NOTE: Food vendors, exhibitors and artists/craftspeople interested in the artists' market - all deadlines have passed for 2005.
I drove to Baltimore for the day to check out Lexington Market and Artscape and to check out Baltimore becuase I haven't ever been here before. It was much better than I thought it would be!
Lexington Market:
Baltimore's fragrant, gleaming Lexington Market, the world's largest, continuously running market for more than six generations, marks its 220th anniversary this year.
Old as the nation itself, Lexington Market has been a wonderful Baltimore tradition since 1782 at the original site it occupies today, on Lexington Street, between Eutaw and Greene Streets.
General John Eager Howard, a hero of the American Revolution, donated the land for the market, named for the Battle of Lexington, on his return from the war. It had been a pasture on his family's vast estate, a tract spreading north and west to where Washington's monument and General Howard's statue now stand.
Without waiting for streets, sheds or stalls, outlying farmers converged on the site as soon as General Howard gave the word. They trundled up 'in great Conestoga wagons, their horses strung with bells, making their own roads . On the rolling green yard, they spread out hams, butter, eggs, turkeys and produce.
Merchants joined the farmers in setting up a purchase and barter exchange for grain, hay, farm staples and livestock. Farmers spent all night loading their wares and traveling the twenty miles from Towson and Reisterstown, with sales beginning at dawn.
Not until 1803 did a shed go up at Eutaw and Lexington Streets. From then on, The Market grew by leaps and bounds until the formal marketplace sprawled over another block to Greene Street. At first, the place was only opened Tuesday, Friday and Saturday from 2:00 AM till noon, the starting and closing historic bell ringing for 145 years.
