Keeping the Market, Saving a Community
Keeping the Market,
Saving a Community
“The Market came under a serious threat of demolition from urban renewal in 1964, and the Friends of the Market, led by Victor Steinbrueck, waged a grassroots battle to stop the wrecking ball.
They succeeded by passing a citizens’ initiative in 1971 that established the Pike Place Market Historical District and the commission, which regulates use and design to preserve the character and authenticity of the Market — its buildings, businesses and uses.”
Learn More About This Time in Pike Place Market History
Founded in 1964, Friends of the Market launched what became an intense seven-year-long campaign to rally the citizens of Seattle to support the preservation of the Market. A true grassroots and all volunteer advocacy group operating with limited funds, the Friends went up against a powerful downtown business organization, most elected officials, and influential media groups who strongly supported a major demolition and traditional urban renewal approach.
As they intensely lobbied the City Council and federal funders, Friends worked to educate the public about the historic and cultural value of the then-deteriorated Market complex and its community. They held art exhibits, special food and children’s events and auctions to draw locals back to the Market and also got creative with activations in the street and undertook attention-drawing measures.
On one such occasion, in May 1969, UW professor and architect Victor Steinbrueck led a march of hundreds of supporters, each carrying a single daffodil to symbolize the Market, down to Seattle City Hall to Mayor Dorm Braman and the City Council.
Later that year, before a crucial City Council vote to advance their “raze and rebuild” proposal known as the Pike Place Plaza Plan, Friends of the Market again went to the streets to get petitions signed opposing the controversial and brutalistic design. They gathered 53,000 signatures, more than 10% of Seattle’s voting citizens. Since the petitions had no official standing, Steinbrueck later recalled that “It was politely accepted and unanimously ignored” by the city council.
After five years of active lobbying against the razing of the Market and instead preserving its historic buildings and character, the Friends had yet to make significant progress toward their radical preservation goals. Steinbrueck wrote and designed a flyer calling out local “merchants of greed” who would profit from the Market’s destruction. “Last Chance to Save the Market” was widely circulated in the city to encourage public testimony and endorsement. It ended with the memorable line: “Let us be resolved to keep this market that each generation may discover it anew.”
Once Federal urban renewal funds were released and the City Council would not budge, the Friends were forced to mount a public initiative, and the fate of the Market was left in the hands of Seattle citizens. On November 2, 1971, Seattle voters overwhelmingly said YES by a 3-to-2 margin to use the urban renewal funds to preserve rather than destroy the Market. In doing so, a local seven-acre historic district was created around Pike Place, protecting the core of the historic Market and initiating the innovative Pike Place Plan guiding extensive building rehabilitation and complementary new construction. The “Keep the Market” initiative and companion city ordinance created a mayor-appointed Historical Commission to oversee the preservation and ongoing regulation of any changes in design, use, and business operations within the district, a successful scheme that continues to function today.
