There was a time, a little over 50 years ago, that the Pike Place Market almost fell to the wrecking ball of developers. Out-of-towners had their own ideas about the land underneath the Market and saw a hotel and parking lot take its place.
The timeframe was the late 1960s. The Pike Place Market was showing signs of years of neglect. The Market had several challenges in the decades since WWII leading to its downfall as a mercantile destination for city dwellers. The introduction of the interstate freeway system in the 1950s made it possible to distribute fresh produce far and wide. Selling direct to the customer was not lucrative or competitive in the marketplace with the advent of the “Supermarket.” Also, a significant number of farmers stopped selling at the Market after the end of WWII, namely the Japanese farmers who made up the largest population of farmers and were sadly and unjustly removed from their homes and farms and placed into internment camps during the war. Sadly, after the war ended, their farmland confiscated, the Japanese farmers lost much of what they had and subsequently did not return to the business of farming and consequently did not return to the Market.
The once vibrant Pike Place Market fell into abandon and decay. By 1949 only 53 market stalls remained, down nearly 90 percent from a decade earlier. (Source: Seattle Times.)
The lackluster draw at the market nearly got it raised. Thank goodness it didn't happen.
Fast forward to Now.
The Market not only exists, it persists! And today, the Pike Place Market is celebrating its 117th anniversary on August 17, 2024. The fact that the Market is here today is due to a group called "The Friends of the Market," a volunteer civic organization formed in 1963 under the wing of Allied Arts of Seattle and "dedicated to saving and renewing the historical Pike Place Market and district through a program of community planning."
In 1968, "Friends of the Market" led a city-wide initiative at the ballot box to save the Market from the developer's dreaded wrecking ball. As President of "Friends of the Market," Victor Steinbrueck, architect and active in historic preservation in Seattle back in the day, is wildly credited with saving the Pike Place Market from demolition. Because of Steinbrueck's leadership and advocacy, the initiative passed by popular vote in the City of Seattle and the Pike Place Market was designated with historic status in 1971.
"The Pike Place Market deserves to live on, as a link with Seattle's past, a meaningful and much-loved part of its present, and a place of unlimited possibilities for its future."
--Victor Steinbrueck, Architect and member, Friends of the Market.