Pike Place Market at 119: The Farmers' Market Seattle Voted to Save
Founded in 1907 out of a fight over food prices, saved by voters in 1971, and still run on 'Meet the Producer' — the market is Seattle's front porch, and this newsroom's first standing feature.
Pike Place Market exists because Seattle got angry about the price of onions. In 1907, with farmers railing against the commission houses that controlled what their produce earned, the City Council — led by Council President Thomas Revelle — passed Ordinance 16636 and created a public farmers' market where growers sold directly to the city.
It opened on August 17, 1907. One hundred nineteen years later, it is one of the oldest continuously operated public farmers' markets in the United States.
The model has a name, and the market still runs on it: 'Meet the Producer.' Farmers and craftspeople rent day tables in the arcades and sell what they grew or made themselves. The nine acres above the Elliott Bay waterfront hold the famous fish market and the sign — and also a working neighborhood, home to roughly 500 residents, many in low-income housing.
The market nearly did not survive the twentieth century. Urban renewal targeted the district for demolition; Seattle voters answered with a 1971 initiative that passed by roughly three to two, creating a historic district, and the Pike Place Market Preservation and Development Authority was formed in 1973 to run it.
Every Seattle newsroom needs a standing introduction to the market, because the market is the city's front porch: the place where the region's food, money, tourism, and history all pass the same tables. This is ours.
