Giant Shoe Museum

Photo: Brian Noles via Google Maps

The Giant Shoe Museum is one of Pike Place Market’s great little oddities. Look for it on the Down Under level, directly below the street level Market entrance, where a facade that the Market says resembles the entrance to a circus sideshow announces the self proclaimed World Famous Giant Shoe Museum.

This is not a museum you walk through. It is a single exhibit wall of coin operated viewers: drop in quarters, peer through stereoscope style slots, and curtains part to reveal enormous footwear. It is exactly the kind of strange, charming detour that makes wandering the Market’s lower levels so much fun.

What You’ll See

• Robert Wadlow’s shoe: a size 37 brogue worn by Robert Wadlow, the Alton, Illinois man who stood 8 feet 11 inches tall and is remembered as the tallest man in recorded history.
• The World’s Largest Collection of Giant Shoes: the museum’s own billing for its main viewer, packed with oversized footwear from different eras.
• The Colossus: a wing tip from the 1920s that is about five feet long.
• A genuine clown shoe, plus other mysterious giant shoes and the tale of a lost Wadlow shoe with a reward still offered for its return.

The Story Behind It

The shoes come from the collection of Danny Eskenazi. According to Roadside America, he began collecting after learning that his grandfather once owned a shoe worn by Robert Wadlow, a shoe that has since gone missing. The circus style display was designed and built by graphic artist Sven Sundbaum in 1997.

The museum is owned and operated by Old Seattle Paperworks, the vintage paper shop right next door. John Hanawalt founded that shop in 1976 and moved it into the Market’s Down Under in 1978, and it is still there today, selling vintage posters, maps, magazines and prints.

Tips for Your Visit

• Bring quarters. The viewers are coin operated.
• Head to the Down Under level and look for Old Seattle Paperworks; the shoe museum is right outside the shop.
• Budget time for Old Seattle Paperworks itself, a fun browse for vintage advertising, poster art and old Seattle ephemera.
• Questions? Call Old Seattle Paperworks, which runs the display.

Plan Your Visit

Address: 1501 Pike Pl, #424, Seattle, WA 98101
Phone: 206.623.2870
Website: pikeplacemarket.org
Hours and admission: Check the museum website for current days, hours, and admission before you visit.
Directions: View on Google Maps