Barr Street Market

1837 – today

Founded: 1837 — The marker, the History Center's Castaldi account and the ACGSI/Griswold account all agree that Samuel Hanna donated land to the city in 1837 for a public market, and that a small frame market house was built within six months, patterned on the Philadelphia market, with stalls rented at $5 a year. No deed text was quoted in hand, so the founding rests on the accounts cited. The street and market took the name of John T. Barr, who with John McCorkle had purchased the original 118 lots of the town from the U.S. Land Office in 1823.

Founders: Samuel Hanna, donor of the land; the market was a city institution, not a private company, and was run by the City of Fort Wayne under a Market Master who controlled vendors and oversaw weights and measures. Peter Kiser (sometimes spelled Kaiser) is named as a notable early Market Master.

What it did: It was Fort Wayne's public market and oldest public space: farmers and vendors sold produce and goods direct, in a two-block stretch on the east side of Barr Street between Berry Street and Washington Boulevard, at its height operating six days a week, day and night, with 120 stalls.

Course: A new market building was erected in 1855, with outdoor stalls placed among the trees along Barr Street between Berry Street and Washington Boulevard, and the market house also used for city governmental activities. CONFLICT — removal of the old building: the marker and Castaldi say it was removed when a new city hall was built in 1893; the News-Sentinel's Hawfield account says the old market house was torn down in 1892, when the first real city hall (today's History Center) was about to be erected. The one-year difference is flagged, not resolved. A grand covered concrete complex was built in 1910, with pavilions joined by double iron arches over Wayne Street and lion-head horse troughs. CONFLICT — 1910 architects: the contemporaneous Fort Wayne Journal Gazette of 29 December 1909, quoted by ACGSI, names the architects as Mahurin & Mahurin; a 1982 News-Sentinel retrospective names the firm as Wing & Mahurin. The contemporaneous newspaper's "Mahurin & Mahurin" is used here, with the retrospective variant flagged. CONFLICT — 1910 cost: the News-Sentinel and a contemporary sightseeing list give $20,000 for the 1910 market/pavilions, while a History Center object page gives $200,000 for the 1910 colonnaded pavilion. The tenfold difference is flagged, not resolved; it may reflect pavilions alone versus the whole complex, but no source in hand says so. The northern pavilion (City Hall to Wayne Street) was demolished in 1957 and the southern pavilion (Wayne Street to Washington Boulevard) in 1958, as supermarkets and suburban shopping drew trade away.

Fate: City operation ended 1966 — (marker and Castaldi agree); the Barr Street Market Association continued to rent stalls after 1966. CONFLICT — History Center ownership date, UNRESOLVED: the marker, Castaldi (2006, republished 2013) and History Center posts of 2018 and 2022 all say the Allen County–Fort Wayne Historical Society assumed/purchased ownership in 1988; a History Center post of 21 September 2023, quoted on the same ACGSI page, says "The History Center acquired the Barr Street Market in 1990". The same institution thus gives both years, and no source in hand explains the gap (for example purchase versus formal transfer). The entry therefore carries 1988 as the majority/marker date and flags 1990 as an unresolved variant. The market survives as the YLNI Farmers Market: YLNI-led revival began in 2004 with a handful of vendors, and the History Center's own posts date its partnership with Young Leaders of Northeast Indiana (YLNI) to 2005 — both dates are carried, as revival and partnership need not be the same year. The summer market runs Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., May to October, at Barr and Wayne/Berry Streets, as a producer-only market; a winter market runs at 3811 Illinois Road.

Sources:

1. Barr Street Market historical marker, via HMdb — https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=197286
2. Tom Castaldi, "Barr Street Market: Trading Under the Trees", History Center Notes & Queries (first published Along the Heritage Trail, May 2006) — http://historycenterfw.blogspot.com/2013/09/barr-street-market-trading-under-trees.html
3. ACGSI Barr Street Market page, including the 1909 Journal Gazette market-house article, the 2018/2022 History Center posts (1988) and the 2023 History Center post (1990) — https://www.acgsi.org/genweb/fort-wayne/barr-street-market-fort-wayne-indiana.html
4. Michael Hawfield, "Barr Street Market full of history", News-Sentinel Cityscapes — http://egen.fortwayne.com/ns/projects/history/haw17.php
5. Kevin Leininger, "The best market, Barr none", News-Sentinel Cityscapes, 17 July 1982
6. History Center virtual exhibit, City Market Weighmaster Badge, on the 1837 opening, 1855 building and 1910 pavilion — https://fwhistorycenter.org/virtual-exhibits/vex21/7397E972-4666-47A0-A6BC-093352659690.htm
7. YLNI Farmers Market, current summer/winter seasons and producer-only rule — https://www.ylni.org/what-we-do/ylni-farmers-market
8. Northeast Indiana Local Food Network, YLNI Farmers Market listing (summer at Historic Barr Street Market, Saturdays 9 a.m.–1 p.m.) — https://www.neifood.org/shop-local/ylni-farmers-market