In 1937, New York still had 8,000 pushcart vendors on the streets blocking traffic and creating havoc. Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia was determined to remove the pushcarts and get the vendors into covered markets. The Essex Street Market is one of the remaining eight original markets. When it opened on January 9, 1940, each of the 475 former pushcart vendors paid $4.25 a week in rent for a stall. The market was built by the city and the WPA.
Today there are far fewer merchants and the market will soon be moving to a nearby location.
Wares from Farmaggio Essex.