SEATTLE — Seattle’s Iconic Pike Place Market was almost torn down 50 years ago.
Thousands celebrated the anniversary of the market's triumphant comeback Saturday.
Flowers, fresh seafood, vendors of all kinds - the iconic images we’ve all come to know and love of Pike Place Market were bustling this weekend.
“I do think the market sort of maintains perhaps the spirit of Seattle,” said market regular, Jim Scolman.
Scolman is a photographer who spends his Saturdays at Pike Place capturing the people and the essence of what he says makes Seattle, Seattle.
“It gives locals and tourists a place to come and it has a certain amount of normality to it, even though masks are still required and all, but it’s just a hub and it’s a real place,” he explained. “Real people work here, real people buy groceries here, real people live here.”
But Scolman remembers a time when the market wasn’t like it is today.
“Fifty years ago, first avenue and the market were very different than they are today. There were many, many bars and it still catered to the sort of ethos of a port city, so it was a pretty grimy stretch of first avenue,” he said.
Fifty years ago, the city almost said goodbye to Pike Place Market, but supporters of the market stepped up to keep it alive. A group called Friends of the Market came together and got enough Seattle residents to vote in favor of keeping it, according to Madison Bristol with the Pike Place Market Preservation and Development Authority.
She can’t imagine what Seattle would be like today if not for those resilient supporters who didn’t give up on their hometown market.
“I hope we’re doing them proud. I mean it’s remarkable, you know Pike Place Market, we started in 1907, we had seven farmers, by the end of the week we had 70, now, you know, it’s grown to be 500. So, it really is still growing and 50 years later it’s still continuing to grow,” Bristol told KING 5.
Scolman hopes even with the chaos that has been the last year and half that people will give the market another shot.
“Don’t give up, don’t be afraid, come downtown, enjoy what’s here,” he said.
