Pike Place Market

After returning from Mount Rainier I went to downtown Seattle to check out some of the more notable streets. Probably the most well known street in Seattle is Pike Place which is the location of the Pike Place Market. Pike Place Market is roughly located at the intersection of Pike Street and Pike Place.

The street Pike Place was originally built as a planked road above Western Avenue on Denny Hill. The planked Pike Place can be seen in it's original form on this photo below.

Planked Pike Place

I believe Pike Place was present in the late 1890s but I can't find a definitive date of construction. Denny Hill was regraded in 1906-1907 which allowed room for the Pike Place Market to be built. For comparison sake on the photo above the dirt street on the hill on the left is Stewart Street. This is the view from Stewart Street facing out to where the photo above was taken.

Before the creation of the Pike Place Market local farmers in Seattle sold their good through commercial wholesalers at a location known as "The Lots" which was located at 6th Avenue and King Street. The Lots forced local sellers to pay a high commission for goods which eventually led for a push for a Public Market to be constructed. Pike Place was designated as the location of a Public Market by the City of Seattle in 1907 which in turn opened in August the same year.

Pike Place Market was supposed to be a temporary market place but it quickly became popular and the location never shifted. The closest the Pike Place Market ever came to shuttering was in the 1960s when the City of Seattle proposed redevelopment which was highly opposed by public opinion. Pike Place is still paved in bricks and is generally a sea of chaos between all the small shops, vendors, cars and foot traffic.

Parking on Pike Place is an absolute nightmare it seems for everyone, even delivery drivers.

The inside the buildings in the Pike Place Market resemble street level scenes from the original Blade Runner.

The Pike Place Fish Market from Human Resource video fish tossing infamy is located at the intersection of Pike Street and Pike Place. The Fish Market has been in business in the Pike Place Market since 1930.

The Pike Place Market even bleeds over into nearby Post Alley.

Update: I found this 1904 map of the Seattle business district, the map does not show Pikes Place present at the time. I suspect all that was present at most was a planked alley or walkway.

1904 Map of Seattle

Comments

Interstate 40's Tumultuous Ride Through the Pigeon River Gorge

In the nearly 60 years Interstate 40 has been open to traffic through the Pigeon River Gorge in the mountains of Western North Carolina, it has been troubled by frequent rockslides and damaging flooding, which has seen the over 30-mile stretch through North Carolina and Tennessee closed for months at a time. Most recently, excessive rainfall from Hurricane Helene in September 2024 saw sections of Interstate 40 wash away into a raging Pigeon River. While the physical troubles of Interstate 40 are well known, how I-40 came to be through the area is a tale of its own. Interstate 40 West through Haywood County near mile marker 10. I-40's route through the Pigeon River Gorge dates to local political squabbles in the 1940s and a state highway law written in 1921. A small note appeared in the July 28, 1945, Asheville Times. It read that the North Carolina State Highway Commission had authorized a feasibility study of a "...water-level road down [the] Pigeon River to the Tennessee l...

Massena Center Suspension Bridge

The Massena Center Bridge, also known as the Holton D. Robinson Bridge, has had quite the tumultuous history. Situated on the Grasse River just east of Massena, New York in the hamlet of Massena Center, the Massena Center Bridge is a reminder of the efforts the community has made in order to connect over the river. The first and only other known bridge to be built at Massena Center was built in 1832, but that bridge was never long for this world. During the spring of 1833, the Grasse River dammed itself due to an ice dam, flooded and lifted the bridge off its foundation, destroying the bridge in the process. The floods were frequent in the river during the spring, often backing up the river from Hogansburg and past Massena Center, but not to nearby Massena. After the first bridge disappeared, local residents had to resort to traveling seven miles west to Massena to cross the next closest bridge, and that was no easy task for a horse and buggy. However, it was many decades befo...

The Dead Man's Curve of Interstate 90 and Innerbelt Freeway in Cleveland

"Dead Man's Curve" refers to the transition ramp Interstate 90 takes between Cleveland Memorial Shoreway onto the Innerbelt Freeway in downtown Cleveland, Ohio. Said curve includes a sharp transition between the two freeways which is known for a high rate of accidents. Currently the curve (not officially named) has a 35 MPH advisory speed and numerous safety features intended to mitigate crashes. When the Interstate System was first conceived during 1956, Interstate 90 was intended to use the entirety Cleveland Memorial Shoreway and connect to the Northwest Freeway through Lakewood. The Innerbelt Freeway was initially planned as the northernmost segment of Interstate 71. The extension of Cleveland Memorial Shoreway west of Edgewater Park was never constructed which led to Interstate 90 being routed through the Innerbelt Freeway. Part 1; the history of Cleveland's Innerbelt Freeway and Deadman's Curve The Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 was signe...

Gribblenation

Search This Blog