Evening Star Newspaper, March 16, 1930, Page 95

Fiction Art PART SEVEN. The Swndwy Star Magasine WASHINGTON, D. C., SUNDAY, MARCH 16, 1930. Features OLD CENTER MARKET’S LAST STAND After One Hundred and Twenty-Eight Years of Continuous Operation at the Same Site, This Important Institution in the City’s Daily Life Is Soon to Be Razed to Make Way for the Mall Development Program—It Must Be Moved, but the Question Is, Where? HE fate of Center Market hangs in the balance. Already the Senate has approved a resolution authorizing its demolition on June 30 of this year and a similar measure is pending in the House. The structure must be razed to make room for the new Department of Justice Buildinig, planned as an integral unit of the extensive Mall development program, and, un- less the proposed movement to relocate Cen- ter Market elsewhere carries, Washington’s old- est business institution must soon forever close . its doors. Chairman Capper of the Senate Dis- * trict committee and Representative Bowman of West Virginia have paved the way for con- tinuation of this nationally famous mart. Legislation introduced in Congress by them provides for the re-establishment of Center Market north of Pennsylvania avenue as near the center of population as possible. Under the proposed plan, acquisition of a site and erection of a new market house, at a cost of $1,300,000, would be financed out of District funds and appropriations made by Congress toward the upkeep of the National Capital. As it was prior to 1870, jurisdiction over the market would be vested in the municipal offi- cials and all revenues derived therefrom de- posited in the Treasury to the credit of the District. Hearings on the Capper-Bowman bill will determine whether or not the residents of Washington want Center Market continued. Communications pertaining to the matter re- ceived to date at Senator Capper’s office show a decided preference for a location north of Pennsylvania avenue, but no avalanche of peti- tions has trickled in. So it seems that con- siderable more interest in the project must be evinced by residents of the city before com- mittee hearings on the pending legislation can be announced. Meantime, the Federation of Citizens’ Associations board of governors of the Merchants & Manufacturers’ Association and representatives of numerous other organized groups have placed the stamp of approval on the project. Emphasizing the economical ad- vantages that would accrue to both producers and consumers, as well as the convenience and popularity of such an institution, a special committee of the Federation of Citizens' As- sociations has recommended that the operation of Center Market be continued without inter- ruption in either its present quarters or a temporary location pending completion of a new market building. Conceding that $1,300,000 is quite a big pile of money, sponsors of the p:3;:ct contend that View of the Seventh street entrance to Center Market. By Philip Plyler. a municipal market netting approximately $90,000 a year would soon pay for itself in rents derived from leased stalls and sheds. According to the records, Center Market did a gross business approximating $15,000,000 during the last fiscal year, which netted Uncle Sam, the present custodian, an income of more than $100,000. HERE are four classes of dealers at Center Market: Wholesale merchants, retail merchants, farmers who sell their produce at retail and farmers who cater to the wholesale trade, and merchants who operate on a com- mission basis. Farmers who sell all of their produce at retail occupy spaces under a shed alongside the rear of the market building. The farmers’ produce market, for the sale of hay, grain, seeds, wood, live stock on the hooft, and farm products sold in bulk from wagons and trucks, was formerly located in the square directly opposite the Ninth street entrance to Center Market, between Tenth and Twelfth and B and Little B streets. But the sheds were removed about a year ago when con- struction was begun on the new Internal Rev- enue Building. Since that time this group of farmers has occupied the curbstone along the south side of B street, between ‘Seventh and Twelfth streets, or anywhere else that park- ing space is available. With only the blue sky above them for shelter, their lot is not an -enviable one, particularly during the Win- ter season, but as they and their forbears have been supplying residents of the Capital with the cream of the harvest for 128 years or thereabout, they feel that Washington is under obligation to provide a suitable market place for them. Many of them have been sell- ing their produce at Center Market for nigh on to 50 years, so that they are obviously averse to quitting the location, but if Center Market is to be relocated north of Pennsyl- vania avenue they want to go along. Under the Capper-Bowman measure, not less than 200,000 square feet of the site acquired for the market would be used for construction of sheds for use of farmers who sell their produce in Washington. As all of the aforementioned classes of merchants are deemed necessary to the successful operation of a public market in a large city, it seems the consensus of opinion that the farmers’ produce market should be continued as an integral unit of the new Cen- ter Market, when and if it is re-established. Center Market contains 666 retail stalls with- in the interior of the building, which are operated by retail merchants. As they buy from commission men, wholesale merchants and wholesale and retail farmers, their stock in trade comes from all over the world, and they carry practically every known commodity in the foodstuffs line. Each dealer probably does as much business as, if not more than, the proprietor of the average small-scale re- tail grocery store. Thus they are in a position to maintin price levels of foodstuffs at rea- sonably low figures and still make a legitimate profit on their business. The wholesale and the commission merchants are located in either Center Market or in buildings adjacent there- to, and cold storage facilities are maintained within the market, so that truckage and dray- age costs are held down to a minimum. Con- sidered from the standpoint of convenience to shoppers, Center Market affords about everything in that respect that could be de- sired, and the constant market basket consid- erably simplifies and reduces the cost of dis- tribution. As stall keepers are permitted to handle only certain specified articles, each is a specialist in his line, and his product or products may be advantageously displayed, while walkways between the stalls render shop- ping exceptionally easy. Everything is always in plain view, so the selection of merchandise is a very simple procedure and the sale of a maximum amount of goods by a minimum number of salesmen is consequently permitted. Not only residents of the city, but visitors are benefited, for hotels, restaurants, cafeterias and clubs buy the bulk of their foodstuffs at Center Market. F for no other reason, it has been argued, Center Market should be continued because of its intimate association with Washington and the District of Columbia. It has supplied gro- ceries and vegetables for every President except Washington and John Adams; but Washington chose the site and described its boundaries and Adams approved the selection. People from every walk in life, including nationally promi- nent Americans; foreign ambassadors and mdn- isters, and countless other thousands have there a-shopping gone. Presidents Jefferson, Madison, John Quincy Adams, “Old Hickory” and William Henry Harrison did not deem it beneath their dignity to pack heavily laden market baskets along Pennsylvania avenue. Center Market was also the favorite shopping place of Daniel Webster, Chief Justice John Marshall, Gen, Winflield Scott, Mrs. Galt before she became Mrs. Wilson, and scores of other outstanding persons. At the outset, and even now, Center Market was not only the geographical center of washington, but, literally, the food center as well. ' Beginning in the vicinity of reservation No. 7, the Capital has spread out toward the four corners of the District of Columbia, _Both Center Market and the City of Wash« ington measure their span of years by the same chronometer. Opening its doors to the public on December 15, 1801, the institution was pro- claimed a market place for the sale of provisions for both man and beast, and Tuesdays, Thurs- days and Saturdays were set apart as market days. From that time until today, with the exception of a short period when new buildings were under construction, Center Market has been in continuous operation at its present site. On October 2, 1802, the City Council approved an act authorizing the establishment of a center market on the south side of Pennsylvania ave- nue between Seventh and Ninth streets, as described in President Washington's transcript. That official act, which was signed by Mayor Robert Brent, placed the stamp of legisiative approval on the Center Market that is so widely and favorably known today; and, by the same token, the Corporation of Washington City was effected. Prior to erection of the original market building on Center Market square a market place had been established on the President’s square, now Seventeenth street and Pennsylvania avenue northwest. James Hoban, architect of the White House, supervised the moving of that structure to the Center Market site, so that it became in fact part and parcel >f the original market house which was formally opened 10 days befcre Christmas in 1801. Maj. L’Enfant and Washington both had a part in selecting the site for a.center market. In preparing his original plans Yor the Federal City the Major reserved several plots cf ground for the use of the United States. He apparently placed both markets and cemegfis in the category of necessary evils, and ugh he put his foot down firmly on the reservation of cemetery lots within the city limits, he condoned the establishment of market places Haough