The Market Center Building -
A Historical Perspective
Two years after the town's 1851 incorporation, council brought an acre of land and had the first market building erected. It became so busy and successful that in 1856 they opened Market Street to accommodate all the traffic. By 1862 activity had grown so much again that the town appointed a Market Clerk to oversee its operations. After buying more land in 1869 to enlarge the market grounds, they added almost another whole acre in 1879, when they bought land from the estate of George Hay to make the square its present size.
In 1895, with the market already a 40 year long tradition, council decided to replace the wooden sheds with a brick building worthy of a growing industrial city and then cleared fertile farmland around it.
From ground breaking on July 26, 1895 crews of carpenters, masons, slaters, painters and plasterers laboured for 3 and 1/2 months. All except the slater, who came from Hamilton, were local workers.
The Woodstock Market was designed by the architect W.B.Ford, using
- 140,000 feet of lumber
- 1 and 1/4 tons of nails
- 1 and 1/4 miles of putty
- 20,000 square feet of slate
- 175,000 bricks
It cost...
- $8,748.82
- $400 for the architects
- $39 for furniture
- and $2.31 for oil for the counters
The Woodstock Sentinel Review thought it was worth every cent, and praised it as "equal in beauty and convenience to any in the province".
The low roof and wide canopies were typical of market construction in that period, and interesting features included the twin towers, the drinking foundation at the front door, and the use of stone in the trim. Quarters for the town police were incorporated in the original plans and although the Woodstock Police Department have recently moved to a modern building the Market continued to be held on the premises until 1995 when they moved to their present location at the Woodstock Fair Grounds.
Proud of their new facility, city council set new vendors' fees: 5 cents a day for a basement stall, 10 cents for upstairs and 25 cents for auctioneers. They enacted a set of bylaws to keep the market running smoothly. For instance, "no butcher or other person shall permit any dog in or about" (the market clerk was also the pound-keeper); "all poultry offered for sale shall be properly dressed or cleaned and shall not be blown or have the crops stuffed"; and "no potatoes may be sold unless each of such bags shall contain not less than 90 pounds of potatoes, exclusive of the weight of such bag".
Over the years many rules changed with time, and the building itself did too; but the market still provides what it has been providing on this site for 123 years. Only today, rather than meeting around many market goods; vegetables, meats, flowers and freshly baked bread, the community meets in the Market Center Restaurant on one side of the building and the Market Center Theatre on the other. Musicals, comedies, dramas and lectures now bring scores of people together in this renovated building -- a place where city meets country, and friend meets friend, and Woodstock's present meets its historical past.
Artwork by Ian McLean
Thanks to Sheila Johnston (Woodstock Museum) for the pictures.
