Pike Place Market

Pike Place Market hosts at least six named ghosts, including Jacob, a boy who died in the 1918 flu and rearranges beads at stall #415, and Princess Angeline, Chief Seattle's daughter, who refused to leave the land where her cabin once stood. Frank Goodwin, the market's 1907 founder, introduces himself on the stairs and vanishes.

A basket of beads, a pile of pennies, and packets marked in the shop owner's own handwriting turned up behind a wall at Pike Place Market in 2010. The wall had been sealed since 1973. Nobody could explain how the items got there.

The bead shop at stall #415 had been dealing with this for years. Owner Nina would organize her inventory every night, only to find containers jumbled and rearranged by morning. During one emotional phone call, a strand of beads launched off a wall hook and flew across the room. Tour groups got the full show: two strands of red beads shot off the wall at once, and the entire room filled with the smell of wet hay and horse manure.

Staff blamed Jacob, a young boy they believe died during the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. Historical footage shot by market manager Arthur Goodwin in 1927 captured orphaned boys working the stalls with Radio Flyers, sleeping on blankets and hay in the horse stables below. Jacob fit the profile. When the bead shop relocated in 2010, a new store called Merry Tails opened at the same address and built "Jacob's Room," a dedicated space with a small bed. The mischief calmed down after that. Children started leaving marbles for him after Seattle newspapers ran the story. One kid left a basket with a note: "These are for you. If you like them, let me know."

Jacob is far from the only presence wandering the market's maze of levels and stairways. Frank Goodwin, who founded Pike Place Market in 1907 using gold he'd mined in the Yukon, shows up on the stairs near the Alibi Room. Visitors encounter a friendly man who introduces himself as Frank, asks "How can I help you?" and vanishes. He died in 1954, but by all accounts considers the market his responsibility.

Frank's nephew Arthur managed the market through the 1920s and 1930s from an office now called the Goodwin Library. His silhouette appears at the library window, looking down over the stalls. People have also spotted him swinging a golf club in the office space, which tracks: Arthur held multiple golf club memberships when he was alive.

Then there's Princess Angeline, whose Duwamish name was Kikisoblu. She was Chief Seattle's eldest daughter. After the 1855 Treaty of Point Elliott ordered all Duwamish people to reservations, Angeline refused to leave. She lived in a waterfront cabin on Western Avenue between Pike and Pine Streets, making her living washing laundry and selling hand-woven baskets. Bent, wrinkled, usually wearing a red handkerchief and shawl, she became one of Seattle's most recognizable figures until her death on May 31, 1896, at age 85. The market was built on the site of her former cabin.

People have reported seeing her since the 1940s. She moves slowly, as if her feet barely touch the ground. She's most often spotted near a rough wooden column in the center of the lower level, where the air around the column runs noticeably cold and photographs come out wrong. Other sightings place her at the top of the Pike Street Hill Climb in her trademark shawl and bandana, or sitting inside the market just before dawn.

The market's most violent ghost story belongs to a woman known only as the Fat Lady Barber. Working out of a market barbershop in the 1950s, she'd sing her customers to sleep with lullabies, then steal their wallets. She fell through the floor during 1970s renovations and died from the fall. Workers cleaning the market at night report hearing her lullabies drifting through the lower levels.

Kells Irish Pub, across the street in a building constructed as a mortuary in 1903, adds its own cast. In 2005, Karen McAleese observed a tall man wearing a suit jacket, suspenders, and a newsboy hat on the second floor. He faded away while she watched. A young girl's ghost has been seen there too, though her identity remains unknown.

Pike Place Market opened on November 30, 1907, with 76 stalls in a covered arcade built by the Goodwin brothers. Architect Andrew Willatsen later supervised improvements. Over a century of continuous operation has given the market a density that collects stories the way old buildings collect dust. The ghosts here aren't abstract legends. They have names, habits, and favorite spots. Jacob wants his beads arranged just so. Frank wants to help you find your way. And somewhere in the lower levels, a lullaby is playing that nobody asked for.