Colorized

This image, colorized by Sanna Dullaway, shows what the historic French Market looked like early in 1900. The corner today is Place de France. In the forefront of the picture, we can see the fruits and vegetables for sale, and, if you look closely, you can distinguish the prices. The covered wagon indicates that it is for a ship chandler and grocer. And one of the buildings across from the market is Garic’s Bakery. The French Market has a history that stretches back before New Orleans was founded in 1718, when the current French Market was a Native American trading post next to the Mississippi.

Colorized by Sanna Dullaway

The Spanish built the first Market building on the corner of Chartres and Dumaine Streets. They moved it to a site on Decatur Street in 1790, but hurricanes destroyed the buildings on the site. During the first part of the 19th Century, the French Market was along one of the busiest ports in the world. It was a bustling place where people of all sorts sold their wares, and it was noteworthy for its filth.

Beginnings As A Meat Market

Source: (Library of Congress).

The current French Market had its start as the “Meat Market,” since it was the only place in the French Quarter where meat could be butchered and sold (this was related to laws concerning slaughter, as they were trying to reduce the offal produced by the slaughtering process). Once that changed and people could sell meat elsewhere, the name changed to the French Market. The building that was the Meat Market built in 1813 survived and is the location of the Café Du Monde today, and dates to 1862. In 1822, they began to construct a building that was designed for use as a Vegetable Market. Construction on that building ended in 1830, and the Vegetable Market was the main produce stand for the French Quarter from the 1880s until the 1930s. Around 1833, the Red Stores were built near the Vegetable Market. After this, a market similar to a bazaar appeared between the Meat and Vegetable Markets, and the city constructed a Bazaar Market to house it. Behind the Meat Market, fishermen and oystermen would sell seafood in the Seafood Market after bringing their products from the lake, carting them from the Carondelet Canal.

How It Was Organized

Source: (New Orleans Past.)

There were four divisions in the French Market: meat, fruit, vegetable, and fish. With the building of the bazaar in 1872, another division was added. The market was made of brick columns with a slate roof. The different divisions in the market were separated by streets. People also set up carts opposite the vegetable market to sell their vegetables. The market had an unmatched variety. However, despite its variety, it also was the source of disease outbreaks (yellow fever in 1905 and bubonic plague in 1914) in New Orleans because of the mosquitos and rats. It was also the location of a number of murders, as tensions rose between groups.

Regulations And Fees

Inside the market. Source: (Reddit/colorized).

The city chose farmers or private contractors to collect revenue from the Market starting in the colonial era. The contractor collected fees from the stall-holders. There were also established sanitary regulations which were enforced by some of the city officials. By 1931, a Division of Public Markets was established within the Department of Public Property. And in 1932, the members of the French Market Business Men’s Association organized the French Market Corporation, which bid for the operation and improvement of the French Market, and they won the bid in 1934. They immediately began rehabilitating and modernizing the buildings, including the Bazaar Market which needed to be demolished after it sustained serious damage during the 1915 hurricane.

The Muffuletta Was Created Close By

Inside the Central Grocery in 1906. Source: (wikimedia).

In 1864, the Italians began to arrive in large enough numbers for their presence to be felt from the 1890s until the early 20th century. The Italians began to move out of the French Market proper, and across the street from the market on Decatur, one of them opened Central Grocery, a small Italian grocery. Salvatore Lupo, a Sicilian immigrant, opened Central Grocery in 1906, the same year the original picture was taken. It was here that the muffuletta was created.

The French Market in New Orleans, 1906

Beginnings As A Meat Market

How It Was Organized

Regulations And Fees

The Muffuletta Was Created Close By