East Side1948 Public Market, 1st Ave & 73rd St
New York Public Market, 1948, 73rd & 1st
I recently came across this photo of The New York City Public Market in 1948 at 73rd and 1st. Who knew the Upper East Side was once home to such a place? Via Shorpy we find it placed in the development of market spaces in the city:
A typical 19th-century market would have many separate vendors in an open-air space like a town square. By the early 1900s the open-air space had given way to separate vendors under a large shed roof with no walls, often near the train station. Here in 1948 the space is enclosed, but still with separate vendors (greengrocer, butcher, dry goods, fishmonger etc.). After the introduction of centralized distribution and self-service for the various product categories, the individual vendors fade from the scene and the market has a new name: “super-market,” now spelled without the hyphen.
There are still similar markets in existence. Chelsea Market in lower Manhattan bills itself as a “food concourse,” and does indeed remind one of an upscale Food Network-approved indoor mall. The Oxford Covered Market in Oxford, England, is closer to this bygone NYC market, a collection of indoor storefronts and stalls, not limited to food.
Perhaps the closest one gets to a market experience like this in today’s New York are the farmer-direct Greenmarkets managed by GrowNYC (formerly CENYC). Perhaps it’s fitting that the Upper East Side is blessed with not just one at 82nd and 1st, roughly ten blocks from the old 1930s-’40s market, but another at 92nd and 2nd, both returning in July, 2010. And, thankfully, the city’s Greenmarkets are cleaner and more farm-direct in comparison with old early 20th Century markets.
The point Shorpy makes about the development of centralized distribution is important. These days, in the name of efficiency and lower prices, most food sources are large supermarkets, receiving their food from centralized distributors. Even most of the small bodegas in New York are supplied by Jetro Cash & Carry, whose CEO participated in the recent Foodprint NYC event, acknowledging a need for greater healthy variety, but expressing how new bodega owners start coming with vans, and return with trucks as their business grows.
The stores we have reflect our values as a society and how they’ve changed over the decades. It’s comforting to see not only the success and growth of Greenmarkets in New York, but the adoption at least an “old market feel” by stores like Fairway and Whole Foods, with specialized product areas and servicepeople, and the humanization and increase in quality of the centralized style of distribution by stores like Trader Joe’s. Perhaps values are shifting to embrace health, social connections, local food and environmental concerns more and more.
