York Market House No. 1 – Penn Street Farmers Market
In 1866, farmers routinely took their goods to market in York — York County’s primary market center.
That’s how they gained liquidity and disposed of excess produce, fruit and meat.
In those post-Civil War Days, the most popular places in York were two open-air sheds in the town’s Centre Square. Farmers also sold their wares from makeshift stands on sidewalks and from the backs of wagons around the square.
With population growth on the west side of the Codorus, sufficient buyers were available for farmers coming to town on Penn Street, present-day Roosevelt Avenue and Bull Road to save some steps… .
York’s first covered market sprang up at the corner of West Market and South Penn streets.
Workers later added to the market house, clearly seen from the building’s interior.
The market is a key piece of the city’s plans to turn West Market into an antiques district.
It is more rustic than the better-known Central Market that didn’t emerge on the scene until 1888. The Carlisle Avenue Market, a primary competitor and York market house No. 5 (see previous York Town Square post), wasn’t erected until the turn of the century.
More on the City, Central, Eastern and Carlisle Avenue market houses in future posts.
