On the site of what is today known as the Meat Market, the Gansevoort Market, a large open-air produce market, existed in the 1800s and early 1900s. Every morning, farmers came in from the country with their carts full of fresh fruit and vegetables. On the Gansevoort Peninsula, on which a decommissioned incinerator today serves as a Department of Sanitation garbage truck garage, was the West Washington Market, a kosher poultry market sporting 10, two-story buildings with chicken coops. Refrigeration and supermarkets killed both open-air markets. The top photo shows the Gansevoort Market, in the foreground, and West Washington Market, in the background, circa 1898. At right, the opening in December 1884 of a new building in Washington Market, another market formerly at the site of today’s Washington Market Park in Tribeca, was cause for celebration.
