Picture farmers selling directly from wagons here since August 17, 1907. The market was born from a revolt against middlemen: Seattle housewives complained that grocery prices were too high, the city council agreed, and within a week farmers were selling directly to customers from wagons on this hillside above Elliott Bay. What started as a single row of stalls grew into a nine-acre labyrinth of farm tables, fish counters, butchers, cheese shops, flower vendors, and restaurants spread across seven buildings and eleven levels tumbling down the Pike Street hill toward the waterfront.
The market's neon sign and clock, installed in 1927, became one of Seattle's most recognizable landmarks. In the 1960s, city planners proposed demolishing the market to build a hotel and parking garage. Architect Victor Steinbrueck led a citizen campaign to save it; a 1971 ballot initiative preserved it as a historic district by two to one.
Today ten million visitors pass through every year, but the core mission is unchanged: local farmers, local fish, direct connection between land and table. Notice the low-ceilinged stalls, the chalk price boards, the smell of Dungeness crab and fresh-cut dahlias mixing with salt air off the Sound.