26 Jun 2009

Market Doors Open, and it’s Air-conditioned!!

Mayor Adrian Fenty and other city officials at the press conference for the opening of Eastern Market. Photo by Laura Ingalls.

Mayor Adrian Fenty and other city officials at the press conference for the opening of Eastern Market. Photo by Laura Ingalls.

Today at 11:10 a.m. Mayor Adrian Fenty, together with city and neighborhood officials, cut the ribbon on the newly reopened Eastern Market. A crowd of more than 300 people waited in the heat as Fenty, Council Member Tommy Wells, Council Chair Vincent Gray, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton and other spoke about the history of the market, the unusually quick turn-around of the project, and the great coordination between neighborhood donations, city appropriations and federal funding that made today possible.

Cheers went up when Fentry remarked the building now features air-conditioning and heat, and full-service bathrooms.

Gray made the (predictable) analogy to the market being a phoenix rising from the ashes, reminding the crowd that the 134 year old building is a DC monument, not a Washington monument. The neighborhood was applauded for raising over half a million dollars through donations to the Capitol Hill Community Foundation.

The Market, prior to the fire, had languished in disrepair as city officials bickered about how to renovate without sufficient funds to do proper historic preservation. Holmes said “the devil stepped in and burned it down,” providing the city with a one in the lifetime chance to get the project done right, and with sufficient support.

Marvelous Market owner Seth Shapiro dressed as market architect Adolf Cluss. Photo by Laura Ingalls.

Photos by Kate McFadden

Photos by Kate McFadden

Comic relief (to the heat) was provided by the horse from the wagon that had brought Wells and Ambrose to the event. Also, Marvelous Market owner Seth Shapiro was dressed as Market architect Adolph Cluss.


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