Joel Weinstein sells breads at the Portland Saturday Market, March 26, 1974. Oregon Journal Prints Collection, Org. Lot 1027, bb017466.
Courtesy of Portland Saturday Market.
P
ortland Saturday Market, an open-air marketplace for local artisans, was founded in 1974 by Sheri Teasdale and Andrea Scharf. Inspired by the Saturday Market in Eugene, they organized craftspeople to form a nonprofit collective with all members sharing management responsibility and keeping their own profits. With a $1,000 startup grant from Metropolitan Arts Council and an empty parking lot offered by civic leader Bill Naito, the PSM opened for business. The Market outgrew its original location by 1976 and relocated underneath the west side of the Burnside Bridge. Urban development necessitated another move in 2009 to the current, custom-built location in Waterfront Park. Today, the iconic Market showcases the work of over 350 artisans who sell their creations from 252 booths. This jewel of local arts and culture is held every Saturday and Sunday from March through Christmas Eve and welcomes up to 750,000 people per season.
Historic photographs for this series are provided by the Oregon Historical Society, a museum, research library, archive, and scholarly asset located in the heart of Portland’s Cultural District. View more photos of historic Portland on the new OHS Digital Collections website here.
Have an anecdote or old school photograph of you posing at the market? Post it! Don’t forget to tag #Artslandia and #ThenAndNow.