What do you get when a devastating fire clears the land, a women’s club raises the money, and a tent becomes a farmers market? A historic Georgia institution that has been feeding a city for over a century.
This market was born in 1918 on the ashes of the Great Atlanta Fire, originally operating from a massive tent where urban shoppers could buy directly from farmers. The Atlanta Woman’s Club stepped up, raised nearly $300,000, and built a permanent brick-and-concrete building that opened in 1924.
But here is the complicated part: during the Jim Crow era, Black vendors were forced to sell from the curb outside, giving the market its long-standing nickname, the “Curb Market.” At the time, this location was the exact geographic center of Atlanta, making it the place where everyone came to shop…