page_title: Pike Place Market
section_title: First expansion years
hierarchical_section_title: Pike Place Market / History / First expansion years
caption_attribution_description: Pike Place Market from Western Avenue in Seattle
context_page_description: Pike Place Market is a public market in Seattle, Washington, United States. It opened on August 17, 1907, and is one of the oldest continuously operated public farmers' markets in the United States. Overlooking the Elliott Bay waterfront on Puget Sound, it serves as a place of business for many small farmers, craftspeople and merchants. Named after the central street, Pike Place runs northwest from Pike Street to Virginia Street. Pike Place Market is Seattle's most popular tourist destination and the 33rd most visited tourist attraction in the world, with more than 10 million annual visitors.
  The Market is built on the edge of a steep hill, and consists of several lower levels located below the main level. Each features a variety of unique shops such as antique dealers, comic book and collectible shops, small family-owned restaurants, and one of the oldest head shops in Seattle. The upper street level contains fishmongers, fresh produce stands and craft stalls operating in the covered arcades.
context_section_description: In 1907 Frank Goodwin owned Goodwin Real Estate Company in Seattle, together with his brothers Ervin and John. Headquartered in the city's Alaska Building, they owned the Leland Hotel on Pike Street and the undeveloped tracts of land that surrounded Pike Place along the Western Avenue bluff. On the opening day of the Market, Goodwin observed the early morning chaos of farmers dealing with large crowds. Sensing that their land was about to appreciate in value, they began to heavily advertise adjoining plots for sale. Work began immediately on what is today the Main Arcade of the Pike Place Market, northwest of and adjoining the Leland Hotel.
  The first building at the Market, the Main Arcade, opened November 30, 1907. At its opening, a forty-piece band performed for a large cheering crowd. During the early years of the Pike Place Market, Seattle city ordinances limited its hours of operation to only 5 am to 12 noon, Monday through Saturday, and placed initial supervision of the facility with the city Department of Streets and Sewers. Local police gave out vendor stalls to farmers on a first come, first served basis. In 1910, two farmers' associations organized themselves: the Washington Farmers Association represented Japanese farmers; other farmers organized as the White Home Growers Association.
  By 1911, demand for the Market had grown so much that the number of available stalls had doubled, and extended north from Pike Street to Stewart Street, doubling in size since the opening of the Main Arcade. The west side of the stall lines were soon covered in an overhead canopy and roofing, becoming known as the "dry row". The last of the core buildings of the Market for the coming decades was obtained in 1916 by the Goodwins, when they purchased a long-term lease on the Bartell Building at the corner of 1st Avenue and Pike Street. Renamed to the Economy Market, it became an expansion to the Main Arcade.
  On February 6, 1919, nearly all of Seattle's labor unions took part in a work stoppage. News of this began to spread days earlier in the local newspapers, leading to a panicked run on the goods at the Market. The labor strike affected the delivery of goods to the Market, and lasted five days, during which the Market was nearly deserted. It would become the longest period of inactivity in the history of the Pike Place Market.
  Throughout the early 1920s, the north side of the Corner Market became known as the Sanitary Market, housing delicatessens, butchers, restaurants, and bakeries. The so-called mosquito fleet, the precursor to the modern Washington State Ferry system, would bring shoppers from various islands in Puget Sound to shop, and Market vendors began to bring goods directly to the docks for sales.  Colman Dock and Pier 54 (then known as Pier 3) were within walking distance, and the persons coming to sell their wares at the market would disembark from the steamers at these docks.  The area became a social scene, where young Seattle locals went to see and be seen.
  In September 1920, the Seattle City Council quietly passed an ordinance that farmer's stalls at the Market could no longer be placed in the street, in response to complaints from some local businesses about traffic flow. A public outcry immediately followed from the farmers, merchants, and various citizen's groups. In the midst of the turmoil, the Westlake Market Company pushed itself into the situation, proposing that they would build a two-floor underground market at a building they owned on Fifth Avenue, four blocks from the existing Pike Place Market. The Goodwins, in response, proposed another counter-plan to leverage insurance bonds to finance another further expansion of the Market. As the city government began to quickly lean towards the Westlake proposal, the farmers began to formally organize together for the first time to protect their interests. The deciding Seattle City Council vote in April 1921 was in favor of retaining the existing Market location, and the Goodwins immediately began work on their next expansions.
caption: Pike Place Market in 2008, as seen from above Western Avenue.
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