The Early Years

Soulard Market's early days as a venue were quite humble and lean. The aforementioned, nearby French Market provided formidable, and at first, better-located competition. At first the new market remained as two undeveloped blocks of land, surrounded by a slowly increasing number of new row houses, tenements, and businesses. As the number of nearby customers increased, Soulard Market's fortunes improved accordingly.

In 1843 (or 1848 depending on which historic account you believe) Soulard Market's first structure was built. It was not built by the city, which you'll recall has just built the French Market in 1839. Rather, a private corporation was set up by some of the farmers/vendors, the group sold shares, and with the proceeds built a one story red brick building on the eastern of the two half blocks. The new building's handsome east facade boasted four columns and a pediment roof in the fashionable Greek Revival style, the intended effect to emote permanence and stability.

The new interior stalls were meant for the vendors of meats and other highly perishable products in that age before refrigeration. Of course any vendor willing to pay the somewhat higher stall rental fee was welcome to come inside. The majority of the farmers chose to continue to sell outside, right off the ends of their wagons. The corporation sold the building to the city in 1854. In 1865 a second story was built by the same corporation over the midriff of the long narrow market building. The upstairs was a sparkling new meeting hall. The city purchased this improvement in 1867, and the physical plant remained relatively unchanged for the next three decades.