Thank you for joining us for the 50th Anniversary celebration and renewing our commitment to keeping Pike Place Market Strong!
Pike Place Market is recognized as one of the best models for historic preservation and urban planning, but it wasn’t always like this.
After a seven-year battle, the fight to save Pike Place Market came down to an initiative on the ballots on November 2, 1971. The “Let’s Keep the Market” initiative was led by The Friends of the Market, a grassroots group of citizen advocates who collected signatures and protested to save the Market, despite a majority of city and business leaders supporting demolition of the Market with an urban renewal plan. By Election Day, voters overwhelming approved to save the Market by a 59% margin. This initiative preserved the largest continuously operating public market in the nation and protected not only the 9-acre historic district of the Market but a community of farmers, small independent businesses, and senior residents.
