by David Healy <andante@erols.com> (8/14/96)
provided by OPENAIR-MARKET NET
Washington, D.C.'s last public fresh-food and farmers' market is EASTERN MARKET, located at North Carolina Avenue and 7th Street SE on Capitol Hill, the residential neighborhood immediately east of the U.S. Capitol. Both the Eastern Market building AND its interior are designated National Historic Landmarks. The market has been in continuous operation since 1873.
Its South Hall houses a variety of fresh-food stalls--meat, poultry, dairy, greengrocers, fishmonger--which are open Tuesdays-Sundays except national holidays. The South Hall also houses Market Lunch which is open for breakfast and lunch Tuesdays through Saturdays and is best known for its homemade bread, blueberry pancakes and crabcakes. The North Hall is occupied by Market Five Gallery, Inc., a putative non-profit organization to promote the arts, under the auspices of the D.C. Commission of Arts & Humanities [DCCAH]. On Saturdays, and sporadically through the rest of the week, the surrounding sidewalks are occupied by farmers selling local produce in season and retailing out of season.
Exterior Vending Issues. In recent years, Market Five Gallery, Inc. has promoted non-food vending on the sidewalks surrounding the market building. On Saturdays, mostly around the North Hall, are various merchandisers selling under the guise of an "Arts and Crafts Festival," although less than half sell arts and crafts. On Sundays, when farmers were traditionally barred from selling, most of the exterior is occupied by an antiques/collectibles/flea/junk market. While Market Five Gallery, Inc. collects handsome stall fees from these merchandisers, none of the proceeds go to the city or to the upkeep of the market facilities. [Market Five Gallery, Inc. is charged no rent for either the North Hall or this exterior use.] In addition, little if any of these proceeds subsidize any art.
This exterior merchandising does not comply with the city's sidewalk vending laws and, moreover, has begun to crowd out the historic farmers' market whose patrons had attracted the non-food vendors to the market in the first place. In an attempt to "legalize" the non-food merchandising, Market Five Gallery, Inc. and DCCAH attempted in mid-1995 to negotiate an agreement under which Market Five Gallery would assume control over all exterior vending including the farmers. However, these negotiations were abandoned once they came under public scrutiny. Later in the year, the city government attempted to legitimize the non-food merchandising through a public space permit in favor of Market Five Gallery for "the display and sale of merchandise." This, too, was abandoned after the effort came under public scrutiny.
In May 1996, Mayor Marion Barry sought emergency legislation placing all exterior vending under his control, but the Council refused to go along--publicly questioning the emergency, but privately balking at transferring more plenary power to the mayor.
Renovation. In the past 20 years, one or more city politicians and bureaucrats have pushed to "renovate" the Eastern Market building. In order to justify this "renovation," the city fathers have postponed even minor repairs so that the accumulating disrepair will force community acquiescence in the renovation. While almost everyone agrees that the market building needs to be brought back to snuff [and thus nobody is truly "anti-renovation"], the renovation proponents have generally sought to upgrade the facility beyond the needs of a fresh-food market.
In the 1970s, it was clear that this renovation was aimed at creating a "festival market" in the nature of Baltimore's Inner Harbor or Boston's Quinsy Market. Community groups have generally opposed anything which would remove or eclipse Eastern Market as a fresh-food market and the renovation proponents have been unwilling to assure Eastern Market's continued operation as a fresh-food market.
While community opposition has succeeded in putting renovation attempts on hold, it has not succeeded in killing them. Now that the Congress has put the city's operations under the oversight of a financial control board and the Mayor has increasingly lost power, the renovation forces are back in full throttle.
In the ensuing years, nearby Union Station has been turned into a "festival market" with a 9-screen cinema, a huge food court and several dozen franchise shops. In response, the Eastern Market renovators seem to be looking toward another food court, albeit in a location much removed from workday traffic. Whether this renovation push will go forward is anybody's guess. Some speculate that the bureaucrats talk renovation as a way of justifying their continued existence on the city's bloated payrolls. As the city government spent its way into bankruptcy, the city used its capital budgets to pay ordinary salaries. Thus, it is widely believed, that the capital budget authority available for the Eastern Market renovation is not actually supported by cash but by IOUs from the underfunded General Fund.
History. Public fresh-food markets were included in L'Enfant's
original plans for the City of Washington. Capitol Hill has had
a public farmers' market from almost the inception of the City
of Washington. In 1802, a public farmers' market was established
at New Jersey Avenue SE between A and B Streets on what is now
the grounds of the U.S. Capitol [B Street SE is now Independence
Avenue.] In 1812, this New Jersey Street market was moved to a
new market house in the center of East Capitol Street between
1st and 2d streets. When the British burned the Capitol building
in 1814, the East Capitol Street market was left standing and
the United States Supreme Court, having been burned out of the
Capitol, held its next term in this market building. In 1838,
the East Capitol Street market gave way to improvements to East
Capitol Street and was relocated to the southeast corner of 3rd
and A Streets SE (now the site of St. Mark's Episcopal Church).
EASTERN MARKET. Beginning in August 1871, the Legislative Assembly
of the District of Columbia obtained the 7th Street SE site for
the current Eastern Market and, at a cost of $80,000.00, erected
the present building, designed by Adolph Cluss, which opened in
1872-1873. William Tindall, Standard History of the City of Washington,
at 384 (1914). At the request of the market master, the market
was expanded in the early 20th century by the erection of a North
Hall and a connecting Center Hall.
In the beginning, farmers had stalls both inside the Eastern Market
building and outside along the curbs. Two photographs from 1889
show the Farmers' Street Market at Eastern Market. One of the
photographs shows a farm stand operated by an African-American
family along C Street SE (the same location presently occupied
by Dan Donahue/Blossoms Nursery). Robert Reed, Old Washington,
D.C. In Early Photographs, at 27, photographs 26 and 27 (1962)
(original negatives in the collection of the Historical Society
of Washington, D.C., numbers CHS 6264 and 6266).
At some point, the interior of Eastern Market was rented to commodity
dealers and the farmers were relegated to the outside Farmers'
Street Market. E.g., Report of Commissioners of the District of
Columbia for the Year Ended June 30, 1924, at 13 ("[Western
Market and Eastern Market] are included markets, each having inside
stands, which are rented to dealers in various commodities, and
farmers' retail stands on the outside."). In 1931, the Congress
appropriated money to erect the shed which still exists over the
Farmers' Line along 7th Street SE. Pub. No. 721, 71st Cong. On
January 24, 1930, George M. Roberts, Supervisor of Weights, Measures
and Markets, had testified before the House Committee on Appropriations:
At both Eastern and Western Markets farmers and gardeners sell
produce along what is commonly called the farmers' curb line.
They back their vehicles up against the curb and display produce
on the sidewalk. No shelter is provided for them at present. It
is inhumane to requires these people, many of whom are women,
to expose themselves to heat, rain, and snow, in order to be able
to sell produce which they bring to market. And Washington consumers
should not be forced to buy under such conditions.
Hearings Before House Committee on Appropriations, 1930-31, at
152.
TWO OTHER MARKET BUILDINGS STILL STANDING. Of the numerous market
buildings erected in the City of Washington, only three remain:
Eastern Market, the former Georgetown Market and the former "O"
Street Market. Both the Georgetown and "O" Street markets
are of red constructed of red brick and similar in appearance
to Eastern Market. Neither are associated with a farmers' street
market.
Georgetown. In the late 1970s/early 1980s, the city spent considerable
money renovating the Georgetown Market building. The renovated
market opened with several fast- food stalls and only one or two
fresh-food stalls and promptly went bankrupt. Eventually, the
city leased the entire facility to Dean & DeLuca, which operates
a high-end fresh-food/gourmet market.
"O" Street. The "O" Street market occupies the corner of what is now a large parking lot for a Giant Supermarket. It's preservation was under agreement with Giant and some interior stalls operate there.
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