Make It a Picnic in Columbia Park
Columbia Park sits right next to the market, less than a tenth of a mile from the stalls. Plenty of neighbors make a habit of picking up dinner ingredients or ready-to-eat food, then spreading out on the park lawn for an evening picnic, and it is an easy routine to borrow.
The 3 to 7 pm window suits this plan nicely. Head over in the later part of the afternoon, and during the summer months you will have time to shop and still settle into the park while it is light out.
Two community spaces frame the park. Look for the Rainier Arts Center and Southside Commons on either side, both of which host arts and cultural events.
Stroll the Historic Business District
The market sits at the edge of the Columbia City Historic District, which runs along Rainier Avenue S and joined the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. Wander its older storefronts and you will find restaurants, bakeries, coffee shops, bars, a grocery store, an art gallery, a movie theater and several live music venues.
Those streets have a story behind them. Columbia City got its start in 1891, when the owners of the Rainier Valley Electric Railway bought forty acres, built a lumber mill and promoted a new town called Columbia; it incorporated as Columbia City in 1893, then voted 109 to 3 to join Seattle, with annexation following in 1907.
Today Columbia City is known as one of Seattle's most diverse neighborhoods by income and ethnicity. For more places to eat, shop and explore before or after the market, turn to our Columbia City neighborhood guide.
Ride the Light Rail In
Hop on Sound Transit's Link light rail, which has its own stop right in the neighborhood. Columbia City station opened in July 2009, and from here it is roughly 15 minutes to downtown Seattle and about 20 minutes to SeaTac airport.
If you are driving, you will find the neighborhood between two main north and south routes, Rainier Avenue S and Martin Luther King Jr. Way S. Nearby, S Alaska Street, S Orcas Street and S Genesee Street serve as the main east and west streets.
Parks and Landmarks Within an Easy Walk
Right next door
- Columbia Park: the picnic spot beside the market, under 0.1 mi away
- Columbia Branch library: under 0.1 mi away
- Myers Music street clock: a neighborhood landmark under 0.1 mi away
A few blocks farther
- Rainier Playfield: about 0.2 mi away
- Hitt's Hill Park: about 0.3 mi away, on the former site of the Hitt Fireworks Company, a major local employer from 1905 into the 1960s
- Rainier Vista Sunrise Garden: a community garden about 0.4 mi away
- Rainier Vista Snoqualmie Garden: a community garden about 0.5 mi away
- Genesee Park and Playfield: about 0.6 mi away, built on what was once Wetmore Slough and home to the Rainier Valley Community Center
These distances are straight-line, so expect your actual walking route to run a little longer.
