Meet You at the Market ,
the farm-fresh prod- ucts of Eastern Market have drawn shoppers from the neighborhood and around the city.It is Washington’s only th-century market to remain in continuous operation. Eastern Market is the second market bearing the name.The first operated from to on the block bounded by Fifth,Sixth,K and L streets,SE. It was located near the Anacostia River at a time when markets relied on water transportation to move goods. During the post-Civil War building boom,however,citizens were calling for a more modern,centrally located facility.This market was designed by Adolf Cluss as a state-of-the-art facili- ty in . Inside,merchants’stalls brimmed with meats, poultry,fish,produce,flowers,dairy products, baked goods — even freshly ground horseradish. Outside,farmers from Capitol Hill,Anacostia,and nearby Maryland sold produce from wagons and stalls.Young boys got their first jobs hauling gro- ceries home for customers or picking mold off cheeses.Some merchants also served as whole- salers to the Navy Yard, government agencies, and restaurants and hotels. In the early s,small neighborhood markets and grocery stores offering home delivery began competing with Eastern Market.In the s supermarkets arrived.Business suffered,and only citizen protests prevented the market’s closing in 1929.Nonetheless area farmers continued to come. The market went through more tough times until the 1960s,when it was rediscovered by a new gen- eration charmed by the vendors’century-old tradi- tions and fruit free of plastic wrappings.
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