Save Eastern Market in Washington DC Home Page

Created by Jane Moss McCune (Phone 202-547-4396)


go to DC's Eastern Market: Description, Issues, and History provided by OPENAIR-MARKET NET


Washington, DC's Historic Eastern Market is in Jeopardy

1. $5 Million Renovation Will Ruin D.C. Market

D.C. Government to reconfigure 1873 Market, changing its look and ambiance at a cost of $5 million. All Market needs is basic repairs, retrofit upgrades doable for some $500,000.

2. Qualified Management Key to Market's Future

Market needs to be leased to a qualified, experienced fresh food market management with experience in historic structures.

3. Sales Proceeds Should Be Used for Maintenance

A stipulated portion of the proceeds generated by balanced mix of fresh food merchants, farmers and arts/crafts vendors should be used to maintain Market.

4. Brief History of Eastern Market

An architectural gem, only continuously operating Market in D.C., Eastern Market anchors Capitol Hill area of city, creates a neighborhood as well as commercial center.

5. What You Can Do

Help preserve this urban treasure by registering your support of concerned citizens trying to save the Market from senseless, extravagant ravage.


In-depth Rundown on Eastern Market

1. $5 Plan Will Turn Market into Plastic Mall

If $500,000 will cover the necessary repairs to Eastern Market, why spend $5 million? No one can honestly answer that question. Yet, that is exactly what the chronically broke, inept government of Washington, DC intends to do. This vast expense is planned despite the fact that the city cannot afford desperately needed services. Schools lack doors on toilets, labs for science students, police have no car phones and public works no asphalt for potholes, to name a few missing essentials.

DC's economic development department has already spent over $600,000. on architectural plans for this elaborate redo of the city's last remaining fresh food market. It is planning to spend some $365,000, more on revised plans to make what it erroneously calls "health and safety" upgrades, These plans plus actual construction are estimated at a grand total of $5 million. Who knows what the final tab will be?

To put this into perspective: Eastern Market is a small, 18,000 sq. ft. barn-like structure. Five million dollars will build an excellent office building in Washington, DC.

Now the D.C. government is trying to turn the Market into a plastic mall. Although the city insists it will retain the ambiance of the Market, it plans to force all the fresh food stalls into identical spaces, hiding the magnificent ceiling with dropped metal/plastic units and lights.

The city's developers want to install noisy condensers on the exterior to service coolers/freezers that the food merchants do not want or need; add six additional bathrooms to the current four when all that's needed is the addition of one unisex, handicap-accessible stall and upgrade of the present facilities; break through the historic facade to add another entrance when the market has 15 already, and adequate handicap-accessibility.

Necessary repairs are: installation of one handicap-accessible, unisex toilet stall which can be accessed through the current doors; upgrade plumbing and wiring; repair some structural supports; repair roof, replacing center portion. Apply historic building retrofit codes in determining necessary work.

The majority of the community wants the city to make these basic, necessary repairs, but opposes this massive redo. Even the federal government has rejected the city's plans, stating that only basic repairs can be made to the Market out of the federal appropriation to the city. The city refuses to consider alternatives and has announced that it will proceed with its plans.


2. Qualified Management

The Market has three distinct elements: the fresh food merchants, the farmers who sell on week-ends and special occasions, and a small non-profit arts and crafts gallery which rents stalls to vendors, primarily outside, and to a flea market merchant on week-ends. The arts and crafts section is also supposed to promote arts and community activities.

At present, the arts and crafts portion pays no rent and turns none of the proceeds over to the Market for maintenance. Citizen surveys conclude that this entity makes as much as $200,000. a year. The city has recently tried to collect rent from the arts and crafts management, to no avail.

The city collects rent from the fresh food merchants and farmers. The fresh food portion of the Market, known as the South Hall, has been managed by one company, the Eastern Market Corporation. The EMC also sells fresh foods of various kinds and rents out other stalls to various merchants who sell poultry, baked goods, produce, etc. EMC has been responsible for keeping the Market open, making repairs, security, etc., since the 50s. It has persevered despite the city's refusal to grant it more than a 30-day lease for the past 20 years.

A unified, qualified management such as EMC, experienced in the administration of fresh food markets should be given a longterm lease on the entire Market. It would be responsible for marketing, auditing and maintenance of the Market: food, farmers, and arts and crafts. This management should retain, in turn,a qualified professional organization to oversee the arts and crafts portion of the Market.


3. Proceeds to Maintain Market

In addition to rents collected from the fresh food and farmer's portions of the Market, a stipulated portion of the proceeds from the arts and crafts vending should be slated for maintenance. The city would also benefit by qualified management which would oversee the collection of rents and fees.

A balanced blend of fresh food merchants, farmers and arts and crafts vendors will ensure that fresh foods and good arts/crafts are available and not pushed out by fast-food and tee-shirt vendors. Arts and crafts should be vetted by qualified professionals to maintain quality and variety.


4. A Brief History of Eastern Market

The oldest continuously operating fresh food market in Washington, D.C., Eastern Market was designed by Adolph Cluss in the popular Italianate style and built in 1873. Cluss, a refugee from the 1848 German Revolution, became an internationally acclaimed architect. He gave Washington a modern facelift that turned the small town into a metropolitan city. Along the way, Cluss established the first building codes and hired an inspector to enforce them.

Eastern Market is a red brick architectural treasure on the National Register of Historic Buildings. Its soaring clerestoried interior is supported by specially designed cast iron and steel trusses. Its bull's eye windows once pivoted open to increase the ventilation and expel odors. It is unique in more than structure.

When the Market was built, it was the heart of Capitol Hill's life. People walked and shopped in their neighborhoods, buying fresh foods, sometimes on a daily basis, as there was no mechanical refrigeration.

Today, it is still the heart of the Hill. Supermarkets exist, but Eastern Market draws not only Capitol Hill residents but many from all over the metropolitan area. They come to shop for farmer's produce, free range poultry, fresh seafood, flowers and baked goods. Many walk, many eat breakfast or lunch at the funky Market Lunch restaurant, and many rendezvous with friends and neighbors around the baskets of peaches or over the flats of petunias.


What You Can Do

Support efforts to save the Market. Ask authorities to authorize only $500,000. to cover the basic repairs listed above using historic structure retrofit guidelines; to lease the entire Market to one, qualified management which will oversee all activities and allocate a specific portion of the proceeds from sales to the Market's maintenance.

Write/Fax/Call the people listed below:

Name Fax No. Phone

Mayor Marion Barry 202/727-2357 202/727-2980

441 Fourth St. NW

Washington, DC 20004


Dr.Andrew F. Brimmer 202/504-3431 202/504-3420

DC Financial Control Board

1 Thomas Circle, Suite 900

Washington, DC 20005


Cong. James T. Walsh (R-NY) 202/225-3701 202/225-4042

1330 Longworth Office Building

Independence & New Jersey Ave., SE

Washington, DC 20515


Cong. Thomas M. Davis III 202/225-1495 202/225-3071

415 Canon Office Building

First & Independence, SE

Washington, DC 20515


Created by: Jane Moss McCune, 603 3rd St. NE, Washington, DC 20002; Phone 202/547-4396


Bibliography

Hill Rag: Feb. 2, 1996, April 19, 1996 (in letters to the Editor)

The Hill: center spread, Jan. 11, 1995

Roll Call: "In the Neighborhood" May 30, 1996

Washington Post: Section DC 3, Sept. 7, 1995

Washington Post: "Close to Home", C 8, Sept.24,1995


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