Pier 18 Market

**Pier 18 Market** is a public market in Whitelaw, Whitelaw Capital Territory. Opening on 16 December 1899, it is the oldest continuously operated public farmers' market in Toin. Located right on the Depression Bay waterfront in the Port of Whitelaw, it serves as a place of business for many small farmers, craftspeople and merchants. It is named for the pier it is located within and around, Pier 18, which sits on Port Street in Uptown Whitelaw. Pier 18 Market is one of Whitelaw's most popular tourist destinations and the 47th most visited tourist attraction in the world.

The Market is build on Pier 18 of the Port of Whitelaw and is spread across two levels, with the larger, lower level housing most of the shops and stands as opposed to the smaller, but still respectable, upper level. Each level features a unique variety of shops such as antique dealers, comic book and collectible shops, small family-owned restaurants, and the oldest cannabis supplier in Whitelaw. The lower, street level contains fishmongers, fresh produce stands and craft stalls operating in the covered arcades. Local farmers and craftspeople sell year-round in the arcades from tables they rent from the Market on a daily basis, in accordance with the Market's mission and founding goal: allowing consumers to "Meet the Producer".

## Location and extent

The Market is located roughly in the southwest corner of Uptown Whitelaw. To its immediate east is Port Street, which runs through Uptown Whitelaw north to the Port of Whitelaw, while its immediate west contains Depression Bay. Boundaries are diagonal to the compass since the street grid is roughly parallel to the Depression Bay shoreline.

As is common with Whitelaw neighbourhoods and districts, whose boundaries are mostly cultural and have no distinct boundary, different people and organisations tend to draw slightly different boundaries for the market. The City Clerk's Office gives one of the more expansive definitions, defining a "Pier 18 Market" neighbourhood extending from Federal Street one block to its north to Northwest Avenue, one block to its south, and from the waterfront to Disappointment Street, one block to its east. Despite coming from the City Clerk's Office, this definition has no special or official status.

The smaller "Pier 18 Public Market Historic District" listed on the Federal Historical Registry is bounded roughly by Port Street, Stone City Park, and the Depression Bay Municipal Walking Trail. The Whitelaw Department of Neighbourhoods official "Pier 18 Market Historical District", however, includes the federally recognised Pier 18 Public Market Historic District, plus a slightly smaller piece of land between Port Street and Territorial Highway 13.

To some extent, these different definitions of the market district result from struggles between preservationists and developers. For example, the Federal Historical Preservation Act of 1963 created the Whitelaw Advisery Council on Historical Preservation. Basil Sawyer, at one point in the 1970s, convinced the Advisery Council to recommend designating 72,000 m2 as a historical district. Pressure by local developers soon got that reduced to a tenth of that area. The present-day historical district designations lie between these extremes.

Part of the market sits on what was originally mudflats below the bluffs of Pier 18. In the late 19th century,