The Friends of the Market advocacy group was founded in 1964 by Robert Ashley, architect Victor Steinbrueck, and Allied Arts of Seattle in response to plans to raze the Pike Place Market and build garages and office buildings over the site. The Friends raised funds and campaigned to prevent the Market's demolition and to encourage its designation as a historic district in the late 1960s and early 1970s, with its most prominent advocacy being the “Save the Market” campaign. The Friends were later part of the Citizens' Alliance to Keep the Market Public during the 1989-1991 battle over the sale of the Market to the Urban Group. Two members of the Friends of the Market were appointed by the mayor to serve on the Market's Historic Commission, which has authority over design and use of space in the market, in order to maintain its historic character.
In later years, the Friends of the Market continued to act as a “watchdog” organization to watch for outside pressures on the preservation of the market, such as the attempted removal of the totem poles from Victor Steinbrueck park in 2024 and historical market sign restoration in 2013. In addition to advocating for the market, the Friends have also held various events on the history of the market, such as the Centennial Celebration, and have provided tours of the market for decades.
Organized into 3 accessions.
Correspondence, minutes, reports, ephemera, posters, petitions, drawings, photographs and other records from the organization with a majority of the materials from the early days of the organization in the 1960’s and early 1970’s. The earlier materials primarily focused on saving Pike Place Market from urban renewal and the materials from the 2000’s and 2010’s mostly centered on events held by the Friends and organizational records.
Open to all users.
Some material stored offsite; advance notice required for use.
Creator's literary rights transferred to the University of Washington Libraries.
The majority of materials related to saving the market from Seattle's planned urban renewal and the foundation of the Friends of the Market. Several of the series are focused on correspondence both between members of the organization and outside of the organization in efforts to advocate for the market, gather donations, and form their ideology around preservation. One may notice in these letters that the bulk of them are either sent from or to Elizabeth Tanner, the executive secretary of the Friends for many years and from whom the bulk of the materials were collected by in this accession.
Included in the subject series are various subseries mostly around events or sponsored programs put on by the Friends such as the Italian Flood Relief campaign or the Market Fair, but also includes documents from oppositional groups like the Central Park Plaza Corp.
The various ephemera in the accession include a wide variety of objects such as flyers, buttons, shopping bags, picket bags, wood carvings, posters, recipe books, and calendars.
Some material stored offsite; advance notice is required for use.
Some material stored offsite; advance notice is required for use.
The 50th Anniversary series are records, event materials, and correspondence related to the anniversary of the foundation of the Friends of the Market in 2014. The Public Art Survey series is both the results of a survey by the Friends in 2012 and 2013 of art in the market that includes printed photographs of the art and photographs of the high stall sign restoration.
The Digital Media series includes multiple CD Roms and a flash drive that are separated into subseries for each physical disc. Includes data from various market surveys, organizational graphics and membership enrollment, and additional Public Art Survey documents.