Now: Thriving Community, Vibrant Market

“Included among the farmers, shop owners, craftspeople and other professionals, you will find everyone from fourth-generation business owners to brand-new entrepreneurs and innovators. Some businesses have been here for more than 100 years!”

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Learn More About This Time in Pike Place Market History

Since its earliest days, Pike Place Market has been a place where people from all corners of the world came to find economic opportunity.

Newcomers to Seattle arrived in waves, and through the years, Sephardic Jews, Italians, Japanese, Filipinos, and Hmong were among the largest groups of immigrants whose stories shaped the Market.

Families often first found work on regional farms on the outskirts of the growing city, or for seafood wholesalers on the waterfront, and then became producers and fishmongers in the Market.

While the Market is celebrated for the harmony created by the diverse groups who came together to sell food and flowers on Pike Place, these families also faced adversity and discrimination. The first producers of the region, Native Americans, were marginalized for much of the Market’s existence, and Japanese American farmers, who once numbered in the hundreds among the producer tables, were forced to abandon their crops and stalls when they were incarcerated during World War II.  But out of these hardships grew solidarity and a shared sense of community that continues to define the Market into its second century.

For stories about Market producers, read the “Market Family” section of Inside Pike Place Market.