Free previewStop 4 of Seattle Walking Tour: Pike Place Market to Pioneer Square
The Wall the Market Tried to Scrub
You've come down from the market into Post Alley, and the wall in front of you is covered in used chewing gum. Pink, green, blue, stretched, stuck and layered several inches deep. Look for the box office of the Market Theater right beside it. That little window is where all of this began.
The Market Theater is a small house for comedy and improv. In 1991 it became home to a show called Theatresports, run by a company called Unexpected Productions. Audiences would line up here in the alley waiting to get in, and somewhere along the way, people started sticking their gum on the wall. Not just gum. They pressed pennies into it, like tiny offerings.
Now, Pike Place Market is run by a public authority that cares a great deal about its old buildings. It did what you'd expect. It ordered the wall cleaned. The gum came back.
That's the opening. The rest plays at stop 4 of Seattle Walking Tour: Pike Place Market to Pioneer Square (3 min in all). Unlock the tour to hear it all, or try stop 1 free first.
