Find of the Month

Each month we highlight interesting, important, and odd items from our collection, along with the stories they tell.

Most recent Find of the Month

March 2025 - Market signage

drawing of Public Market sign in red pencil

The City Council received a letter from the Board of Public Works in October 1929, transmitting the following request from Arthur Goodwin, the manager of Pike Place Public Markets, Inc.:

This Company would like to get permission from the City Council to build a Neon sign measuring 31 feet in length by 12 feet high, to read PUBLIC MARKET and to be placed on top of the City Farmer’s Shed of the Pike Place Market, facing east on Pine Street.

This sign will not only be attractive, but an asset as well to the market in general, and can be read for several blocks of this intersection.

Enclosed you will find sketch of the proposed sign.

Thank you in advance for any favorable action taken in the matter.

The file is stamped “granted.”

Five years later, a Board of Public Works file contains a second request for a sign, this one on Pike Street on a platform above the comfort station. The drawing on the application will look familiar to today’s Pike Place Market visitors.

You can read older Finds of the Month by browsing via the left navigation.

Municipal Archives, City Clerk

Jeanie Fisher, Interim City Archivist
Address: 600 Fourth Avenue, Third Floor, Seattle, WA, 98104
Mailing Address: PO Box 94728, Seattle, WA, 98124-4728
Phone: (206) 684-8353
archives@seattle.gov

The Office of the City Clerk maintains the City's official records, provides support for the City Council, and manages the City's historical records through the Seattle Municipal Archives. The Clerk's Office provides information services to the public and to City staff.