rise office and hotel buildings, as well as a 7-story parking garage. This plan would use federal urban renewal funds and had the support of the Mayor and City Council. Citizens who felt the Market was a unique and valuable resource for the community founded a group called Friends of the Market to fight against the urban renewal plan.

Architect Victor Steinbrueck was highly visible in opposition to the Market's demolition, speaking at public meetings and leading protest rallies. Artist Mark Tobey was another prominent Market supporter. Despite the popular uprising against the project, on August 4, , the City Council voted to go ahead with the urban renewal plan. In , Friends of the Market sponsored Initiative 1, which would establish a 7-acre historic district around the Market and a commission to approve and oversee any alteration or demolition of Market buildings.

Twenty-five thousand signatures were collected in three weeks to qualify the measure for the ballot that November. The Mayor, City Council, and business community promoted a weaker counterproposal that included a smaller preservation area and less rigorous enforcement. While both groups claimed to be "saving" the Market, the voters preferred the vision of the Friends by a 3-to-2 margin. The Pike Place Market Historical Commission was established by the initiative in and began meeting immediately.

They discussed design guidelines and considered applications for architectural modifications in the Market. Meanwhile, a large-scale rehabilitation of the Market buildings began in Anxieties were not calmed when Mayor Dorm Braman denounced the Market as "a decadent, somnolent firetrap" Crowley, The City scaled back its urban renewal ambitions, but from the Friends' point of view, the concessions were trivial.

Steinbrueck then engineered a masterstroke of creative obstructionism when he convinced Washington's new Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, created by the National Historic Preservation Act, to approve a acre Pike Place Market Historic District that would block use of federal funds for demolition. But Steinbrueck's victory was short-lived. The establishment counterattacked by persuading the advisory council to shrink the District to a mere 1.

The Friends then took to the streets with an initiative creating a seven-acre preservation zone, administered by a Market Historical Commission with broad powers for preserving not only the Market's physical structure but also its social and economic character. In three weeks, they collected 25, signatures to qualify the initiative for the November 2, , ballot.

Mayor Wes Uhlman and the city council offered an alternative for a smaller historic district and weaker enforcement, and this gained the support of some prominent Market merchants, such as deli owner Pete De Laurenti, who feared that the Market would stagnate without federal aid.

The campaign became a war between competing Market saviors, but the voters sided with the Friends by 76, to 53, Now came the hard part. The City and the Friends of the Market quickly made their peace, but there was little agreement on what "preservation" meant in practical terms. A nonprofit Market Foundation was established to fund services for the area's low-income residents: a senior center, a clinic, and a food bank.

Included in the mix was the Merchants Association and the Historical Commission. The interplay of these groups and their constituencies has created a lively, sometimes fractious urban politics. The job of satisfying the Market's competing interests while rehabilitating it in accordance with the soaring rhetoric of Steinbrueck and his allies fell in to supervising architect George Bartholick.

The preservation and improvement effort has since cost millions in public funds and private investment, and it will never really be finished. More than a century after its original planking, the Market attracts visitors and locals alike with its historic feel and yeasty mix of farmers, merchants, craftspeople, and restaurateurs.

It continues to serve as a gateway for immigrants like the Hmong flower growers from Laos who arrived during and after the Vietnam war. And, for all the heartache and heat generated since , the results are remarkably faithful to the vision expressed by Mark Tobey in the mid-twentieth century.

The Pike Place Market is "still active, still varied, exciting and terribly important in the welter of overindustrialization" Crowley, A Clamorous Fiasco On Saturday, August 17, , thousands of women braved a summer rainstorm to converge on a newly built plank roadway fronting the Leland Hotel at 1st Avenue and Pike Street in downtown Seattle.

A Muckraker Wins the Market To spite this system, farmers and consumers had already begun rendezvousing informally along Western Avenue, when their complaints reached a receptive ear in newly elected city councilmember Thomas P. A "Narrow Cow Path"? Pearl Harbor Hits the Market The December 7, , attack on Pearl Harbor ignited long-smoldering resentments toward the Japanese American farmers who sold produce in perhaps four-fifths of the market stalls.

Float Loan Disbursements and Documentation. Clark, Reuse Appraisal Parcel 21 Clark, Reuse Appraisal, Garden Center. Clark, Reuse Appraisals.

Dale, Jr. Dix and Associates, Inc. Gray and Company, Parking Feasibility Analysis. Goldsmith and Associates, Survey of Property and Buildings. Jacobsen, Time Lapse Photography.

Opsvig, Reuse Appraisals. Twelker, Soils Testing. Vincent de Paul. Property Management, Property Records: E. Wilson Produce Company d Property Management, Property Records: Mt. Rainier Bulb Company J 2 -C. Billboard at Western A. I Market Connection Ltd. II Market Connection Ltd. Gray Contract. Department of Commerce, Economic Development Admin. Jones Building Rehabilitation Project. Kent Vincent. Odegaard, et al. City Council 0. Cliffhouse Associates et al.

Series V: Scrapbooks, Return to Top 12 volumes , 6 boxes. Geographical Names : Seattle Wash. Office of Management and Budget creator. Pike Place Market Guidelines. Pike Place Urban Renewal Plan. Pike Place Design Report. Pike Place Final Report.

Pike Plaza Survey and Planning Application. Pike Project Financing, Working Paper. Research on Pike Place Market Buildings. General Correspondence. Subseries 2: Financial Records. Sub-subseries A: Budgets. Administrative Budget. Budget Request, Department of Community Development. Projected Expenditures, HUD. Projected Expenditures, Office of Management and Budget. First Amendatory Loan and Grant Contract.

Loan and Grant Application First , Correspondence. Loan and Grant Amendatory Application Third. Block Grant First Year. Community Development Block Grant Application. Block Grant, Second Year. Block Grant, Third Year. Block Grant , Hillclimb. Block Grant, Urban Renewal Closeout. Block Grants, Instructions and Information. Block Grant Urgent Needs, Application. Block Grant Urgent Needs, Block Grant Urgent Needs. Block Grant Urgent Needs, Administration. Block Grant Urgent Needs, H Section 8 Rental Supplement.

Section d 3 Housing. Urban Renewal Closeout. Urban Renewal Closeout Agreement. Urban Renewal Closeout, Program Urban Renewal Closeout, Contracts: Contract Funding Source Log. Contracts: Cozart, Robert L. Contracts, Building Department: Numbers to Contracts, Engineering Department: Log of Contracts.

Contracts, Engineering Department: Sanitary Sewers Contracts, Engineering Department: Street Improvements Contracts, Engineering Department: Inclined Elevator Contracts, Engineering Department: Directional Signage Contracts, Engineering Department: Hillclimb, Landscaping Contracts, Engineering Department: Hillclimb Review Contracts, Water Department: Fountain Installation Gray and Company.

Sub-subseries E: Financial Reports. Sub-subseries F: Audits. Block Grant -- State Audit. Subseries 3: Property Records. Sub-subseries A: Acquisition. Proclaimer Certificates, No. Proclaimer Certificates, Notes. Appraisal Services. Appraisal Services, Coulton and Kelling. Appraisal Services, S. Dix Associates. Appraisal Services Proposal, S.

Appraisal Services, The Eastman Company. Appraisal Services Proposal, Shorett and Reily. Property Appraisals and Assessed Values. Property Analysis. Property Analysis, Immovable Fixtures. Land Acquisition Progress Reports. Weekly Reports, John Newell. Acquisition Appraisals: Parcel Acquisition Appraisals: Parcel J.

Acquisition Appraisals: Parcel A. Acquisition Appraisals: Parcel and Acquisition Appraisals: Parcel D. Acquisition Appraisals: Parcel E. Acquisition Appraisals: Parcel F. Acquisition Appraisals: Parcel H. Acquisition Appraisals: Parcel I. Artist Mark Tobey begins a years-long chronicle of the Market in sketches and paintings. The Sanitary Market building burns just days after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Engineer Harlan Edwards, husband of Seattle City Council member Myrtle Edwards, proposes development in the Market that includes a 1,car parking garage.

Pike Plaza Project proposed to rejuvenate the Market urban renewal. Skyscrapers would replace most Market buildings. The plan is backed by the mayor. Friends of the Market, led by architect and civic activist Victor Steinbrueck, forms to oppose plans to redevelop the Market. Friends of the Market gathers 53, voter signatures to save the Market from the wrecking ball.

A larger area is added to the historic district listing in Seattle voters approve Initiative 1 to "Keep the Market" from the wrecking ball.

Oriental Mart opens. It is still owned by the original family, the Apostols. The Market is renovated. Alm Hill Gardens Farm starts selling on Market farm tables; today they have the distinction of being the farmer with the most seniority.

A park honoring Victor Steinbrueck opens on a former site of an armory.