Pier 54, pier in Seattle, Washington, USA

Pier 54 is a pier in Seattle located directly on the waterfront that once served as a commercial harbor. Today it houses a popular seafood restaurant called Ivar's, a souvenir shop, and boat docks where vessels remain moored along its edge.

Pier 54 was originally Pier 3, leased from 1900 by Galbraith, Bacon & Co., wholesale dealers in grain, hay and building materials; it narrowly escaped the 1910 Belltown fire, though 36 of their horses died. Known as the "Mosquito Fleet dock" for the wooden Puget Sound steamers that called there, it was renumbered Pier 54 during World War II. Ivar Haglund rented the northeast corner in 1938 for a one-room aquarium with a fish and chips stand, and bought the pier in 1966.

The pier's nickname, the "Mosquito Fleet dock", came from the many small wooden steamships that called here until the 1930s. Farmers and their wives rode those steamers in from Puget Sound in the morning and left in the evening, selling live hens, eggs, milk in galvanized cans, sacks of potatoes and crates of fruit at nearby Pike Place Market. Pier 3 was among the first docks to offer passengers a small waiting room.

Pier 54 sits at the foot of Spring Street, with Pier 55 immediately to the north and the Seattle Fire Department fireboat dock just south. The waterfront walkway is level and step-free, but the pier deck can be slippery in rain. Ivar's Acres of Clams and Ye Olde Curiosity Shop share the pier, so expect company at meal times.

Pier 54 is home to Ye Olde Curiosity Shop, one of the oldest stores on the waterfront that has operated since 1899 and sells an odd collection of antiques and oddities. This shop is a hidden treasure for those hunting unusual souvenirs and historical items.