The Municipal Market is a historic market located in
Atlanta, Georgia's Sweet Auburn Historic District
Sweetness is a basic taste most commonly perceived when eating foods rich in sugars. Sweet tastes are generally regarded as pleasurable. In addition to sugars like sucrose, many other chemical compounds are sweet, including aldehydes, ketones ...
at 209 Edgewood Avenue, S.W. The market operates as a
nonprofit
A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...
enterprise, with the building leased from the City of Atlanta and the individual vendors sub-leasing.
History
![Atlanta Municipal Market, 1924](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a3/Atlanta_Municipal_Market%2C_1924.png)
The market was originally established in 1918 on land cleared by the
Great Atlanta fire of 1917
The Great Atlanta Fire of 1917 began just after noon on 21 May 1917 in the Old Fourth Ward of Atlanta, Georgia. It is unclear just how the fire started, but it was fueled by hot temperatures and strong winds which propelled the fire. The fire, ...
. The
farmers' market
A farmers' market (or farmers market according to the AP stylebook, also farmer's market in the Cambridge Dictionary) is a physical retail marketplace intended to sell foods directly by farmers to consumers. Farmers' markets may be indoors or o ...
, set up in a huge tent, was an immediate success, bringing urban consumers direct access to farmers and their products.
Wishing to give the market a more permanent home, the Atlanta Woman's Club raised almost $300,000 for a fireproof brick and concrete building which opened on May 1, 1924,
[ named the Municipal Market of Atlanta. At the time, it was located in the exact geographic center of Atlanta and quickly became "the place to shop" for every Atlantan.][ The market building was owned by the City of Atlanta and operated by a lessor under a 50-year agreement.][
The Municipal Market quickly earned the affectionate nickname The Curb Market, partly for the neighborhood that formed around it due to prevailing ]Jim Crow laws
The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States. Other areas of the United States were affected by formal and informal policies of segregation as well, but many states outside the Sout ...
, and partly because blacks were only permitted to sell from stalls lining the curb. At that time, Atlanta was still living under racial segregation
Racial segregation is the systematic separation of people into race (human classification), racial or other Ethnicity, ethnic groups in daily life. Racial segregation can amount to the international crime of apartheid and a crimes against hum ...
; although blacks were permitted to shop alongside whites inside the market, only whites were allowed to sell from shops inside the market.
The 1950s and 60s saw the advent of supermarkets, suburbs, and integration; these resulted in many black residents dispersing from the area and consequently, traffic to the Curb Market fell, leaving vendors unable to pay rent. In 1973, with the market's lease about to expire, Mayor Sam Massell
Samuel A. Massell Jr. (August 26, 1927 – March 13, 2022) was an American businessman and politician who served from 1970 to 1974 as the 53rd mayor of Atlanta, Georgia. He was the first Jewish mayor in the city's history and the most recent no ...
asserted the market had "outlived its usefulness" and refused to negotiate another lease, as local farmers were no longer selling their wares at the market, and the city was receiving a relative pittance compared to the value of the land. At that time, though, a "Save the Market" campaign was launched, showing the market collectively had annual sales of $2.8 million and was the largest "soul food shopping center" in the country, providing specialty cuts of meat to a primarily black, low-income clientele. A group of banks issued a million-dollar loan to renovate and rehabilitate the Market, and it continued in operation.[
The City of Atlanta purchased the Municipal Market building in 1980, but sales continued to decline until Atlanta was awarded the ]1996 Summer Olympics
The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...
, bringing nearly $8 million for rehabilitation. The renovation of the Curb Market started in 1994 and had a grand reopening on September 26, 1997.[ President ]Bill Clinton
William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...
visited the market on May 11, 1999. The building was later severely damaged during the 2008 Atlanta tornado outbreak.[
]
In 2010, the Municipal Market received both Community Development Block Grant funding and a Stimulus Grant for a total of $1.8 million.[ As part of basic maintenance and updates, a portion of the funds were used to replace the sign damaged by the tornado of 2008. Because the management was able to locate the original exterior sign and have it repaired and displayed inside the building, the city's department of Urban Design approved the creation of a replica of the sign to be displayed on the Edgewood Ave side of the building. Renovations and restoration started in July 2011 and were completed by May 2012, under the supervision of the architect Bill Clark, carried out by the J.M. Wilkerson Construction Company.
The Municipal Market was called the Sweet Auburn Curb Market starting in 1998. However, in 2018, as part of the 100 year anniversary, the Municipal Market Company decided to rebrand the market to reflect the original name.
]
Design
The brick building was designed by the Atlanta architect A. Ten Eyck Brown. As originally built, the single-story market and entrance was flanked on either side by two-story towers, but these were removed during the first renovation of the building in the 1970s.
In media
The market was the filming location for a scene in the 2014 film, ''Ride Along
A ride-along is an arrangement for a civilian to spend a shift in the passenger seat of an emergency vehicle, observing the work day of a police officer, firefighter, or paramedic.
Ride-alongs are offered by many police departments around the wor ...
'', which takes place and was filmed in Atlanta. It is also featured in the ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
television series ''Kevin (Probably) Saves the World
''Kevin (Probably) Saves the World'' (stylized as ''Kevin ^Probably Saves the World'') is an American high-concept angelic-themed fantasy comedy-drama television series that was created and executive produced by Michele Fazekas & Tara Butters fo ...
'', appearing in scenes for the thirteenth episode, entitled "Fishtail".
Tenants
Vendors within the market are individually owned businesses and offer goods including meat, fish, baked goods, vegetables, fruit, nuts, coffee, plants, groceries, and more. Additionally, there are many restaurants located in the market, including several that have gone on to start stand-alone restaurants, such as Grindhouse Killer Burgers and Bell Street Burritos. The Market is seen by some as a place to incubate a small business.
References
External links
Sweet Auburn Curb Market
(official web site)
City of Atlanta
*
*
*
*
{{Atlanta
Buildings and structures in Atlanta
Economy of Atlanta
Old Fourth Ward
Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site and Preservation District
1918 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state)
Commercial buildings completed in 1923
Sweet Auburn
A. Ten Eyck Brown buildings