Lexington Market's East building gets celebratory sendoff
BALTIMORE -- Baltimore is officially saying goodbye to one of its longtime features: the East Market at Lexington Market.
"Today is our final day here at the East Market of Lexington Market," Paul Ruppert, the president of Baltimore Public Markets, said.
But after 70 years, Lexington Market sent off its East Market building with a celebration on Saturday.
"It's very nostalgic," Steve Cho, the owner of Sausage Master, said. "I'm going to miss the daily routine of just kind of coming in the morning and saying hi to other vendors."
For many decades, the space housed one of Baltimore's most iconic public markets.
It has survived fires, raids, and the ups and downs of the city.
From a sprawling mostly outdoor marketplace that grew to more than one thousand vendors, Lexington Market got its start when the nation was young.
Tracing its origins to 1782, Lexington Market was always a bustling collection of stalls, though many were outside. You can still see the vendor numbers etched into the curbs on West Lexington Street.
Its A-frame roof is a nod to what the market looked like in the early 1900s.
Now, it is moving toward a new future full of opportunity and the community is getting ready for the reveal of its biggest revitalization yet.
The $40 million transformation includes a new 61,000-square-foot market building.
"In the interim, for a few weeks, we'll have our plaza open and we'll be having food trucks there," Ruppert said.
Officials say the East Market building will still be used in other ways. Perhaps it will be used as office space.
Cho said while he's sad to be leaving the East Market, he's excited about moving into the new space.
"I think the city of Baltimore needs something like this. It's an awesome building," he said. "The design . . . it's beautiful. Like, there's nothing like this in the state of Maryland."