By Susan Moffat-Thomas, retired Swiss Bear Executive Director
The New Bern Farmer’s Market, a magnet for bringing people together for the past 40 years (located on South Front Street) known for its wide variety of locally produced foods and hand-made goods, is a bee hive of activity every Saturday with hundreds of shoppers descending on the market between 8am and 2pm to purchase goods, meet, greet and socialize with friends and neighbors.
Public markets, historically known for generating traffic is the very reason, locating one downtown was conceived as one of many strategies to bring new life to the deteriorated downtown and its waterfront in the early years of the revitalization effort.
The Market is located on a parcel of a 22-acre tract, bounded by East Front, South Front and Hancock Streets to the Trent River’s edge, originally the site of deteriorated and abandoned wharves, warehouses, docks, slips, numerous businesses and marine railways demolished in the early 1970’s under the federal Urban Renewal Program. With no unified redevelopment plan in place, the vacant parcels were sold in a hit and miss fashion and when the local Urban Renewal Commission closed the project out in the mid-70’s, it conveyed the remaining unsold 14 acres to the city.
In the late 1970’s, as the customer base dwindled at a small curb market operating out of a vacant city building on George Street, Gary Bleau, Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce Agri-Business Committee believed an active, progressive farmers market downtown was needed to expand the number of goods, link the rural and urban population and generate traffic to the downtown, and presented his idea and preliminary plans to build a new farmers market, preferably on urban renewal land, at the November 21, 1979 meeting of the newly formed Swiss Bear nonprofit Board of Director’s meeting. The board embraced the concept, participated in establishing a Farmer’s Market Committee, applied for nonprofit status, developed by-laws and appointed a Board of Directors composed of representatives from the Chamber, Swiss Bear, County Agriculture Extension Service and city and county representatives. The city agreed to lease a portion of the urban renewal land (renamed Bicentennial Park) bordered by the railroad tracks and Tryon Palace Drive (now South Front Street) to the nonprofit to construct a pavilion structure and operate as a public farmers’ market for 30 years at $1 per year. A NC Main Street architect and the Chamber director designed the open-air structure approved by the Historic Preservation Committee (HPC) and in April 1982, the Farmers Market Board received a special $125,000 appropriation from the state legislature to construct the new facility.
On May 14, 1983, the market began operating in an open-air environment until the structure could be constructed, delayed due to property ownership issues. Southern Railway’s ownership of an eight-foot strip of land running down the middle of the Farmers Market property, led to a period of negotiation until the City obtained an agreement. In 1984, the newly constructed open-air pavilion, opened with 30 vendor inside spaces, plus additional outside vendor space, and began operating as a public market, April through October.
By the late 1980’s, enclosure of the structure for year-round use as a market and event rental venue became a priority, and in 1987, a $52,500 NC Department of Agriculture grant funded enclosure of the pavilion, installation of a heating system, enlargement of the parking area and landscaping of the grounds. The 20-member board of directors responsible for market policies, operations and on-going maintenance, hired a manger to over-see the year-round market operations and aggressively market it as a rental venue to accommodate downtown’s growing number of concerts, private and community events. In 1989, to provide controlled entries for ticketed events at the market, the New Bern and Breakfast Rotary’s Clubs contributed $10,500, toward the purchase and installation of the wrought iron and brick fence surrounding the perimeter of the property.
Over the years, as downtown regained its sense of place as a vibrant city center, and property values increased, there have been numerous discussions between the market board and city – constraints for market expansion, re-negotiation of a lease, relocation to a larger more visible location on a major corridor – are repeatedly met with public outcry, “the market must remain downtown on the South Front Street site,” and so far, the city has listened. Over the four decades, this well-loved public market continues to thrive in its original location as a unique market and social hub, serving as a magnet for generating shoppers and traffic to our historic downtown.