The oldest surviving WPA Retail Market building in New York City is in fact the East Village’s First Avenue Retail Market, which dates to 1938 (the very first to open was what came to be known as “La Marqueta” under the Park Avenue viaduct between 111th and 116th Street in East Harlem, then an Italian-American neighborhood from which LaGuardia was elected to the State Assembly and Congress; little of that original structure still exists due to demolition, fires, and alterations). In 1937, architects Albert W. Lewis and John D. Churchill were commissioned by the Department of Markets to design several of these indoor market buildings, including the new Fulton Fish Market Complex, the Gansevoort Market, the Bronx Terminal Market, and the First Avenue Retail Market. The First Avenue Market was opened by LaGuardia himself in 1938 on First Avenue between East 9th and 10th Streets. It was constructed in an L-shaped design that spanned numbers 155-157 1st Avenue and numbers 230-240 East 10th Street. Historic photos show a bustling neighborhood market that sold cheese (a 1947 New Yorker article states that the cheese vendor sold 300 varieties!), vegetables, and likely everything in, until its closure in 1965. In 1986, Theater for the New City (TNC) purchased this 30,000-square-foot former market building with the help of Bess Myerson, Ruth Messinger, and David Dinkins. TNC converted the market building into a vibrant community arts center, where they remain to this day. This transformation was a critical factor in the cultural and commercial revitalization of the surrounding East Village neighborhood. When the Theater for the New City purchased the former First Avenue Retail Market building, there was a stipulation that they had to still share part of the space with the Sanitation Department, which had been occupying the building since the Market closed in 1965. TNC didn’t have enough money to complete the four theaters, dance space, cafe, administrative offices, and rehearsal spaces, but put on shows regardless, creating interim theaters. Co-founders Crystal Field and George Bartenieff completed TNC’s home with $2 million they had raised. The City, however, retained the air rights to the building, and in 2001, a 16-story residential tower was erected above the theater. Despite this construction, though, TNC remains an important East Village institution that echos the community sentiment and necessity of the former First Avenue Retail Market, and is the oldest remaining intact Retail Market from this transformative LaGuardia/WPA project.

Sol Libsohn was a New York-born early documentary photographer whose large body of work chronicles, amongst others, the American oil industry, the life of the Ringling Brothers' and Barnum and Bailey circuses, and New York's working class. In addition to his work under the WPA, Libsohn co-founded the New York Photo League with Sid Grossman. This story showcases Libsohn's work in New York City.

2020 sure has been a whirlwind! Here are some interesting facts, stories, and images from throughout the five boroughs that we dug up along the way.

First Avenue Retail Market, 1938. A decisive action in Mayor Fiorello La Guardia's war on pushcarts, the opening of indoor retail markets citywide in the late 1930s and early 1940s moved the Mayor closer to his goal of riding the street of the vendors he claimed were unsanitary and causing traffic congestion. The First Avenue Market, opened in December of 1938, was the second in a series of nine public markets. Designed by architects Albert W. Lewis and John D. Churchill and using federal WPA funds, the new markets were mandated to have running water, rail facilities, and loading platforms. The generally L-shaped space occupied addresses both of First Avenue (the front entrance) and East 10th Street. The vendors within (many of whom who had previous owned pushcarts) sold cheese, vegetables, and a dizzying variety of other products. The markets were successful, often crowded, and survived through the 1960s. Pushcarts, the thorn in La Guardia's side, were never truly were eliminated, despite the new markets. After 1965 the building was used in part by the Department of Sanitation. In the mid 1980s the building was purchased by the avant-garde theatre company, Theater for the New City. The theatre has occupied the space with auditoriums, rehearsal rooms, and offices since 1986. In 2001 the city (who retained the air rights on the building) allowed the construction of a set-back, 16-story, residential tower above the original 1938 market building (which, thankfully retains its 1930s carved signage).

First Avenue Retail Market, First Avenue and 10th Street, ca. 1938.

In the 1930s, Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, one of New York's most powerful mayors, launched a war against an enemy that was ubiquitous on New York's streets: Pushcarts.

159-161 First Avenue; 242-244 East 10th Street Building Date : 1906 Original Use : Residential/Commercial Original Owner : Lipman & Gold Original Architect : Charles M. Straub Description & Building Alterations This six-story new-law tenement building was originally erected in 1906. The brick clad facade features bracketed cornice with garlanded frieze, beltcourses, splayed window lintels with keystones at second, fifth and sixth stories, window enframements with decorated pilasters at third and fourth stories. The entrance on East 10th Street is flanked by ornate pilasters with foliate top, supporting a molded entrablature. The windows at north bay of the east facade are filled in with brick.

155-157 First Avenue; 230-240 East 10th Street | Block : 451 | Lot #7502 Building Date : 1938, 2001 Original Use : Market Original Owner : Department of Markets(1938), Jerry J. Rosengarten & Michael Waldman(2001) Original Architect : Lewis & Churchill(1938), Schuman Lichtenstein Claman & Efron(2001) Description & Building Alterations The one-story structure at 155 First Avenue was originally built in 1938 by the city to house the First Avenue Retail Market. The market was created by Robert Moses to “take pushcart peddlers off the streets.” In 1986 The Theater for the New City purchased and moved into the then underused building. Currently the one-story section contains four theaters. The 16-story condo above the theater, aka the New Theater Building, was completed in 2001 after a partnership of two developers bought the air rights over the original structure. This, based on the agreement among the theater, the city, and the developers helped raise the mortgage burden on the theater. More +