After a 'tumultuous' 100 years, the Parkdale Market looks ahead to greener pastures
It's a Hintonburg mainstay now, but for years its future was anything but certain
Trevor Pritchard · CBC News
Posted: May 11, 2024 4:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 1 hour ago
It's been an Ottawa institution for decades, but the Parkdale Market's start was an inauspicious one.
On the morning of July 10, 1924, some 200 basket-toting women showed up at the brand new market at the corner of Parkdale and Wellington streets, according to an article published later that day in the Ottawa Journal.
They'd come out in droves to fill those baskets with fruits and vegetables, the newspaper noted, and would have "cleaned out any farmers' load of produce in five or 10 minutes."
But there was one big problem: thanks to some bureaucratic bungling, not a single farmer showed up.
"Only one day's notice was given by the city of the time it was to open," the Journal reported. "[But] it is not likely it will be discontinued over the poor showing made the first day."
While there would be more uncertainty in the years ahead, that guess would ultimately prove prescient.
And this weekend — with a more gender-diverse customer base, cloth bags instead of baskets, and yes, some actual farmers — the venerable Hintonburg market will officially launch its 100th season in the nation's capital.
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https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/af...ooks-ahead-to-greener-pastures-1.7190643
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