The controversial move is being made “to protect the integrity of the bricks making up the historic walls of Post Alley”, where the wall stands, according to a press release from Pike Place Market officials.
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If you’ve ever traveled to Seattle, you’ve likely visited the famous Gum Wall at Pike Place Market.
This week a worker in a plastic protective suit and mask used a steam cleaner to blast off parts of the wall where many have used their gum to anchor photos, love notes, business cards and artwork.
“It’s an icon. It’s history”, said onlooker Zoe Freeman, who works nearby.
Like a forest charred by wildfire to soon see rebirth, so goes Seattle’s gum wall – blasted by steam cleaners on its way to renewed stickiness. They also say a few drunk people have been spotted eating the gum off the wall!
And one person said: “Oh my god is the gum wall clean yet so we can just start calling it the wall and be done with this nightmare”. Since then, the colorful “gum wall” has expanded to other brick walls in the alley, pipes and even the theater’s box office window. And the sickly sweet scent began attracting vermin around the wall’s larger home, the Pike Place Market.
Bizarrely, the cleaning crew will collect and weigh the gum each day it is removed. Theatergoers would place coins covered in gum on the wall, and when the theater management gave up attempting to clean off the mess, the wall became known as a public treasure.
The whole operation is expected to take three days.
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“We’ll find out at the end of the week how right my guesstimate really is”, she said.
