Gum Wall

Gum Wall
General view in 2017
Surface	Chewing gum
Location	Post Alley, Seattle, Washington, U.S.
Gum Wall
Coordinates: 47°36′29.8794″N 122°20′25.0254″W

The Gum Wall is a brick wall situated beneath Pike Place Market in Downtown Seattle, Washington (State), United States. Located on Post Alley near Pike Street, south of the market's main entrance off 1st Avenue, the wall is covered with used chewing gum. Certain sections of the gum accumulation on the walls measure several inches in thickness, reaching a height of 15 feet (4.6 m) along a 50-foot-long (15 m) segment.^[1] Originating inadvertently in the 1990s, the Market Theater Gum Wall has evolved into a notable tourist attraction and local landmark.

History

The Market Theater Gum Wall in 2009

The wall is located in Post Alley adjacent to the box office for the Market Theater, a venue for comedy shows and other small performances. After it became the host of Unexpected Productions' Theatresports in 1991, the theater's walls were covered by patrons' pieces of used gum that had pennies pushed into them. The coins were later removed, but the gum remained amid several cleanings of the walls under orders from the Pike Place Market Preservation and Development Authority.^[2][3] The market's officials reversed course and allowed the gum wall to stay, deeming it to be a tourist attraction around 1999.^[2][1]

By the late 2000s, the gum wall had grown to 50 feet (15 m) long and included pieces as high as 20 feet (6.1 m).^[2][1] Some contributors to the gum wall arranged their pieces to create small works of art.^[4] As of 2024^[update], the gum wall is 54 feet (16 m) long and 8 feet (2.4 m) high, with an estimated density of 180 pieces of gum per brick.^[5]

Cleanings

On November 3, 2015, the Pike Place Market Preservation & Development Authority announced that the wall would be fully cleaned for the first time in 20 years. The steam cleaning and maintenance was intended to prevent further erosion of the bricks on the walls from the sugar in the gum.^[6][7][8] Prior to this, it had only ever been spot-cleaned in areas where gum had been placed in prohibited areas.^[9] In response to online posts, Pike Place Market officials launched a photo contest, encouraging fans to share their personal photos and memories of the wall online.^[10]

Work began on November 10 and took 130 hours to complete,^[11] with over 2,350 pounds (1,070 kg) of gum removed and disposed of.^[12][13] The work was contracted to a local company and cost about $4,000 to complete.^[14] The temperature of the steam machines reached up to 280 °F (138 °C), delaminating the gum pieces and ensuring that the low pressure would not harm the bricks.^[15][16] The discarded gum was then sent to a normal landfill rather than composted.^[17]

After the cleaning was finished, gum began to be re-added to the wall almost immediately, as there were no preventative measures to prohibit sticking gum to the newly cleaned wall.^[18] Some of the new additions were memorials to the November 2015 Paris attacks.^[19] The gum wall was cleaned again in September 2018^[20] and November 2024.^[5]

Recognition

It was named one of the top 5 "germiest" tourist attractions in 2009, second to the Blarney Stone.^[1][21][22] The Washington state governor, Jay Inslee, said it is his "favorite thing about Seattle you can't find anywhere else".^[23] The Gum Wall is located at the start of the Ghost Tour,^[24][25] and also a popular site with wedding photographers.^[2] Oftentimes, visitors create declarations of love out of gum,^[26] making for a comparison of the gum wall to other romantic spots such as the Pont des Art in Paris.

Reception

Some argue that the gum wall encourages litter^{[citation needed]} as visitors usually stick items like cigarette butts or gum wrappers along the wall.^[26] There were also prior complaints that the gum was being tracked into nearby businesses^[27] and that it attracts rats in the alley.^[28] Bars and restaurants situated across from the attraction attempted to prevent gum from reaching their properties by displaying signs with the message "No Gum," but this strategy proved ineffective.^[29]

As art

Gum Wall in April 2022

Although officials of the Pike Place Market defined the concern about the gum affecting the brick wall, some may see the participation in sticking up the substance as attributing to collective action.^[30] Many may classify the spot as a 'collective art' piece, where something colloquially bad has been transformed into artwork.^[31] The wall is also usually decorated with physical copies of some artists' work that they stick up.^[32] Given that the wall is rarely cleaned, many practice graffiti art on spots where there is less gum and more visibility.^[33]

In January 2024, local artist Rudy Willingham chewed 200 pieces of gum to create a mural of Pete Carroll on the wall shortly after he departed as head coach of the Seattle Seahawks. Carroll had been known for chewing up to 130 pieces of gum on gamedays; the 2-foot (0.61 m) mural depicts him wearing a headset and is made of solid colors.^[34]

See also

• Bubblegum Alley

References

1. Chen, Stephanie (July 20, 2009). "Kissing, chewing -- the 'germiest ' tourist attractions". CNN. Archived from the original on September 25, 2024. Retrieved August 14, 2009.
2. Eskenazi, Stuart (June 6, 2008). "Market lost & found". The Seattle Times. Archived from the original on March 25, 2016. Retrieved August 14, 2009.
3. "The Gum Wall". Unexpected Productions. Archived from the original on January 22, 2022. Retrieved January 22, 2022.
4. Carter, Chelsea J. (June 30, 2006). "Gumming it: Messages designed to stick on Seattle's Gum Wall". The Spokesman-Review. Associated Press. Retrieved June 8, 2012.
5. Phair, Vonnai (November 8, 2024). "Seattle's gum wall at Pike Place Market gets a cleaning". The Seattle Times. Retrieved November 9, 2024.
6. Crawford, Emily (November 3, 2015). "Pike Place Market's Famous Gum Wall Receives Complete Cleaning" (PDF) (Press release). Pike Place Market Preservation & Development Authority. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 12, 2015. Retrieved November 18, 2015.
7. O'Brien, Kirsten (November 3, 2015). "Cleaning up Seattle's gum wall". Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Archived from the original on November 4, 2015. Retrieved November 3, 2015.
8. "Seattle's Gum Wall getting a scrub down". KING-TV. November 3, 2015. Archived from the original on November 19, 2015. Retrieved November 18, 2015.
9. Spinelli, Megan (November 4, 2015). "Seattle's Gum Wall Is Getting Scrubbed, Making Room for a 'Clean Canvas'". ABC News. Archived from the original on February 6, 2022. Retrieved February 6, 2022.
10. Brait, Ellen (November 11, 2015). "Seattle gum wall: steam-cleaners at work to clear 'germiest place on Earth'". The Guardian. Archived from the original on September 23, 2022. Retrieved February 9, 2022.
11. DeMay, Daniel (November 16, 2015). "Gum wall not clean for long". Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Retrieved November 18, 2015.
12. Bush, Evan (November 10, 2015). "Gum wall gets naked in early-morning steam cleaning". The Seattle Times. Archived from the original on December 13, 2015. Retrieved November 18, 2015.
13. Bush, Evan (November 16, 2015). "Seattle gum-wall time-lapse: Watch ton of gum disappear in a minute". The Seattle Times. Archived from the original on December 13, 2015. Retrieved November 18, 2015.
14. Hunter, Marnie (November 4, 2015). "Pike Place Market's gum wall getting a deep cleaning". CNN. Archived from the original on February 9, 2022. Retrieved February 9, 2022.
15. The Oregonian (November 10, 2015), Sticky situation: Cleaning up Seattle 'gum wall', YouTube, retrieved February 4, 2022
16. Parkland College; Barnes, Scott; Floess, Peter; Webb, Brittany; Moss, Matthew; Trueblood, Zach; Benson, Sierra; Kenter, Jacob; Vilmin, Adam (November 11, 2015). "Prospectus, November 11, 2015". Prospectus 2015. 9 (12).
17. Spencer, Aaron (November 4, 2015). "Seattle gum wall: Where will all the discarded gum go?". The Seattle Times. Archived from the original on February 9, 2022. Retrieved February 9, 2022.
18. Taylor, Alan. "Scrape It Off, Scrape It Off—Seattle Removes 20 Years Worth of Gum From Historic Wall - The Atlantic". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on February 6, 2022. Retrieved February 6, 2022.
19. Frohne, Lauren (November 15, 2015). ""Re-gumming" the gum wall — for Paris". The Seattle Times. Archived from the original on November 18, 2015. Retrieved November 18, 2015.
20. Capestany, Gabriela. "Seattle's famous gum wall cleaned again". King 5 News.
21. "Ewww! Seattle gum wall a top germy attraction". Komo News. June 13, 2009. Retrieved July 21, 2016.
22. Griswold, Jamie (June 11, 2009). "Seattle Gum Wall ranks in top 5 "Germiest Attractions"". MyNorthWest.com. Archived from the original on June 17, 2009. Retrieved August 14, 2009.
23. Nelson, Sean (May 23, 2018). "Notable local: Jay Inslee, Governor of Washington". The Stranger. 21 (21): 10.
24. "Post Alley - Gum Wall". The News Tribune. Archived from the original on July 17, 2011. Retrieved August 14, 2009.
25. Chin, Brian (September 28, 2008). "The Pike Place Market Ghost Tours". SPI blog. Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Archived from the original on August 29, 2012. Retrieved August 14, 2009.
26. Colosia, Emma (April 26, 2021). "The Sticky Story Behind Seattle's Famous Gum Wall". Secret Seattle. Archived from the original on January 28, 2022. Retrieved February 4, 2022.
27. McNichols, Joshua (November 11, 2015). "Seattle Says Goodbye To A Disgusting Tourist Attraction: The Gum Wall". NPR. Archived from the original on January 21, 2022. Retrieved January 22, 2022.
28. "Bubble Rubble: Crews Clean Up Famed Seattle 'Gum Wall'". NBC News. November 10, 2015. Archived from the original on January 21, 2022. Retrieved January 22, 2022.
29. Sailor, Craig (April 15, 2018). "Popular gum wall poses sticky situation in Seattle; Social media has turned this sticky alley into one of Seattle's top tourist destinations". Richmond Times Dispatch.
30. Joung, Joo Yeoun (2020). Rest Stop: a design exploration inspired by micro moment of food (M.Arch thesis). Konkuk University. doi:10.14288/1.0388507.
31. Leob, J. (March 1, 2018). "Walls - Engineering in society: Good, Bad or Ugly? - Ten significant wall". Engineering & Technology. 13 (2): 30–33. doi:10.1049/et.2018.0220. ISSN 1750-9637.
32. Khan, Tanveer (September 5, 2020). "Market Theater Gum Wall: The Sticky Story of a Wall Decorated in Chewing Gum". STSTW Media. Archived from the original on February 6, 2022. Retrieved February 6, 2022.
33. Steve (August 29, 2010). "Stuck On You: Seattle's Gum Wall Is Pretty, Gross". Web Urbanist. Archived from the original on February 12, 2022. Retrieved February 11, 2022.
34. Blatchford, Taylor (January 29, 2024). "Sticky Pete Carroll mural honors the gum-chomping former Seahawks coach". The Seattle Times. Retrieved January 29, 2024.

External links

• Media related to Gum wall, Seattle, Washington at Wikimedia Commons