Victor Steinbrueck Park is located at the north end of Pike Place Market. On a summer afternoon, the park bustles with a lively combination of neighborhood residents, visitors, tourists, and people who work in the area – all enjoying picnics, sunbathing, playing and relaxing on the park’s lawn, benches, and tables.
Victor Steinbrueck Park is on the site of the Washington State National Guard Armory built about 1909. It was partially destroyed in a fire in 1962, at the time when the Pike Place Market District was doomed by business and city government for replacement with high rise apartments, hotels and offices. “Friends of the Market” organized and launched a long and bitter opposition to the plans. But the speculators and government decided to scrap the Armory rather than repair it for new uses. So it was purchased by the city in 1968, and two years later transferred to the jurisdiction of the Parks Department for “temporary park purposes.” In 1982, the park – “Market Park” – was redesigned and developed, including the addition of two 50-foot cedar Totem Poles. In 1985, Market Park was renamed in honor of Victor Steinbrueck’s contributions to Seattle and to the restoration of Pike Place Market.
