STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE

The proposed Eastern Market Historic District is significant at the state and local levels under National Register Criteria A in the area of Commerce and Industry, particularly for its distinction of being the oldest continuously operating public market in the State of Michigan and the only remaining public market in Detroit; and at the local level in the area of Ethnic and Cultural History, paralleling the development and growth of the city of Detroit as several ethnic groups shaped the physical and geographical landscape in the Eastern Market area. It is also significant under Criteria C for its Architecture, which forms a distinctive collection of open-air market sheds and enclosed market sheds that have evolved through the multiple life cycles of the market. The proposed Eastern Market Historic District meets Criteria G as a district including properties that have achieved significance in Detroit within the past fifty years and are an integral part of the district. In the context of the Eastern Market Historic District, Shed 5 is an expression of the district's growth and expansion. Shed 5 reflects a continuation of the evolution of Eastern Market and is of exceptional significance. The Eastern Market Parking Garage is a non-contributing structure to the historic district.

Period of Significance

The period of significance of the Eastern Market Historic District is defined as 1898 to 1981, beginning when Shed 2 was designed, and ending with the construction of Shed 5, the final public shed. This period includes many of the physical changes that have taken place to meet Eastern Market’s needs as a significant social, commercial, and grocery market for the people of Detroit, Southeast Michigan, and nearby Ontario, Canada.

HISTORY

Commerce and Trade – From Farm to Market

Evidence of the earliest human farming activity in the vicinity of Detroit dates to the Late Woodland period (500-1000 CE). This native culture of hunters and gatherers lived in small villages and cultivated relatively small plots of vegetables. Late in this period, indigenous tribes began to farm maize, beans, pumpkins, and squash. The earliest Europeans were the French, led by Antoine Laumet de la mothe Cadillac, a military leader and trader who established Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit in 1701 as a permanent military outpost to protect French interests in the region from the British. They lived near the Detroit River among native populations of Huron, Loups, and Ottawa and established a lucrative fur trading center along the narrowest part of the strait between Lake Erie and Lake Huron.

Within the first decade, Cadillac divided land along the waterways east of the fort into ribbon farms and granted them for permanent settlement. The long, narrow plots of land extending up to three miles into the hinterlands guaranteed the much-needed access to water transportation as well as large tracts for farming. The early settlers took a special interest in growing fruit trees in their orchards either in front of or behind their homes along the river; several new apple, cherry, and pear species were developed during the eighteenth century with pear trees a particular favorite of the French Detroit garden. Still, farming in the early period of European occupation was largely of the individual sustenance type.

The nineteenth century brought new opportunities for wider food distribution to what was still a frontier town with a population of 770 in 1810.1 Detroit was incorporated as a town in 1802 and the trustees, in their third official action, established a centrally located farmers market at the riverfront.2 Detroit’s devastating fire of 1805 reportedly consumed the market and all other buildings save one. With the organization of the Michigan Territory that same year and Detroit as its territorial capitol, an opportunity to provide order to the town’s future expansion was presented.

As part of Territorial Judge Augustus Woodward’s 1805 plan, major roads were laid out with Woodward Avenue forming the central spine on a somewhat north-south axis, Jefferson Avenue following the river’s edge on an east-west axis, and a set of radial streets that could be extended well beyond the town’s core. The lack of interior roads, fueled by the perception that the land was swampy and uninhabitable, was somewhat overcome after the first system of roads accessing the interior of Michigan was planned. Although still notoriously under-improved into the twentieth century, these roads served to link Detroit, incorporated as a city in 1824, with agricultural communities of some distance inland.

Gratiot Road was a diagonal thoroughfare that cut a path northeast of downtown. Although not specifically drawn to its actual location on the Woodward Plan, Gratiot Road nonetheless served the purpose of connecting the city to distant places. Originally a native trail, it was laid out as a military supply road by Congress between Fort Detroit and Fort Gratiot (Port Huron) in 1827, and completed in 1831. It was named after the United States Army engineer who oversaw the construction of Fort Gratiot in 1814, Captain Charles Chouteau Gratiot, later Colonel Gratiot. Private toll roads became a popular alternative in the mid-nineteenth century as an answer to the poorly constructed and maintained territorial roads; the Fort Gratiot Turnpike plank road was chartered in 1844 and was continuously upgraded over time. This established route proved to be good access for future farmers bringing crops to Eastern Market to and from Macomb County.

Beyond open land opportunities and road improvements that opened up the Michigan Territory to expansion, factors such as diminished fur resources and, especially, the 1825 opening of the Erie Canal assisted in a dynamic period of settlement with Detroit positioned as the gateway westward for newly arriving immigrants from Europe and the east coast. Technological achievements in transportation and agricultural production impacted farmers’ ability to bring food to market. First by canoe and French bateaux, then by a network of Native American trails (some of which were converted to roads after the War of 1812), stage coaches, and railroads prevailed in the transport of perishable goods during the second half of the nineteenth century.

In the 1830s, Antoine Dequindre deeded a right-of-way to the Detroit and Pontiac Railroad through his property for the first chartered rail line in the Northwest Territory. Slow to take hold because of public opposition to placing the rails, this line became the Detroit & Milwaukee Railroad in 1855, later becoming part of the Grand Trunk Western Railroad with tracks through the eastern side of what became Eastern Market, today the path of the Dequindre Cut Rail Trail. By 1848 several railroads were constructed to Lake Michigan and connected steamboat routes to Chicago, eliminating the time-consuming navigation of lakes Huron and Michigan.

In the 1840s, the increase and sale of mechanized farm equipment using steam engines to harvest and process crops allowed production farming to become more efficient. The first recognized commercial crops of wheat and corn appeared in the 1850 Agricultural Census for Wayne County and farming was noted as the most popular occupation for approximately 65,000 of the county’s population of 109,000 males. In 1862, the U.S. Department of Agriculture was established and the Homesteading Act that allowed citizens who had not taken up arms against the government, the ability to acquire surveyed land, build a dwelling and cultivate the land. Commercial farmers, sometimes called truck farmers, brought produce to public markets first by wagon and eventually by other means of transport, increasing the distance from farm to market.3 Food markets continued to serve the needs of Detroit’s growing population, which stood at 46,519 by 1869, according to the U.S. Census.

According to Michigan: A Guide to the Wolverine State by the Federal Works Project and sponsored by Michigan State University in 1942, regional interurban electric lines were of utmost importance to transporting fresh food to market just before the dawn of motorized transportation: "Since railroads and highway did not keep pace with southern Michigan’s agricultural development, there arose a demand for faster inter-city and farm-to- market transportation. High-speed, electric interurban lines meet this demand. Between 1891 and 1910, they spread across the entire southern half of the Lower Peninsula; but with the erection of the first automobile factories at Detroit, Flint, Pontiac, and Lansing, at the beginning of the present century, the importance of the interurban lines was threatened and finally destroyed."

Detroit’s interurban lines were operated by the Detroit United Railway, the entity that also ran Detroit streetcars until they were sold to the City of Detroit (DSR) in 1922.

Eastern Market: Detroit’s Public Market

Public markets have been in existence for thousands of years in urban settings worldwide. They connected food producers with food consumers in permanent structures open year-round. Established as major sources of fresh, locally produced foods for urban dwellers, rich and poor alike, they also served as social gathering places. Regulations to ensure public welfare and food safety in public markets have existed since ancient times.

Many public markets have historical ties to their cities, states, and the nation. The Lancaster (PA) Central Market was established in 1730 and its Romanesque Revival market building dates from 1889. Faneuil Hall in Boston, MA was established in 1742; Gansevoort Market in Manhattan, NY, 1879; Reading Market in Philadelphia, PA, 1893; Pike Place in Seattle, WA, 1907; West Side Market in Cleveland, OH, 1912, to name a few of the better-known ones. Eastern Market in Detroit fits well amongst these as one of the oldest continuing public markets in the nation and one of the largest.

Detroit’s first market from 1802 burned in the Detroit fire of 1805, and officially resumed business in 1817 as the Woodward Avenue Market in a new building south of Jefferson Avenue at the foot of Woodward Avenue. It was enclosed with slats between its pillars in 1827 before shutting down for good in 1835. A handful of other markets operated downtown but either suffered fires or were sold for the land that was becoming more valuable as the population of the city grew. Detroit Central Market was established in Cadillac Square in 1841. In 1843, stalls for a new vegetable market were constructed at the rear of City Hall (built 1835) while meat was sold out of its first floor. A large three-story market structure designed by prominent Detroit architects Mason & Rice was opened in 1880, but it, too, was short lived.

As the city became more densely populated, the Detroit Common Council recognized the need for a more suitable location and voted to establish Eastern and Western markets in 1889. Western Market was erected on Michigan Avenue and Eighteenth Street, and Eastern Market on Russell Street at Gratiot Avenue.

The area of Eastern Market now occupied by the Sheds was purchased in 1742 by the Guoin family who lived and farmed the land into the 1800s. The city purchased the farm from the estate of Charles Francis Guoin in 1834 for the first section of the city cemetery north of the Fort Gratiot Turnpike and east of Russell Street. Named for its location, the Russell Street Cemetery served as the major burial ground for both Catholic and Protestant citizens. From 1841 to 1863 the city sold half and full plots for $5.00 and $10.00 respectively. At the same time, the growth of downtown was pushing the city’s population eastward. This led to commercial and residential development that pushed right up to the boundaries of the cemetery. The additional land between the cemetery and the Gratiot Road was later subdivided and put up for sale.

In April 1857 the Mayor deemed the conditions of the Russell Street Cemetery a disgrace to the city and demanded that new uses for the land be found. This concern led the way for several new public projects, the most significant being the decision of the Detroit Board of Water Commissioners to build a new water reservoir at Riopelle and Dequindre Streets. Work on the reservoir began in November 1857, but was not fully completed until 1860. One year later, in 1861, much of the northern section of the cemetery ground was converted to a site for the House of Corrections and later the superintendent’s residence was added. Designed by architect Sheldon Smith, the facility between James and Silver Streets (now Alfred and Division Streets, respectively) housed both male and female occupants in nearly 200 cells dominating what was then largely a residential area. In 1868 the House of Shelter for Women was built on the acquired land south of the House of Corrections, but it closed permanently in 1874.

Overcrowding of the remaining cemetery grounds led to the halting of additional internments. The cemetery was considered one of the most dreadful and neglected spots in Detroit, as residents complained of "Scraggy trees, rant weeds, broken tombstones and sunken graves everywhere… even the fences surrounding the burial lots were falling down and going to decay." Responding to the public outcry, the mayor soon determined that the site be cleared and ordered the city comptroller to find an alternative site for burials. Another portion was cleared in 1870, making way for the establishment of the hay and wood market.

The grounds of the remaining part of the cemetery had become so severely neglected and vandalized that in 1879, the Circuit Court ordered the remainder of the Russell Cemetery to be vacated. A notice of intent to vacate was published, and a contract was issued for the removal and reinternment of bodies in other cemeteries with the majority reinterred at Woodmere Cemetery. Unfortunately, this still left a large number of unidentified bodies at the site. When the Home for the Aged Poor, the last development on the former cemetery site, was built by the Little Sisters of the Poor in 1881 at the corner of Orleans and Hall, more bodies were uncovered. By the 1880s more than 3,000 bodies were removed to other cemeteries, paving the way for the formal establishment of Eastern Market.

An ordinance passed by the Detroit Common Council in 1889 defined the boundaries of the Eastern Market and the Eastern Hay Market as follows: "public space bounded by Russell, High, and Winder streets and the alley east of Russell; and the public space bounded by Russell, Division, and Adelaide streets, and the alley east of Russell street." Regulations regarding rent collection, behavior of customers, and quality of the products were spelled out in the ordinance. The choice of location for the establishment of the public market east of downtown on Russell Street was ideal for several reasons: 1) it bordered on Gratiot Road, a main artery for farmers carrying produce and travelers journeying to and from the city; 2) a portion of the land was already owned by the city and used as the public cemetery; and 3) a portion of the land, the Guoin Farm, was acquired through a probate estate sale, saving the city money.

The first Eastern Market vendors sold their produce and goods from their wagons in the streets of the historic market core where the Wood and Haymarket was located in 1870. In 1885, a market and scales were located on the northeast corner of Division and Russell streets. Eastern Market was formally established with its first structure in 1889 when the first Shed 1 was erected. Located between Winder Street and High Street, it was designed by Hess & Raseman (1885-1899), local German American architects best known for the Harmonie Club (1894-95) and Grand Army of the Republic Building (1896-1900). Shed 1 was completed in September 1890 but required additional reinforced construction before it opened in October. On December 23, 1890, a severe wind storm caused the entire cross-shaped structure measuring 575 feet by 208 feet to collapse.7 No human lives were lost, but several horses perished.

Shed 1 was rebuilt in 1891 and was razed in 1967 when the East Fisher Freeway (I-75 connector) was constructed to Gratiot Avenue. The extant Shed 2 was designed similarly to Shed 1 by architect Richard E. Raseman and erected in 1898 at a cost of $10,000. The construction contractor was Henry P. O’Connor. The building featured a concession booth in the center and had space for more than 140 vendor stalls. Shed 2 was originally 250’ x 315’ but in the 1930s and 40s, thirty-five feet were removed from its west and east wings for the widening of Russell and Market Streets.

The early decades of the twentieth century saw massive population growth and geographical expansion of the city of Detroit as it grew to an industrial powerhouse. The population of Detroit was recorded as 285,704 in the U.S. Census of 1900; by 1910, it had jumped to 465,766, a 63% increase, and by 1920, to 993,739, a 113% increase, making it the fourth largest city in the nation.8 It had also grown geographically through annexation between 1915 and 1926, from 46.9 square miles to 139.2 square miles, its present size. This growth was due to industrial expansion, led by the manufacture of the automobile.

Motorized and horse-drawn vehicles competed for space on Detroit’s roads until the city banned horses on major roads in 1926. Eastern Market’s management provided amenities for horses in the 1921-22 construction of stalls for a "public horse pound" in a building at Division Street near Riopelle, as well as horse drinking fountains at Russell and Division Streets. As more motorized trucks brought goods to market, customers were arriving on electric street cars or by automobile. Still, horses brought goods to Eastern Market well through the mid-twentieth century.

Eastern Market again expanded to keep up with demand, necessitating the construction of an enclosed shed for all-weather use. Shed 3, located immediately north of Shed 2, was erected by the City of Detroit Department of Public Welfare and was considered to be "fireproof." Shed 3 was designed by Detroit architect John Scott & Company and constructed in steel with a reinforced concrete roof by W. E. Wood and Company, contractors, in 1921-22 at a cost of $89,000 (Permit #26414). John Scott & Company is best known for its Neo-Baroque style Wayne County Building (1901). Upon Shed 3’s opening in 1922, it was called "the best market shed of its kind," in the Detroit Free Press. The newspaper article stated that the shed’s innovative design included a concrete ten-inch platform for displaying produce, raising the produce off the ground. Shed 3 originally accommodated 104 stalls (7½ feet by 26 feet), and each wing of the building was approximately one-hundred feet long. The eastern arm of the building was designed to allow for possible expansion toward Riopelle Street.

At the northeast side of Shed 3 at 1445 Adelaide, is a comparatively small, two-story, neo-Georgian style, brown-brick building constructed in 1922-23. On the drawings by John Scott & Company, the building was identified as Building A. It was built to house the market master’s office, a women’s "comfort station," and, at its eastern end, a large garage containing a truck scale. The garage section was lopped off the east façade sometime in the 1990s. Building B was constructed in 1922 as part of the Shed 3 project. Building B was a two-story brick structure at the northeast side of the Shed 3 site that included an incinerator designed to burn twenty tons of garbage daily, the public horse pound stalls, and a garage.

Although the Great Depression strangled the growth of the city in the 1930s, sales volume in Eastern Market rose and a record number of crops were brought to market. Market and Russell streets were widened, necessitating the removal of thirty to thirty-five feet of the east and west wings of Sheds 2 and 3. Shed 3 was extended thirty feet to the east to add square footage that was eliminated by the widening of Russell Street in the 1930s. Sheds 4 and 5, simple steel structures, were built to the north of Shed 3 in 1938 and 1939, respectively, and were joined by a covered walkway in the center, forming an "H." Sheds 4 and 5 added a total of 224 much-needed stalls to the public market. While Shed 4 still stands, the old Shed 5 was razed in 1980 during improvements that included building a new two-story parking structure (1981) that still exists on its site.

Initially, Detroit’s markets were managed by the Board of Public Works. The new 1918 city charter shifted the responsiblity for management of the three public markets: Western Market, Eastern Market and the Chene Ferry Market on the east side in one of Detroit’s Polish neighborhoods. Eastern Market was then managed by the City of Detroit’s new Bureau of Markets. From 1918 through 1951, the Bureau of Markets director was George V. Branch, who registered farmers, required them to be licensed, and assigned a specific stall location. Branch doubled the number of vendors from 400 to 832 and developed the market into a tightly regulated and consumer-oriented instituition. He is credited with many of the changes still in practice today. In the decades following World War II, with a declining city population and the rise of grocery store chains, Eastern Market faced challenges to its continuance as a public market. The dip in market operations first occured in the 1940s and continued into the 1950s with the rise of the chain supermarket.

The new nationwide highway system facilitated the relocation of manufacturing and workers to locales outside the city limits in the 1950s and 60s. In the mid-1950s City Planning Director Charles A. Blessing (1953-1977) supported a major campaign for vast "slum clearance" and demolition that included the expansion of Eastern Market.10 The Eastern Market Redevelopment Plan was an outcome of the Federal Highways Building Program that was planning expressway routes through the city. The construction of the Fisher (I-75) and Chrysler (I-375) freeways dramatically affected the shape of Eastern Market.

Shed 6 was constructed in anticipation of the impacts that the expansion of the Fisher Freeway (I- 75) would cause, including the razing of Shed 1 in Eastern Market and the complete demolition of Western Market in 1966. The funding for the Shed 6 project was from the Federal Accelerated Public Works program and from funds the City received from the sale of the Western Market property from the Michigan State Highway Department. Funds from these sources were also used to construct the Eastern Market administration office building. Shed 6 was built under a permit pulled in March, 1964 by the architecture and engineering firm of Giffels and Rossetti at a cost of $168,100. A lunch stand and "comfort station" (restrooms) building was constructed on Wilkins Street at the cost of $35,000 in 1964. Shed 6 is a long, Modern-style steel-frame structure open-air shed with a skylight running the entire length of the roof. Typically, Shed 6 is home to the commercial floriculturists who sell flowers, bushes, and trees at the market. The Metropolitan Detroit Flower Growers Association, established in 1966 as a nonprofit organization to support its members in selling their products locally, established the first Eastern Market Flower Day in 1966, which continues each year on the Sunday after Mother’s Day.

Shed 1 was demolished in 1967 in order to make way for the construction of the East Fisher Freeway, also known as the Interstate 75 (I-75) connector. Vendors occupying Shed 1 were relocated to other sheds in the market. The freeway construction required only part of the land used by Shed 1, and the remainder of the parcel was used as a surface parking lot. The parking lot site was bounded by Russell, Winder, Market, and Napoleon Streets (Napoleon Street was renamed the East Fisher Service Drive). In the mid-1990s, the gravel parking lot was paved, sidewalks and lighting were added and a flagpole was erected.

A renewed sense of community emerged in Eastern Market in the early 1970s. In 1972, after twenty retail and wholesale operators threatened to leave, the non-profit organization Eastern Market Merchants Association (EMMA) was formed by Samuel "Sal" Ciaramitaro, of Ciaramitaro Brothers Wholesale Produce, and Edward Deeb and stepped up efforts to attract the public by offering various activities like parades, contests and a Gospelfest.

In the early 1970s, Alexander Pollock, an architect and city planner with the City of Detroit’s Community and Economic Development Department, organized a campaign to improve the appearance of the market by painting animal and food-themed murals on the sheds including a chicken, pig, and bull. In the late 1970s, a cow mural was added to the top corner of the Riopelle Cold Storage Building facing the sheds and has been maintained to the present day. Also in the 1970s, Eastern Market was recognized for its historic value and a six block area that included two sheds and surrounding commercial buildings was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.

In 1977, City of Detroit Building Department permit #36675 was issued for a small round building at the northeast corner of Russell and Division streets (2700 Russell Street). The round structure is just thirty-eight feet in diameter and was built to house men’s and women’s restrooms as well as a small concession stand. It was costructed at a cost of $90,000. The concession stand was closed in the early 2000s, but the round structure still provides public restrooms. In recent years the building was dubbed the "roundhouse" by the Eastern Market Partnership, and contemporary artwork and sculpture has been added to the building.

The City of Detroit invested in improvements to the public market through the late 20th century. A new and improved Shed 5 was built in 1981, designed by Nathan Johnson & Associates. Nathan Johnson (b. 1925) is a pioneering African American architect who was responsible for many significant structures in Detroit including an addition to Second Baptist Church (1967), Stanley Hong’s Mannia Café (1969-71), and Bethel AME Church (1974), all in Modern styles. Shed 5 is 22,000 square feet in size and was built by Turner Construction. The significant feature of Shed 5, besides its size, was the wide-width doors to accommodate larger trucks. A 330-car municipal parking deck was built on the site of the former Shed 5 in 1981. The parking structure underwent an extensive one-million-dollar restoration in 2019-20. (The parking structure is included in the historic district boundaries although it is a noncontributing structure.)

Shed 5 and the Eastern Market parking structure are an integral part of the Eastern Market historic district and express the district's growth and expansion in the early 1980s. Shed 5 was initiated by then Detroit Mayor Coleman A. Young (mayor from 1974-1994) and reflects his emphasis on African American stewardship and participation in Detroit projects. Mayor Young's deliberate choice of Nathan Johnson as architect for Shed 5 personifies the emphasis on African Americans in Detroit's development in the 1980s. This era ushered in a period when African American architects were hired for City of Detroit projects and thus redefined Detroit's architectural landscape.

In 1996, under then-mayor Dennis Archer, Building A was renovated into a welcome center with public restrooms. At that time, the garage and truck scale on the eastern side of the structure were demolished. The welcome center ran for several years at 1445 Adelaide Street, but a lack of funding required it to close. Mayor Archer’s office initiated a planning process for Eastern Market that proposed creating a public-private partnership to run the market and administer a tax increment financing authority for the area. Zoning ordinance changes were also underway at that time to allow non-food processing businesses to locate in Eastern Market. In the mid-1990s, Eastern Market was losing approximately four farmers each year as large agricultural practices were growing.

Local business owners and area stakeholders formed another organization in 2002, the Eastern Market Advancement Coalition (EMAC). Funded by a block grant from the City of Detroit Planning and Development Department, the EMAC held events and ran promotions to help boost business at the market. In 2003, a task force consisting of the two Eastern Market associations, the Eastern Market Advancement Coalition and the Eastern Market Merchants Association was joined by the public-private Greater Downtown Partnership (GDP) to plot the course for the future of the market. The Urban Land Institute (ULI) was brought in to help develop a comprehensive plan that included all Eastern Market stakeholders and would work to revitalize Eastern Market. The Reinvestment Srategy for Eastern Market was funded by a federal Community Block Grant and brought together vendors, local proprety owners, Mayor’s office staff and a consulting team of planners from Gensler Associates, Project for Public Spaces, and SmithGroup/JJR.

Members of EMMA and EMAC approached Detroit City Council to form the Eastern Market Corporation (EMC) to gain authority in managing and operating Eastern Market. The management of Eastern Market was transferred from the City of Detroit to the Eastern Market Corporation in August 2006. EMC was formally established as a 501(c)3 non-profit backed by a twenty-one member board of directors and began managing the Market with the employment of a corporate chief in 2007. In the next year, EMC chose the Detroit-based Kraemer Design Group and JJR to design the next phase of market improvements with a new campus plan called Eastern Market 360.

Due to deferred maintenance, renovations and fire code updates to the sheds were much needed by the year 2000. Shed 2 went through a major renovation in 2007-08, designed by Gensler Associates and coordinated by the Eastern Market Corporation (now known as the Eastern Market Partnership). The Detroit architectural firm Gensler and Associates was chosen for the renovations along with local contractor WCI Construction. Many layers of paint were carefully removed, and it was at that time when the 1970s murals were removed from Shed 2. A new galvanized metal standing-seam roof was installed and additionally, new electrical wiring, lighting, concrete, water lines, and a rooftop sign for "Shed 2" created a new signage precedent in Eastern Market. Shed 2 reopened in May of 2008 after the ten-month, $2.8 million renovation. A rededication plaque was affixed to the southern façade of the building. The 2007-08 renovation of Shed 2 restored the original features of the building and today it retains its historic structure, materials, architecture and floor plan.

In 2008-09 Shed 3 underwent a major renovation by Kraemer Design Group, Detroit architects, to ensure its continued use as an all-weather, temperature-controlled, year-round market building. The renovation of Shed 3 included new lighting, a new galvanized metal standing-seam roof, new concrete, energy-efficient windows, segmental garage doors, ceiling fans, asphalt parking lots, new sidewalks, and a "Shed 3" roof sign that coordinated with the sign installed on Shed 2 the previous year. The 2008-09 renovation of Shed 3 restored the original features of the building and today it retains its physical integrity including the historic structure, materials, architecture and floor plan.

Shed 5 went through a major renovation by Kraemer Design Group in 2015 that brought it up to the standards of Shed 3 with new restrooms, fans, temperature control, garage doors, and a large community kitchen. The $6.2 million renovation was completed in one year, and included a rooftop sign at the western side of the building. Today Shed 5 is leased for public events and has been in continual use as an events venue in addition to its market use. Shed 5 is a regional attraction in Metro Detroit as political, social, and community events are programmed in the building today. Under the EMC, additional market days have been added to the Saturday market and many events are regularly scheduled, including beer festivals, Octoberfest, cooking classes, and tailgating parties. Murals in the Market has been an annual event since 2014 utilizing local talent as well as work by artists around the globe. It was recently named by Smithsonian magazine as one of "The Top 5 Mural Festivals In The World!"

Eastern Market: The Mixed-Use Ethnic Neighborhood

Many ethnic groups came to Detroit for a better life: Germans, Italians, Greeks, Poles, and Russians Jews formed enclaves along the Hastings Street commercial corridor near Eastern Market. By 1910, Detroit had the largest foreign-born population of any city in the nation, at almost 40%, according to the U.S. Census. These ethnic groups were patrons of Eastern Market, and also vendors there, establishing family businesses, some that continued for many years, and some continue to the current day.

The earliest German immigrants came to Detroit in the 1830s and in the 1850s the city’s German neighborhood, dubbed Little Berlin, expanded eastward along Gratiot Avenue. The decision to locate the city’s east side market facilities in Detroit’s German neighborhood was due to its proximity to Gratiot Avenue, the major road used by farmers to travel into the city from the northeast. By the time the first market shed was constructed in 1892, it was in the heart of the German residential neighborhood that was well-established along Russell Street and Gratiot Avenue.

There was an influx of Italian immigrants to the area in the 1890s and early 1900s. By 1900, over two hundred Italian families were concentrated mainly in the Eastern Market vicinity. In the early 1900s Eastern Market was a hub of retail and social activity for the Italian and German American communities. For a time, shoppers and farmers set up a routine where each ethnic group would shop on a different day, with the farmers and vendors catering to each group’s tastes on those specific days.

Jewish immigrants joined the others in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Food peddling provided opportunity for many ethnic groups starting with virtually little money who were willing to work long hours. Eastern European Jewish immigrants operated shops inside Gratiot Central Market and outside from stands set up along Russell and Market Streets.

Prior to 1880, the majority of Belgians who came to Detroit moved to rural farming areas. In the mid-twentieth century approximately twenty Flemish farmers were clustered together in Shed 1 and mostly sold their produce to the wholesale marketers in the early hours of the morning.15 Germans and Belgians were the predominant sellers at Eastern Market in the 1920s.

Greeks, mostly men, started arriving to Detroit in 1907-08 from the Greek Peloponnesus region and island of Crete. Within the first two decades of their arrival, the majority of Greeks living in Detroit were associated in food industries such as restaurants, confectionaries, and groceries. Also seeking opportunity in America were Middle Easterners, mostly Christian men, who began immigrating to Detroit as early as 1880. The 1908 Syrian Business Directory listed Syrian businessmen located along Gratiot, as associated with groceries, produce and confectionery.16 Two Armenian brothers, John and Frank Germack established a business selling pistachios from the Middle East in Eastern Market in 1920. Still in business in 2020, Germack is considered the oldest continuous pistachio roaster in America.

Detroit’s African American population concentrated their businesses along Hastings Street, west of Eastern Market, and lived in the Black Bottom area south of the market. Detroit’s first African American mayor, Coleman A. Young, described his memories of Eastern Market;

"My fondest memory is accompanying my grandmother to the Eastern Market on a busy Saturday afternoon to barter with vendors for fresh fruits and vegetables. You could always get a bargain at the end of the market day."

Mrs. Olivia Baldwin, the first African-American Market Master of Eastern Market, was appointed by Mayor Coleman A. Young; Mrs. Baldwin served as its Market Master for over twenty years beginning in the late 1970s.

As new waves of immigrants moved in and the old ones prospered, overcrowding in the Black Bottom and Hastings Street areas resulted in an outward migration from the city center. Gradually, many of the German families moved into neighborhoods further up Gratiot Avenue near Jos. Campau and East Grand Boulevard. Greeks left Greektown for Detroit’s far eastside. By 1930, the largest concentration of Italians was immediately northeast of Eastern Market. Jews moved to Oakland Boulevard and Northwest Detroit. But a great number of immigrant families remained as vendors and business owners in Eastern Market, selling produce, meats, groceries, and specialty items, some retaining a strong business presence that continues to the present day.

Evolution of the Market

Change has been synonymous with Eastern Market since its beginnings. The Sheds depict physical changes that have occurred to meet the requirements of adaptations to new technology and new uses. The Eastern Market district is reflective of the city's transition from a small port town to a major manufacturing city. Throughout its long evolution, the Eastern Market district has served as the city's fresh food distribution center. The fruit and vegetable sheds date back to the 1890s when horse and buggies brought goods to the market, and evolved to today’s updated Shed 5. The Eastern Market district has maintained its historic character and continues to serve its prominant role as a fresh food distribution hub for the city of Detroit.

Eastern Market has evolved into an educational venue promoting sustainable farming and food resources, and an entertainment venue hosting events both local and international. An Eastern Market framework plan "to provide opportunities for local businesses to grow while remaining in the market area, improve the quality of life for residents, and respect the history and authenticity of Eastern Market," was released by the City of Detroit in 2019 to plan for the area’s future.