Flower Market
by Wayne Meyer
Title
Flower Market
Artist
Wayne Meyer
Medium
Photograph - Photography
Description
Going through some old photos I found this one from 2007 of a flower stand at Pike Place Market in Seattle, WA. It seemed like the one to add to my web site on this cold day in mid-Missouri.
“In 1906-1907, the price of produce—onions namely—soared, leaving the farmers none the richer and the citizens angry over the price gouging. The uproar led one local official to try to find a solution. In the summer of 1907, Seattle City Councilman Thomas Revelle proposed the city create a public market place where farmers and consumers could meet directly to sell and buy goods and thereby sidelining the wholesalers.
On the public market’s first day, August 17, 1907, crowds of shoppers seeking fresh produce and bargains descended upon the new marketplace. The first farmer sold out of produce within minutes. Within a week, 70 wagons were gathering daily to sell along the newly named Pike Place, a wooden roadway that connected First St. to Western Ave.
Developer Frank Goodwin, who had recently returned with a small fortune from the Klondike Gold Rush, saw an opportunity in the flourishing market and began construction of the permanent arcades that make up the heart of today’s Market. The Market prospered during the 1920s and 1930s, and was home to a lively mix of Japanese and Italian American farmers, struggling artists, political radicals, and eccentrics.
Italian farmer Joe Desimone purchased the Market’s main arcades in 1941 and guided it through World War II, when 1st Avenue attracted thousands of sailors and soldiers along with ration-book bargain hunters. As suburbs and supermarkets sprouted after World War II, the Market fell on hard times, while still supporting an eclectic community of artists and craftspeople.
When the maze of aging buildings was slated for demolition in the 1960s, architect Victor Steinbrueck rallied Seattle to “Save the Market.” Voters approved a 17-acre historic district on November 2, 1971, and the City of Seattle later established the Pike Place Market Preservation and Development Authority to rehabilitate and manage the Market’s core buildings.
Today, Pike Place Market remains Seattle’s neighborhood marketplace, the center of fresh, locally produced and high quality foods, goods and handcrafted products.”
History from www.pikeplacemarket.org
Uploaded
January 29th, 2014
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Viewed 137 Times - Last Visitor from Beverly Hills, CA on 04/18/2024 at 7:39 AM
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