The exact page text, read by your browser's voice.
Public market · City of Fort Wayne, now the YLNI Farmers Market
On the record
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 is not proven.
Founders: Samuel Hanna, donor of the land; the market was a city institution, run by the City of Fort Wayne under a Market Master. Peter Kiser (sometimes spelled Kaiser) is named as a notable early Market Master.
What it did: Fort Wayne’s public market and oldest public space: farmers and vendors sold produce and goods direct, on the east side of Barr Street between Berry Street and Washington Boulevard, at its height operating six days a week with 120 stalls.
Course: a new market building was erected in 1855. CONFLICT — removal of the old building: 1893 (marker / Castaldi) vs torn down in 1892 (Hawfield) — flagged, not resolved. A grand covered concrete complex was built in 1910. CONFLICT — 1910 architects: Mahurin & Mahurin (contemporaneous Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, 29 December 1909) vs Wing & Mahurin (1982 retrospective) — flagged. CONFLICT — 1910 cost: $20,000 vs $200,000 — flagged, not resolved. The northern pavilion was demolished in 1957 and the southern pavilion in 1958.
Fate: city operation ended 1966; the Barr Street Market Association continued to rent stalls after 1966. CONFLICT — History Center ownership date, UNRESOLVED: the marker, Castaldi and History Center posts of 2018 and 2022 say 1988; a History Center post of 21 September 2023 says 1990. The market survives as the YLNI Farmers Market: YLNI-led revival began in 2004, and the History Center dates its YLNI partnership to 2005 — both dates carried.
Find them on this page
- § 05 — business
Sources: Barr Street Market marker, via HMdb — https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=197286 ; Castaldi, History Center Notes & Queries — http://historycenterfw.blogspot.com/2013/09/barr-street-market-trading-under-trees.html ; ACGSI Barr Street Market page — https://www.acgsi.org/genweb/fort-wayne/barr-street-market-fort-wayne-indiana.html ; Hawfield, News-Sentinel Cityscapes — http://egen.fortwayne.com/ns/projects/history/haw17.php ; Leininger (1982) ; History Center virtual exhibit — https://fwhistorycenter.org/virtual-exhibits/vex21/7397E972-4666-47A0-A6BC-093352659690.htm ; YLNI Farmers Market — https://www.ylni.org/what-we-do/ylni-farmers-market ; Northeast Indiana Local Food Network — https://www.neifood.org/shop-local/ylni-farmers-market . Sources as cited in the profile.