The market was launched in the 1880s on South Water Street at East Wacker Drive and State Street.

It grew up with the city and was there when Chicago was just a mud-hole. The Market was ideally situated to transport merchandise by way of railroad or the river. But by 1900 Chicago had grown immensely and the Market seriously interfered with traffic. Congested, lined with horses and wagons, South Water Street made in impassable barrier along the entire south river front. In 1930, the Chicago Plan Commission  (a civic project to beautify the city) began legal action, determined to move the market to a less conspicuous part of town. (More).

 

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The Chicago Produce Market
By Edwin Griswold Nourse
Book Published 1918
Houghton Mifflin
Digitized Jun 8, 2007
Read book online on Google Books
Download book in (PDF) format from CIPM 10.2 mb

Historic Essays

Water Street Market.
"Sell it or smell it"  Delivered to The Chicago Literary Club

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