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Now & Then By Paul Dorpat
Street Fare
HAVING BEEN settled now for more than 150 years, our community continues to celebrate centennials. This view of boxes, sacks and rows of wagons and customers is offered as an early marker for the coming 100th birthday of one of Seattle's greatest institutions, the Pike Place Public Market. Both the "then" and "now" look east from the inside angle of this L-shaped landmark. The contemporary view also looks over the rump of Rachel, the Market's famous brass piggy bank, which when empty is 200 pounds lighter than her namesake, 750-pound Rachel, the 1985 winner of the Island County Fair. Since she was introduced to the Market in 1986, the brass Rachel has contributed about $8,000 a year to the Pike Place Market Foundation, which supports services for the neighborhood's low-income and elderly residents. Most of this largesse has been dropped through the slot in her back as small coins. It has amounted to heavy heaps of them. Next year, the Centennial year, the Market Foundation and the associated Friends of the Market, along with many other vital players in the closely packed universe that is the Market, will be helping and coaxing us to celebrate what local architect Fred Bassetti famously described in the mid-1960s as "an honest place in a phony time." And while it may be argued that the times have gotten even phonier, the Market has held onto much of its candor. The historical view may well date from the Market's first year, 1907. If not, then the postcard photographer, Otto Frasch, recorded it soon after. It is a scene revealing the original purpose of the Public Market: "farmers and families" meeting directly, with no "middleman" between them. Paul Dorpat specializes in historical photography and has published several books on early Seattle.
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