The Face of Downtown Portland on the Weekend

Portland Saturday Market

It would seem we are finally seeing the light at the end of the pandemic tunnel, which we have endured for the longest two years of our lives. As I walk through the neighborhoods and communities in and around Portland, I am becoming increasingly hopeful that our time with COVID is coming to an end – a gradual end, but an end, nonetheless. 

I see the cherry blossoms bursting to life as our spring has come upon us, serving as hope that we are finally getting our world back. And the cherry blossoms along the Portland riverfront and alongside the Portland Saturday Market are the blossoms I find myself most drawn to: As someone who grew up at the market, and has always called it my chosen family, I am increasingly motivated by its presence in our city.  

The Portland Saturday Market is back, holding over 150 vendors who sell their wares every Saturday to bring art, culture, and craft to all – locals and tourists alike – acting as the face of downtown Portland on the weekend. The market was heavily affected by the pandemic and threatened to go under from the economic crisis that affected all small businesses. But the members of the small organization rallied and gave it a fighting chance to save hundreds of small businesses, not wanting to let go of the home and family they’ve known for so long. And so, it survived.  

What the market holds most dear is the passion and vigor of its many vendors. The market is the vessel for artisans and peddlers who have sold there for the duration of this beautiful market’s existence. In 2024, it will celebrate its 50^th anniversary as the longest-running and largest outdoor market in the country, and it wouldn’t still be here if it wasn’t for the members that kept it running. 

The market was first established in 1974 by two women, Sheri Teasdale and Andrea Scharf. Both were local artists who sold regularly at the Eugene Saturday Market. They got the idea to create a new selling place for local artists in Portland and pitched the idea to as many artists in the area as they knew. The participants soon accumulated to be sufficient to start a regular market in Oldtown Portland, with the goal of making locally produced arts and foods accessible to the people of Portland and the tourists that came to visit. 

A CIVIC TREASURE 

From the start, the market was open-air, as it continues today, with no plan for set-up. Vendors would show up with their booths and products, communicating with other sellers to make sure they weren’t in each other’s way. The market started with just over a dozen vendors and soon grew to where the collective had to hire staff and create a member-run committee to keep everything in order. Vendors would show up early in the morning to get the first pick on spots, as some locations were better than others, and it soon became ritual – then, inspired the thoughtful “seven-o-clock rule,” where no person could choose a spot before seven in the morning. 

The market grew quickly, becoming increasingly popular and truly becoming the face of downtown on the weekend. That made it necessary to create partnerships with the city and its ordinances and soon gave it the opportunity to move underneath the Burnside Bridge in 1975. In May 2009, when the vendor count had grown over a hundred, the market moved to the newly constructed, paved plinth in the neighboring Waterfront Park and the plaza next to the Skidmore Fountain, where it now operates. 

There are only a few original vendors left who still sell at the market, as most of them have long since retired. Still, several have left their businesses to their offspring to run, which makes this market all the richer, allowing it to keep thriving with the new blood, the youth who grew up drinking in the knowledge of everyone at the market who contributed to their lives. 

The market has a variety of arts to offer, solely the handiwork of its dedicated vendors – from the 2D paintings, drawings, and even CGI art that hangs on one’s wall, gorgeous pottery like that I find myself honored to sip my morning coffee from each morning, from a potter who has been there since the gathering was first established – to the stunning jewelry, clothing, and many unique forms of art, plus the variety of delicious cultural, creative foods offered. 

The skillfully shaped products you’ll find at the market and the experience you get purchasing them will be some of the most prized possessions and memories you can obtain. When purchasing something there, you purchase a piece of history – a piece that holds the efforts and yes, sometimes, the blood, sweat, and tears, of the hands that made it. 

What I love most about the market are the people I encounter. Whether it’s customers or vendors, you will always meet diverse people from interesting places with positive dispositions, eager to experience the beauty of the market, the culture it attracts, all of Portland, and everything it has to hold. 

 You’ll never know what new treasures and lifelong memories you’ll find, what piece of history you’ll come away with, or the delightful people you will encounter. But you always know it will be one of the most genuine, happiest, and open places for you to ever visit.