York Market House No. 2 – The architecturally striking City Market
The now-demolished York City Market would have taken top prize for beauty if ranked among York’s five indoor market houses.
The market, sporting a Gothic design by York’s famed Dempwolf architectural firm, featured a 140-foot-high tower… .
This 1879-vintage indoor marketplace, as well as the Penn Street Farmers Market built in 1866, helped to replace the open air Centre Square market sheds as the place for farmers to turn their excess goods into cash. The outdoor sheds were demolished in the middle of the night in 1887.
In addition to south York farmers, the new market house, at South Duke Street and East College Avenue, also served as an exhibition center. For example,York school students and Gov. Henry M. Hoyt attended a county Horticultural and Industrial Association exhibition in 1879.
For years, City Market was located next to York Collegiate Institute, which gave College Avenue its name. The institute’s gym is now the Voni B. Grimes Gym.
But the institute was demolished and became a playground. Meanwhile, a gas station replaced the City Market, torn down in 1963.
The gas station represents a telling sign of the times. A station to service modern-day machinery replaced a decades-old destination point for farmers’ wagons.
This wasn’t the first time for such ironies, though.
During World War II, part of the City Market became a machine shop, producing parts for local industries fighting the war at home. So, as farmers operated stands, machinists manned tools, both under the same roof.
A sampling of other York market posts:
– York County farm vs. factory tension relieved in overnight raid .
– Going to market a longtime York County pastime.
– York’s Central Market sells steak … and sizzle.
– The forgotten fifth York market house.
– York Market House No. 1 – Penn Street Farmers Market.
– York Market House No. 2 – The architecturally striking City Market.
– York Market House No. 3 – The first Eastern Market.
– Market House No. 4 – Central Market, York’s most popular.
– York Market House No. 5 – Carlisle Avenue Market, revisited.
