Pike Place

[Max Rockatansky]

Almost worked through all my photo albums from my recent trip.  Just wrote up something for Pike Place:

http://surewhynotnow.blogspot.com/2018/05/pike-place-market.html

But with that in mind, when was the original planked Pike Place actually built?   The photo I linked appears to have been taken from Railroad Way (Alaskan Way) at some point in the 1890s.

[Bruce]

Note that Pike Place is generally not a place for people to drive through; the only ones who do are lost tourists and actual delivery drivers who have permitted spaces. The city really should close it off and install some retractable bollards, like most cities have in their pedestrianized commerce zones.

Pike Place (the street) doesn't appear on the 1893 Sanborn map I have, instead there's a direct connection between Pike and Western (West Street). I suspect it was created during the Pine/Pike regrade right before the market's official establishment in 1907.

[Max Rockatansky]

Supposedly this Sanborn Map is from 1905.  It doesn't show Pike Place but appears to display an alley roughly to where it is located now.  I'm actually kind of surprised the topic about the road being built isn't all that well documented like the market itself is.

In regards to the cars, yeah I was really surprised they were even allowed down there at all.  Those cars really made for a dangerous situation with all those pedestrians on that narrow brick road.  At minimum at least there was one-way traffic only north through the market. 

[Max Rockatansky]

I found this map from 1904, it doesn't show Pikes Place but rather the direct connection between Pike Street and Western:

http://www.historicmapworks.com/Map/US/54352/Seattle+1904+Bird+s+Eye+View+of+Business+District+24x27/Seattle+1904+Bird%27s+Eye+View+of+Business+District/Washington/