A Market Built on Shadows

Seattle’s Pike Place Market, founded in 1907, is one of America’s oldest continuously operating public markets. But beneath the bustling produce stands and neon signs lies a hidden history one built on tragedy, displacement, and death.

Before the Market was ever built, this land was home to the Duwamish and Suquamish peoples, who lived along the waterfront for centuries. Later, early settlers transformed the area into a rough patchwork of businesses and saloons that were repeatedly destroyed by fires, floods, and outbreaks of disease.

When the Great Seattle Fire of 1889 leveled much of the city, the rubble was buried under layers of fill dirt creating a literal city built atop another. This buried past gave rise to the Seattle Underground, a labyrinth of tunnels beneath the Market that still exist today.

Security guards and night workers claim to hear unseen footsteps, echoing laughter, and the soft hum of a woman’s voice from the tunnels a sound that many believe belongs to one of the Market’s most famous ghosts.