Going to Market: Wallabout Market and the Vanished Landscapes of Food Distribution in New York City
By Malka Simon
Have you ever thought about how food gets to your plate? Whether you buy your groceries from Key Food or order them from the comfort of your couch, the food you consume impacts the urban landscape around you. Although food is ephemeral, disappearing with our appetite, it leaves traces on the city if we know where to look for it. Produce, meat, and dairy — all perishable items with relatively short lives — have to be produced, shipped, unpacked, distributed, and sold, and those activities take place in the physical spaces around us. As elements in that chain evolve, the urban spaces that host those activities shift as well. The history of Brooklyn’s Wallabout Market (1884-1941) reflects the physical impact that food, politics, and technology can wield over the urban landscape.
History of Wallabout Market
Wallabout Market was established in 1884, when Brooklyn was an independent city. Located in northern Brooklyn, adjacent to Wallabout Bay and the Navy Yard, the market served the needs of area farmers. They had grown frustrated with the limited capacity and inconvenient location of New York City’s wholesale markets, and sought more efficient arrangements that did not depend on the city across the river.
Postcard of Wallabout Market, c. 1905 (Collection of Author).
While the City of Brooklyn – so close to New York – grew dense with residence and industry, the vast inner reaches of Kings County remained farmland into the early twentieth century. The towns of Flatbush, Flatlands, New Utrecht, and Gravesend were populated largely by farmers whose crops helped feed the nearby urban masses. [1] Although the geographic distance between farmer and consumer was short, the process by which Kings County produce found its way into customers’ kitchens was surprisingly long and convoluted. Since Brooklyn lacked vegetable markets of sufficient size, Kings County farmers trucked their goods into New York, selling them at wholesale markets in Manhattan to Brooklyn grocers who then brought them back across the river, wasting time and driving up costs in the process.
Map showing location and layout of Wallabout Market, 1929. (Brooklyn Maps Collection, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History).
As dissatisfaction with the New York markets mounted, Kings County farmers began setting up their wagons in Brooklyn along Fulton Street. Hundreds of wagons stretched from the bridge to the ferry by 1884, and residents complained about the stench and garbage left behind. [2] Farmers were also dissatisfied with the arrangement, expressing a desire for a permanent home. “Are Our Farmers Wandering Jews?” asked one of the local agricultural papers. “Are they to continue carting their loads all around the city looking for a buyer and like the Israelites of old have no abiding place?” [3] In order to address the situation, Kings County farmers had formed the Kings County Farmers and Market Gardeners’ Association to represent their collective interests. Their efforts finally paid off when, in September 1884, the Brooklyn Works Commissioner ordered farmers to stand near the Navy Yard, removing them from Fulton Street with the intention of finding them a permanent home. Shortly thereafter, the Navy Yard leased land around Wallabout Basin to Brooklyn, which the city drained and graded, laying out streets and installing sewers, water, gas, and electric lighting to a 104,000 square foot market that would fit 400 farmers’ wagons. Eventually, the federal government sold the land to the city in order to ensure a more permanent situation. [4]
Wallabout Market found success in its first few years, processing both local produce as well as perishables shipped from across the country. The advent of refrigerated rail technology in the late nineteenth century allowed fruits and vegetables to be shipped across long distances, and New Yorkers no longer had to rely solely on regional farms. Beginning in 1885, the south became a major supplier to the New York market. As the local population and its demands grew, the city of Brooklyn expanded Wallabout’s facilities, building a canal in 1891 to accommodate water shipments. [5] Municipal improvements complemented private investments, which included rail facilities at the market and cold storage units along neighboring streets [6] That meant that at Wallabout Market, the contents of refrigerated rail cars could be transferred quickly to nearby cold storage facilities. At the turn of the twentieth century, Wallabout Market claimed to be the only American market with direct rail service. Such efficiency meant a better return on investment, as food in peak condition would fetch the highest prices. [7] As an independent city, Brooklyn’s farmers and municipal leaders prioritized their local needs independent of New York.
Wallabout Market: Appearance and Design
The geography of food distribution determined the market’s scale, and as foodways shifted so did the market’s appearance. The nineteenth century market catered to the needs of Brooklyn. It was modest in scale, testament to a relatively small population that could still rely primarily on local produce grown on undeveloped land. The market’s central square visually evoked a small Dutch village, so even as produce arrived from further afield, the space retained a local feel.
The Farmers’ Square at Wallabout Market, 193 (Brooklyn Postcard Collection, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History).
In Wallabout’s early days, most produce came into the market from local farmers via horse truck and could be accommodated by small buildings. [8] The market was laid out in blocks of small stores. At its center lay the farmers’ square, an open space that, at its height, measured 240 feet wide. [9] As the market grew busier and more congested, the stores grew as well. In 1894, new regulations stipulated that any new market buildings had to be “substantial,” that is, built from brick, stone, iron, or some comparable material. Lessees initially built their own stalls, but those structures had to be uniform with their neighbors according to the leasing contract. [10]
The clocktower at Wallabout Market, c. 1940 (Brooklyn Daily Eagle Photographs, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History).
In 1895, the Eagle was bragging that “the finest market in the world will be completed by January next.” [11] Local pride seems to have influenced the design of a distinctive marketplace that could serve the needs of a growing city in a practical and also fashionable style. The city of Brooklyn had paved Wallabout’s grid of streets and provided sewer, gas, and electrical service. Buildings were described as brick, glass, and iron, with uniform exteriors of two stories and no cellars. Stores measured a minimum of 16 by 30 feet, with some having frontages up to 75 feet wide. By this time, the adjacent canal was doing a brisk business in both national and international produce. [12] Alfred T. White, then the Commissioner of Public Works, personally funded the construction of the Wallabout clock tower, which doubled as an office building. [13] The clocktower, executed in the same Flemish Revival style as the stores around it, punctuated the skyline and gave Wallabout Market a commanding presence in the neighborhood that reflected its growing national significance. Both the market stores and the tower were designed by architect William Tubby, who had made a name for himself designing for Brooklyn’s elite. White’s choice of a society architect for the Wallabout commission likely reflected the importance of the market to Brooklyn’s civic identity. The picturesque buildings of Wallabout were described as not just functional but elegant in form: world travelers deemed the Brooklyn market “the finest in appearance and cost effective in serviceability of any in the world.” [14]
Consolidation and Beyond
Upon Brooklyn’s consolidation with New York City, Wallabout Market and its concerns came under the jurisdiction of a multitude of citywide agencies. [15] Bureaucracy drove up food costs, and civic leaders issued calls to streamline the bureaucracy and reduce food prices. [16] In the years following consolidation, not only did market jurisdiction shift, so did the nature of food distribution and consumption in New York City. To understand Wallabout’s evolving status, we must examine the ways in which food arrived on New Yorkers’ tables in the years following 1898.
By 1913, encroaching suburbanization in a growing New York City meant that local farmers could not produce nearly enough to feed their neighbors. [17] In 1923, half of New York’s food supply came from over 500 miles away, and perishables traveled an average of 1,500 miles to the New York market. [18]
Consolidation brought multiple food markets together under a single jurisdiction but did not yield greater efficiency. Though rail facilities served the city’s markets, their capacity could not keep up with growing demand. This discrepancy meant congestion, delays, and sometimes even spoiled food. Complicating the situation was the fact that distribution across the city relied on many layers of middlemen. An elaborate transfer process from wholesale to retail led to congestion, lost time, and ultimately higher prices for the consumer. [19]
Consolidation had changed the calculus of food distribution by dramatically increasing the geographic expanse of New York City. The Mayor’s Market Commission, which issued its report on New York markets in 1913, quickly realized that the city was in dire need of a more comprehensive system that utilized multiple market locations, specifically because of the growing outer boroughs. “The present primary market in Manhattan is too congested and too far away from the rapidly growing outlying boroughs to be the base of supplies for the greater percentage of the retailers of the city.” [20] Their report made plain that existing foodways were ill-equipped to serve the new New York. If consolidation was supposed to make a more efficient city, New York’s market facilities were anything but: outdated, congested, inefficient, and too small. These shortcomings meant lost time, damaged food, inconsistent city inspection, and ultimately, higher costs for consumers. And whatever modern terminal markets did exist were all privately owned by the railroads, which further limited what the city could do. [21]
The city’s desire for efficiency brought Wallabout Market back to the spotlight. Looking to build rail transfer facilities for food that would bypass Manhattan’s busy streets, a special committee formed by the Board of Estimate in 1924 determined that Wallabout was best suited to accommodate changing foodways. City-owned, it was accessible by water and land, with ample acreage and a protected basin located relatively close to the bulk of Brooklyn’s population. [22]
The city’s efforts were backed by the Wallabout merchants themselves, who believed a modern freight terminal could increase profits by increasing efficiency. The market was losing business because of the “archaic methods of food distribution” there. Nearby streets had become choked with truck traffic. But a single rail freight car held the capacity of four trucks without the street traffic, so a shift away from trucks to water and rail was extremely desirable. [23]
Proposed Freight Rail Terminal at Wallabout Market, 1935 (Brooklyn Maps collection, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History).
Water and rail capacity had existed at Wallabout since the turn of the twentieth century. The Pennsylvania Railroad had built a pier on the market’s basin for freight handling in 1900, and the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad had also built a terminal adjacent to the market around this time. [24] But the proposed new freight terminal would drastically expand capacity, with two car float bridges, terminal storage space, and a rail spur with direct access to market buildings. Planners hoped that these improvements would lure back merchants who had decamped to Manhattan’s Washington Market. [25]
Wallabout Market, 1924, Gelatin silver print, NEIG_1574; Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
Consolidation had shifted New York City’s population eastward, into Brooklyn and Queens, and the renovated market would be able to serve that population better. When it opened in May 1936, the Wallabout Market Freight Terminal featured direct rail service with expanded capacity and refrigerated facilities. Boosters predicted it would benefit Queens, Nassau, and Suffolk counties as well as Manhattan and Brooklyn. In a nod to the Depression economy, the terminal was also hailed as having the potential to “save housewives more than $1,000,000 yearly on food bills.” [26] At the opening ceremonies for the terminal, speakers consistently stressed the ways in which the new facility would benefit ordinary citizens in a new age of suburbanization. As the region’s population migrated out of Manhattan for points east, the Wallabout terminal stood ready to serve their needs. Raymond Ingersoll, Brooklyn’s borough president, asserted that “our borough is the largest home community and it deserves the most efficient service.” [27]
The 1936 extension was unmistakably part of a bigger city and the marker of consolidation. To begin with, it was just one cog in a system of citywide markets, operating in conjunction with, rather than defiance of, the city’s other market facilities. It wasn’t even the largest market – Wallabout’s scope was eclipsed by the Bronx Terminal Market, another outer borough facility conceived as part of the same study that encouraged improvements at Wallabout. And while the new rail facility at Wallabout had been planned for a while, its opening during the tenure of Fiorello LaGuardia was particularly appropriate. LaGuardia’s administration showed what could be accomplished when various political entities cooperated as part of a system. Consolidation’s promise of efficiency echoed in the opening speeches of the 1936 ceremony.
LaGuardia, famously efficient, built even further on the notion of consolidation in the context of markets. A real champion of the whole city, he viewed the markets holistically, as part of a system with ample room for improvement. He launched a daily series of city-sponsored radio addresses informing “housewives” what produce could be purchased at the market and how it could be prepared, in order to eliminate food waste and save money during the Depression. In this way, radio created an aural landscape of sorts that complemented the very physical nature of food and its movement across the city.
Wallabout Market no longer exists. Its facilities were bulldozed by the Navy Yard in 1941 to make more space for wartime production, and Brooklyn’s wholesale operations moved to the Terminal Market in Canarsie. But Wallabout’s rise and fall still has much to teach us about the rhythms of the city and the urban patterns that unfold in response to even the most ephemeral of commodities.
Malka Simon is a Lecturer in the Art Department at Brooklyn College, teaching classes on the history of art, architecture, and urban design, and on New York City’s architectural development. Her current research focuses on industrial architecture and landscapes in Brooklyn.
[1] In the nineteenth century, Kings County was not synonymous with Brooklyn. The City of Brooklyn lay at the county’s northern edge, roughly contiguous with modern-day Greenpoint, Williamsburg, Brooklyn Heights, and Red Hook. The rest of the county was broken up into independent towns, which were all eventually consolidated with the city of Brooklyn by 1896.
[2] “The Market: Methods and Success of Business at the Wallabout,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle July 1, 1886, p.1, accessed 3/8/19.
[3] “Are Our Farmers Wandering Jews?” KCRBG 1/12/1884.
[4] Mac Linder and Lawrence S. Zaccharias, Of Cabbages and Kings County: Agriculture and the Formation of Modern Brooklyn, Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1999, 55-58.
[5] Frederick A. Bartlett, The History of Wallabout Market: Established 1884, the Largest Market in the World, Brooklyn: Brooklyn Eagle Press, 1902, 11.
[6] For example, according to Peter Ross’ History of Long Island (1905), the Kings County Refrigerating Company had opened by 1904 [vol. I, 512].
[7] Bartlett, 17-19; 24.
[8] Bartlett, 52.
[9] George Maloney, The Development of the Wallabout Market, Brooklyn: St. Francis College, 1962, 26.
[10] Bartlett, 14.
[11] “A Big Market Building,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, September 29, 1895, p. 27, accessed 3/8/19.
[12] “A Big Market Building,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle September 29, 1895, p. 27, accessed 3/8/19.
[13] Bartlett, 15; “Alfred T. White’s Clock Tower,” The New York Times June 19, 1896, p. 9, accessed 3/8/19.
[14] Bartlett, 14
[15] These agencies, some of them newly-created, included the Board of Aldermen, the Borough President’s office, the departments of Health, Fire, and Police, the Bureau of Weights and Measures, and the Department of Docks.
[16] Maloney 27-28; Cyrus Chace Miller, Report of the Mayor’s Market Commission of New York City. New York: JJ Little & Ives, 1913, 25.
[17] Miller, 11.
[18] U.S. Department of Agriculture, “Expense Factors in City Distribution of Perishables,” Bulletin #1411 (August 1926), Washington, DC.
[19] Miller 13-17; USDA Bulletin #1411 (1926), 2-3.
[20] Miller, 17.
[21] Ibid, 11.
[22] Special Committee on Terminal Market for Brooklyn, Report of Special Committee Appointed to Consider the Question of The Construction of a Terminal Market in The Borough of Brooklyn. New York: MB Brown. 3-13. Other sites considered included Newtown Creek, the Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal in Williamsburg, the Jay Street Terminal in Dumbo, and Jamaica Bay.
[23] Special Committee on Terminal Market, 15
[24] Bartlett, 21-23
[25] “Plan Terminal for Wallabout Produce Market,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle February 28, 1935, accessed 3/13/19
[26] “City Officials Open New Wallabout Terminal,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle May 3, 1936, accessed 3/13/19
[27] Wallabout Market Merchants' Assn., Inc., Official Opening Wallabout Market Freight Terminal, Saturday, May 2nd, 1936 at 10 A.M.: Souvenir Program, New York: Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal, 1936.