The Steinbrueck Files Pt 3: Saving the Soul of Seattle

New first-hand documents show how architect Victor Steinbrueck helped secure the future of the Pike Place Market while ushering in a new era of civic governance for Seattle.

From the very beginning, the Pike Place Market was a hit. Opened in August 1907, it had been designed to efficiently deliver local products directly from farms to a growing city at reasonable prices. Within a couple years, hundreds of thousands of people were visiting each month. Copycat markets popped up to compete. The Market grew and flourished. It expanded. Vendors and private business cropped up in and around it. It was colorful, a community agora that served everyone, especially low-income waterfront and downtown dwellers.

But after 60 years, it had become frowsy, challenged by supermarkets and a downtown in need of “revitalization.” Urban planners began to eye redevelopment — urban renewal. What had been a charming homegrown institution suddenly became “blight,” a threat to the upscaling central downtown, which itself was being challenged by the growth of suburban sprawl and shopping malls.

The battle against that redevelopment is what architect and activist Victor Steinbrueck is most known for — as “the man who saved the Market.” It took the efforts of many, but Steinbrueck was uniquely able to make the case that the Market, and its urban context, should be protected.

The story is well known, but newly discovered personal records of Steinbrueck’s provide a previously untold part of the story. The files, which are the subject of this week’s episode of Crosscut Reports, contain numerous first-hand documents which reveal strategies, arguments and changes in mood and tactic.

For photos from The Steinbrueck Files and an accompanying essay by editor-at-large Knute Berger, go here.

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Credits

Host/Producer: Sara Bernard

Reporter: Knute Berger

Editorial assistance: Brooklyn Jamerson-Flowers

Executive producer: Mark Baumgarten

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