A devastating fire caused the roof to collapse at the rear of the Broad Street Market’s brick building on Monday.
In April 2007, Eastern Market in Washington, D.C., burned in an early morning fire, with little left standing except the remains of its stately brick walls.
I had long lived in the Capitol Hill neighborhood and regarded the circa-1871 market as my neighborhood grocery and gathering place.
Interior of the fire-devastated Broad Street Market. Photo: Julia James
Tragically, in my current home of Harrisburg, history has now repeated itself.
Early this morning, a similar fate befell the city’s stately Broad Street Market, as one of its two historic market houses was gutted by fire.
On that dark day back in 2007, the close-knit Capitol Hill community was devastated, as they felt that the very soul of their community had been destroyed. Immediately, calls went out to rebuild the market largely as it was.
The city hemmed and hawed for some time before deciding, in the face of community pressure, that’s what it would do. It even built a temporary market across the street so that vendors could continue to operate in a reduced capacity.
For their part, Hill residents got together and held fundraisers for the vendors and for the reconstruction. I’m not sure how much that helped, but it certainly made the community feel as if we were playing a role in the rebuilding project.
I found it: my well-worn “Rebuild Eastern Market” T-shirt
Somewhere, down deep in a clothes drawer, I still have my “Rebuild Eastern Market” T-shirt, purchased as part of that fundraiser.
Just two years later, in 2009, Eastern Market reopened, better than ever, as the city used the opportunity to make badly needed repairs and upgrades, including adding air conditioning to the market—long a point of contention between the city, market management and vendors.
I now profoundly wish the same for Harrisburg’s Broad Street Market.
Harrisburg must get to work as soon as possible to rebuild the circa-1878 market house as it was architecturally—while using the opportunity to make long-needed improvements.
Just like at Eastern Market, installing air conditioning in the Broad Street Market long has been seen as an impossible dream. Now is the time, the opportunity. Ditto, fixing the ever-leaky roof, updating all its outmoded systems and otherwise bringing the market house into the 21st century, but within its 19th-century structure.
And it must be done on the fast track, with a solid plan of how the market will attract and retain vendors once the construction is done. Over the past year, the market has lost numerous vendors, including, just last month, the sprawling Green Ridge Acres stand.
When Eastern Market burned, D.C. residents were rightly skeptical that the perpetually dysfunctional city government was up to the task of quickly and competently rebuilding the market. But, to its credit, the city proved its critics wrong.
Now, it’s Harrisburg’s turn. The fire trucks have just left and the embers are barely extinguished, but I already relish the day, in the not-too-distant future, when the ribbon will be cut and those heavy wooden doors will open again for customers. Eager residents will rush in, look around and, I hope, happily remark—“This market is better than ever.”
Lawrance Binda is publisher and editor of TheBurg.
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