Professional Medium Lynne Olson of Seattle, WA.
I recently had the opportunity to participate in the Pike Place Market Ghost Tour. Pike Place Market opened in 1907 and has long been one of Seattle’s “must see” destinations for tourists and locals alike.
Our tour guide Michele was both knowledgeable and entertaining. First stop was IL Bistro a long established Italian restaurant with a reputation for dining room ghosts. Every building in Pike Place Market has been used for assorted purposes over the years.
IL Bistro has several small tables along the wall to the far left of the entrance off Post Alley. Numerous couples have been distraught when a young woman in a white dress and long brown hair walks across the dining room heading for these two or three tables and suddenly disappears. From what I saw of her during the tour I don’t think she is aware of the modern day patrons. She walks with determination, intent on something or someone no longer present in the building.
Similar tables in the far left corner of the dining room tend to migrate bit by bit closer to the front door of IL Bistro in warm weather. Seattle has been subject to record heat this summer and sure enough the tables have taken up inching closer and closer to the front door.
I saw a portly male ghost behind the table migrations. He was well dressed, complete with gold watch. I believe he was a local mover and shaker, a man of some importance who would have had his own table during IL Bistro’s past incarnation as a tavern with prostitutes upstairs. He was also claustrophobic, a fact he didn’t care to advertise. Interestingly the tables that try to migrate from their corner to the current front door used to sit in front of a door that once led to an outside dining area. I believe that to this day this former gentleman of means is still trying to get his reserved table outside to ease his claustrophobia under the guise of enjoying the summer air.
Our second stop was Mr. D’s Greek Delicacies in the Triangle Building. Mr. D. has an unusual way to express his artistic skills. When dignitaries, especially politicians come into town he carves their images into his huge rolls of lamb yeeros meat (sometimes spelled gyros). Then when a VIP comes in for lunch they have the dubious honor of watching themselves be carved up. Mr. D. is proud of his creations and those not served up for lunch are stored in the basement of his shop. These yeero carvings seem to both confuse and infuriate the ghosts downstairs who have the habit of tossing around pots and pans. Sometimes there are so many objects flying around that the staff at Mr. D’s cannot venture into the basement for supplies and have to wait for it to subside.
I picked up several groups of ghosts at Mr. D’s. I asked if the building had any Mafia history. Our guide Michele said no and pointed out that the current owner is Greek, not Italian. However I would swear there is a lingering gang of ghostly goodfellas in Mr. D’s basement. They predate him; I would say the 1930’s. I doubt Mr. D’s was a twinkle in his fathers eye when this crew met in the basement of his building. There was a definite sense of urgent secrecy about their meeting.
I also saw the graves of two Native Americans. This would not be surprising, as the granite hill Pike Place Market is built into was a sacred burial ground for the Duwamish Tribe a good three thousand years before the Denny party showed up to found Seattle. Seattle, like Rome is famous for being built on seven hills. It is still a steep hike up and down downtown streets, but the hills were much steeper when the early downtown core was built. In a massive two-part project called The Denny Regrade (from 1902-1911 and 1929-1930) the market hill was lowered 35 feet. All that earth was pushed into the tideflats, otherwise known as today’s Seattle waterfront. Countless Duwamish graves were tumbled into the tideflats. The total Denny Regrade project moved more earth than the building of the Panama Canal.
The odd thing about the two Native American graves under Mr. D’s foundation is they were carefully laid out. The bones are lined up, not mixed up like those pushed down the hill. These two warriors were also incredibly pissed off. They predated the goodfellas ghosts by quite a bit, but I doubt they were in the ground at the time of the Denny Regrade.
Both the goodfellas and the Native ghosts enjoy freaking people out. For this part of the tour I was standing right next to the street level wall of Mr. D’s, so close to the current basement. Once the ghosts realized I could see them they kept reaching out from the brick foundation to pluck at my slacks. I can be frightened as easily as anyone else by ghosts, but not when I know they are there and what they are up too. I will credit them as a persistent lot because my guides had to push them back four or five times before they stopped trying.