Seattle’s famed ‘gum wall’ gets a fresh start

After over 20 years of locals and tourists flocking to the Seattle alcove to stick wads of spit-drenched chewing gum to the wall, the landmark is coming down today, literally piece by piece, rinsed clean by workers in hazmat suits.

Local artists have been invited to decorate the cleaned-up space on Saturday except for the area of the original brick Gum Wall, which will remain empty in order to welcome more gooey gum.

The concern is that all of the caked-on gum on the walls at the Pike Place Market may be damaging the building’s bricks. “It was never part of the charter or the history of the Market to have the walls covered with gum”, Emily Crawford, spokeswoman for the market’s Preservation and Development Authority, told The Seattle Times.

“NPR member station KUOW in Seattle reports that it began in 1991 when theater-goers started sticking their gum to the wall as they waited in line”.

Despite the wall’s popularity, it had started attracting rats.

“The machine will melt the gum with 280-degree steam; it will fall to the ground, and a two- to three-man crew will collect the gum in five-gallon buckets”.

JC: There are probably 10 or 15 pieces of my gum on that wall. What will the “fresh canvas” look like in 20 years from now?

Rose Gambrel said: “Am I the only one whos super happy theyre removing the Seattle gum wall?”.

We can nearly smell it.

“It’s very sticky and goopy and it has just gotten to the point where over the summer there was just so much gum down there that it’s ending up on the alley floor and it has quite an odour”.

JC: Thank you, Ronald Reagan.