Cedar Rapids City Market

CEDAR RAPIDS -- After several years of complaints from residents about the mess in the city's streets from farmers' wagons, the City Council decided to set up one location for produce to be sold.

The final passage of "an ordinance establishing a city market, regulating the same, and providing for a superintendent thereof" occurred in May 1902.

It included regulations for commodities, a place to sell those goods, a superintendent and assistant weigh masters. It regulated how the commodities would be weighed and the fees for weighing. It also prohibited the sale of any goods outside the market place or the sale of goods that had not been weighed.

By 1903, the market already had survived a state Supreme Court test. Cal Smith was arrested for violation of the city ordinance that required the weighing and sale of all commodities at the market. Smith sold a load of corn on another street without weighing it on scales.

A District Court judge ruled for Smith, who had argued that the market was illegal because it obstructed a city street, but the state court reversed that ruling. State code governing city markets agreed with the city's ordinance.

The Supreme Court opinion stated: "That the city of Cedar Rapids had the power to enact an ordinance establishing and regulating a city market cannot be seriously questioned."

Between the District Court decision and the Supreme Court ruling, the city revised its ordinance and moved the market off the street and onto the former Hubbard Ice property.

The City Market was open Monday through Saturday. Stalls were set up along the river on First Street West. The city enacted a new market ordinance Aug. 9, 1911. This one eliminated the weight and measurement requirement. The market remained on First Street West through the 1950s.

In 1958, the City Council questioned the viability of the market. Increased traffic in the area and lack of parking caused a drop in attendance, and the cost of relocating the market was prohibitive. The only hope was if the market operators united and built their own market building.

City code in 1958 had the market under the jurisdiction of the Public Safety Department. Public Safety Commissioner Bob Johnson wanted to pass it on to another department that had a maintenance branch.

Parks Commissioner Don Gardner suggested that the city build a year-round facility. The building could have sides that opened in the summer.

Bids were opened Jan. 31, 1963, for a combined recreation center and city market in Riverside Park. The 7,800-square-foot building was financed by the sale of a section of the park to Penick & Ford (now Penford). It was designed to have 40 stalls: 24 on the outer wall along with storerooms and restrooms, and 16 collapsible stalls in the middle.

The Riverside Roundhouse cost $95,000 to build and was supervised by the playground and recreation commission. The First Street market was demolished and a temporary site for the 1963 City Market was set up at 16th Avenue and A Street SW.

On Jan. 31, 1964, 40 prospective exhibitors met at City Hall with the city attorney, Gardner and playground commission director Nevin Nichols. Gardner told the exhibitors that the City Market would open for its 41st year of operation May 9 at the new Riverside Roundhouse at 14th Avenue and A Street SW (now the site of the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library).

The playground commission was using the building in the winter and would clear away equipment before the market's opening date. The market would be open from 5 a.m. to noon Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays through Oct. 31.

In 1964, the stall rental fee was $100, double the cost of the previous year, but Gardner said it amounted to only $1.33 per day for the 75-day season. The increase covered insurance, heat and lights, as well as salaries for the market master and a police officer. Only two of the exhibitors from 1963 declined to renew their leases, but those quickly were snapped up by newcomers.

An idea planted by the Downtown District in 2006 grew into today's multistreet Downtown Farmers Market. The proposal was to move the market from Riverside Roundhouse to Second Street SE on the first Saturday of each month through September. The Downtown Farmers Market has grown from about 40 vendors in 2006 to 220 this year. Other current markets include the new NewBo Market and the Noelridge Farmers Market.