Tradition : Preserving A Sense of Place

Postcard of the Broadway Market circa 1900

The Broadway Market has been continuously operated at its current location for over 130 years, making it one of the oldest institutions in the city.

What is now known as Historic Polonia quickly emerged as immigrants settled on the East Side of Buffalo in the late 1800s. Thanks to the new factories and easy access to rail lines, the East Side boasted plentiful jobs that drew immigrants (predominantly Polish) to settle in the area. Geographic and language barriers soon drove a community-wide search for a market site that would serve the residents of this newly established Polonia.

Ultimately, citizens managed to petition the city for the establishment of a market on Broadway, one of the city’s major thoroughfares that would soon become a pivotal commercial corridor for the city and surrounding neighborhoods.

1899 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map depicting the first market building on the site

The location on Broadway was critical: the nearest market at the time was two miles away, on Washington and Ellicott streets, and served primarily German residents. The newly arrived immigrants needed a place to find their wares and do their shopping—ideally for foods that retained their culture and reminded them of home.

At the official opening in 1890, the market was initially dubbed the “East Buffalo Market.” That name didn’t resonate, however, and it was soon renamed “The Broadway Market” and has been known as such ever since.

With ample acreage for open-air vendors on the site, the market quickly flourished. The addition of a brick building in 1890 provided space for covered market stalls.  Later amenities would include canopies and comfort stations, refrigeration units and proposals for parking emerging in the late 1930's.

Fresh Purchase Being Weighed Outdoors at the Broadway Market : circa 1950s

Heaps of Fresh Produce at the Broadway Market Open Air Vendor Stands : circa 1950s

Delivery at Broadway Market : circa 1950s

Open Air Vendors at the Broadway Market Along Lombard Street : circa 1950s

1950s Open Air Vendors at the Broadway Market

From the late 1960's on, the market responded to changes in city governance, shopping habits and neighborhood demographics. Governance of the market passed back and forth between the city and a 1960's-era Buffalo Broadway Market Merchants Corporation—a nonprofit which formed to resist the city's proposed 1964 sale of the market. The city regained ownership of the market again in 1980's as Mayor Griffin invested substantial funding and momentum into revitalizing the building and reinstituting the site as a food-centered place for shopping.

Throughout the decades, the market has been a place for gathering and community-building as much as it has been a source for ethnic wares and foods. Some events have shaped the market, such as the looting that took place during the1893 depression or the 1903 fire that caused the original brick building to be replaced. Others, such as political rallies and wartime parades, have shaped the community.

To this day people travel from far and wide to revisit the market where previous generations gathered, celebrated and enjoyed all the market has to offer.

For more information, see 'Before There Were Butter Lambs' by Amber Grey, Buffalo Architecture, a Guide by Reyner Banahm, and The Broadway Market edited by Micael Mulley (currently out of print, available to view in the Grosvenor Room at the Buffalo Erie County Public Library)