The Best Weekly Markets in the Southeast

Article by Michael Field

MEMPHIS FARMERS MARKET - MEMPHIS, TN

The Memphis Farmers Market draws thousands of people to the South Main Historic Arts District every Saturday from April to October, and has helped bring life back to a once-bustling train station.

Photo Credit: Memphis Farmers Market

The market is held in a portion of the historic Memphis Central Station. Originally called the Grand Central Station, the facility was first opened in 1914 by the Illinois Central Railroad to serve passenger and freight trains throughout the Midwest.

Grand Central Station spurred rapid development along what is now the South Main Historic Art District and lead to the construction of impressive hotels and mixed-use buildings that catered to rail workers and passengers alike. The 1960’s marked the beginning of a nationwide decline in passenger rail, and so began a rapid decline in the surrounding neighborhood.

Photo Credit: L&N Files, Collection of Lyle Key

In 1985, the Memphis Area Transit Authority purchased Grand Central Station and refurbished the facility in 1999. The renovated facility includes market rate apartments, accommodations for Amtrak passenger rail, a stop on the MATA streetcar line, and in 2006, a non-profit group would start the Memphis Farmers Market under the station’s pavilion, which was once used as a passenger loading area.

Photo Credit: Condenrails.com

Photo Credit: Memphis Farmers Market

In 2010, with help from the Downtown Memphis Commission, the non-profit organization supplemented grants from both the Tennessee Department of Agriculture and the Hyde Foundation with money raised from private donors in order to expand the market pavilion. Today, roughly 2,500 people a week shop among the 70 vendors housed under this enclosed, open-air pavilion. Nearby business owners and historic preservationists routinely credit the market for contributing to the rebirth of the South Main Historic Arts District. The neighborhood has transformed itself from an urban neighborhood in decline to a thriving neighborhood filled with local businesses and artistic residents in the heart of a reborn downtown Memphis.