The Gum Wall

The Gum Wall is a brick surface in Post Alley, directly beneath Pike Place Market, characterized by a thick, multicolored accumulation of chewed gum that stretches about fifty-four feet long and reaches heights of up to twenty feet. Originally a simple brick wall adjacent to the box office of the Market Theater, it became the site of an impromptu ritual in the early nineteen-nineties when patrons waiting in line for improv comedy shows began pressing chewed gum into the bricks, often topping each piece with a penny.