City Market

Niagara Falls City Market a Nexus of Agriculture and Community

The Niagara Falls City Market was established in 1893 by the city government ordinance. Originally located in the City’s North End neighborhood, the city market moved to its more centrally located and current site on Pine Avenue in 1913. Initially, the market catered mostly to the wholesale trade, but as the city’s population ballooned in the post-war era, retail business grew as well. By the 1950s, a host of other businesses had sprung up, including banks, paint and hardware stores, drug stores, dry good stores, variety stores, shoe stores, grocery stores and a host of eating establishments. At its height, the City Market could cater to 15,000 patrons a day, selling poultry, eggs, butter, cheese and every fruit and vegetable that local farms had to offer.

Without a robust management structure, the City Market became less competitive with other farmers in the region, and vendors left in droves.

In the last eighteen months though, the City of Niagara Falls has made the City Market a centerpiece of its community and economic development strategy. The City bought out the lease of the private operator and brought in Field and Fork Network, a local not-for-profit organization to manage the market. Field and Fork Network has implemented a number of changes to revitalize the market, hiring a part-time market director and adding facilities to support Supplement Nutrition Assistance (SNAP) and Women, Infants, Children (WIC) Program and the Double Up Food Bucks Program. In turn, the Empire State Development (ESD), the City and local philanthropic leaders made the City Market and the boarder opportunities of Niagara food and agritourism guiding components of the Niagara Falls component of a three-city “Reginal Revitalization Partnership” announced by the Governor in June 2022.

By investing in the infrastructure of the market, the City of Niagara Falls and ESD hope to continue this momentum and return the City Market to a nexus of agriculture and community for residents of Niagara Falls and visitors from around the globe.

“It was amazing today! I had so much
positive feedback about how excited
people were and how much they loved
seeing the market so busy and full of life.”~JESSICA NYLAND, Artisan Day Vendor
Lend-a-Leaf Tea Co.

“Every once in while we get to observe the better side of mankind. Today at the Niagara Falls City Market we got to see it twice over. A local vendor quietly loaded two bushels of produce in the trunk of a vehicle belonging to an individual who runs a food pantry here in the Falls. A senior Veteran was handed cupcakes and a card from a number of the vendors, with a heartfelt “thank you for your service.” No press. No looking for recognition. Just folks doing something
because…we like this Market! And the people who support it.”~DAVE BARBER, First Time Vendor – M&M Pickles, The Grouchy Old Biker