1940
central market
Fifty-six years before the West Side Market opened its doors on West 25th Street, the Central Market set up shop in 1856 in a wooden barnlike structure at Ontario, Woodland and Broadway avenues, where Quicken Loans Arena now stands. Open Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, it played host to 181 vendors with 70 stalls inside selling fresh and cured meats, and 74 outside with fruits and vegetables exclusively. By the 1940s, it suffered from lack of maintenance, giving rise to reports of severe water damage, mildew and an infestation of rats. The building burned to the ground due to a gas leak in 1949.
