On November 1, 1968, the Port of Seattle opens a new public fishing pier on Pier 57 at the foot of University Street on Seattle's central waterfront. Seattle City Councilmember Myrtle Edwards (1894-1969), who suggested the Port develop a fishing pier on its dock, and Port Commission President John Haydon preside at the opening ceremonies, which feature the symbolic destruction of a "no fishing" sign. Built along an unused railroad spur on the north side of the dock, the new fishing pier has holes cut through the deck so people can fish beneath the pier in addition to casting over the side. Pier 57 will soon become a popular destination for anglers of all ages. In 1970 and 1971 it will be the site of J. P. Patches Fishing Derbies for children, named for the popular television clown, who entertains the thousands of children competing for prizes. The city will purchase Pier 57 in 1971 and its parks department will manage the fishing pier for a decade until it's replaced in 1981 by a large new public fishing pier at the Port's Pier 86 north of downtown.
Pier 57
Constructed in 1902, Pier 57 was one of many large docks built along Seattle's central waterfront in the late 1800s and early 1900s when the area was the scene of much of the city's trade and commerce and a major driver of its economic growth. Railroad Avenue (now Alaskan Way), from which the piers extended into the harbor, provided the critical meeting point for the trains and steamships that together carried most of the era's cargo and passengers. The large buildings on the docks, known as pier sheds, provided warehouse space for the cargo as well as offices and, on the pier ends along Railroad Avenue, space for stores and other retailers. Pier 57 (at the time designated Pier 6) was owned for much of the twentieth century by the Milwaukee Road rail line, and used by numerous local and international shipping lines.
By the 1960s, however, most large-scale cargo shipping had moved from the central waterfront to large Port of Seattle terminals north and south of downtown. Railroad use had declined nationwide with the rise of highways and on Seattle's waterfront the old rail tracks were replaced by paved Alaskan Way. Civic leaders were planning new uses for the central waterfront, which they saw as a site for real-estate ventures and public parks and open space. Most called for removing the aging piers or at least their pier sheds. In keeping with those ideas, the Port of Seattle bought Pier 57 from the Milwaukee Road in early 1968, planning either to develop a World Trade Center there or transfer it to the City of Seattle, which was working to create a downtown waterfront park.
A Downtown Fishing Pier
Based on those plans, neither city nor Port officials expected Pier 57 to remain long, but in the meantime City Councilmember Myrtle Edwards suggested to Port commissioners that a public fishing pier be developed there. Port Commission President John Haydon, crediting Edwards with the idea, noted that while there was a public fishing pier at Shilshole in the Ballard neighborhood, "a lot of kids, and older people too, in the downtown district can't get to Shilshole" (Wells, "Downtown Anglers ...").
Haydon and his fellow commissioners agreed to the idea and construction got underway in the summer of 1968, with port employees doing the work when not needed on other projects. The fishing pier, consisting of two 500-foot-long decks, was built along the long-unused rail spur on the north side of Pier 57. Port workers built a fence along it, installed benches, and "sawed some holes in the old pier to give anglers a place to drop their lines" if they preferred fishing under the pier to casting over the fence (Page, "Wickersham ...").
The work was completed in October and the new fishing pier opened on Friday, November 1, 1968. Edwards and Haydon presided that morning at a ribbon-cutting ceremony. A "symbolic 'no fishing' sign was removed and destroyed" as the pier's gates were opened to the public (Dorpat). A group of oceanography students from Seattle's T. T. Minor School were designated as "the first 'official' fishermen at the pier" ("Fishing Pier to Open").
Other Uses on the Pier
News coverage of the opening indicated that Pier 57 was not then in use except for some storage in the pier-shed warehouse. But in fact the dock was still the site of some important cargo shipments, as the press quickly noted: "Pier 57 is also the place where the Seattle Steam Corp. has the oil delivered to feed the furnaces at its plant on Western Avenue" (Page, "Control Needed ..."). The fishing pier was supposed to be open daily from dawn to dusk, but an oil barge arrived at Pier 57 on Monday, November 3, and the fishing pier was closed for the day just three days after opening ceremonies -- Fire Chief Gordon Vickery (1920-1996) did not want fishermen and their cigarettes anywhere near the bargeload of oil. Seattle Steam President Carroll Easton noted that the company received up to 18 oil barges a year at Pier 57, with deliveries every day or two during the peak winter season, but agreed to schedule future deliveries at night so the fishing pier could maintain its dawn-to-dusk hours.
And while the pier shed may have been unused except for storage when the fishing pier opened, that soon changed with the arrival of an enterprise that in 2023 still operates at Pier 57 and an entrepreneur who would spearhead the historic dock's preservation and redevelopment. Weeks after the opening, Hal Griffith Jr. (b. 1937), looking to expand an import business he had recently started, rented warehouse space in the shed and opened a shop named Pirates Plunder in the storefront facing Alaskan Way. Due to the plans for replacing Pier 57 with a trade center or park, the Port only gave him a short-term, renewable lease. But Griffith saw great potential in the historic pier and its neighbors, and was preparing plans to renovate Pier 57 for retail uses, including expanding Pirates Plunder, which he was soon able to do, and creating space for restaurants and more shops.
Port officials soon decided they could not build a trade center at Pier 57. As the city moved forward with plans to develop a large park encompassing that pier and others, Griffith joined forces with other waterfront-business owners to advocate preserving the historic docks and pier sheds. They urged that the proposed waterfront park be limited to the area between Piers 57 and 59 (known as Pier 58, although dock there had been removed a few years earlier), rather than demolishing remaining piers, which they hoped to redevelop with new public attractions and events to bring more people to the waterfront. In March 1970 they established the Seattle Central Waterfront Association, also sometimes referred to as the Waterfront Park Association. Griffith was elected president; other officers and board members included Joseph James (1924-2016) of Ye Olde Curiosity Shop, then located on Pier 51, and Ivar Haglund (1905-1985), with his namesake restaurant on Pier 54.
J. P. Patches Fishing Derbies
One of the new association's first projects was designed to bring attention to the public fishing pier on Pier 57. Working with the Waterfront Lions Club, association members organized what they dubbed the first annual J. P. Patches Seattle Waterfront Fishing Derby for children aged 1 to 12. Held on Saturday, May 23, 1970, it was named for Seattle's beloved television clown, who with his sidekick Gertrude entertained the youngsters fishing at the pier. The goal of getting more people to the pier was achieved. According to the association, some 7,000 children and accompanying adults -- more than three times the expected number -- took part in the derby, so many that some had to be moved to nearby Pier 59.
The large turnout may have been due in part to the valuable prizes that the association offered for the children who reeled in the largest fish. Eight-year-old David Turner of Bellevue took first place with a three-pound cod and won an eight-foot boat with a 1.5-horsepower motor. The second and third-place winners caught slightly smaller cod. Larry Warren, 9, won the second prize, a 3.5-horsepower motor, and Gordie Mulkin, 10, won a bicycle for his third-place catch. More than 100 prizes, mostly smaller items like baseball mitts, were awarded altogether. In addition to J. P. Patches and Gertrude, entertainment was provided by pirates and a fireboat.
The Waterfront Association held a second annual J. P. Patches Waterfront Kids Fishing Derby on Saturday, June 5, 1971. Presumably due to the first derby's turnout it took place at Piers 58 and 59 in addition to the official fishing pier at Pier 57. Prizes including boats, motors, sleeping bags, and more were again offered, but the reported turnout was only around 600 children this time.
Waterfront Destination
There is no indication that any more children's fishing derbies were held at Pier 57, but the public fishing pier remained a popular central waterfront destination for another decade. The city had acquired Pier 57, along with the Pier 58 space, from the Port in 1971, so the Seattle Parks Department thereafter managed the fishing pier. After obtaining the properties, the city prepared a final development plan and constructed the long-planned park. Unlike earlier plans, the one that was implemented retained the existing piers and located Waterfront Park, which opened in 1974, in the space between Piers 57 and 59. Until 1981, the public fishing pier at Pier 57 functioned as an amenity of the adjoining public park.
That January a large new public fishing pier opened at the Port of Seattle's Elliott Bay Park on the waterfront north of downtown below Queen Anne Hill, near the Port's Pier 86 Grain Terminal. With it in operation, Pier 57 was no longer managed as a fishing pier. By then Hal Griffith had secured a longterm lease from the city and completed a major renovation and expansion of Pier 57, which he named Miners Landing. In 1989 he purchased the pier from the city and undertook another remodel, adding additional attractions including a merry-go-round. In 2012 Griffith installed the Seattle Great Wheel on the north side of the pier's waterfront end, rising high above the deck on which the public fishing pier had opened 44 years earlier.
