Historic Washington took a one-two punch when fire ravaged a pair of much-loved local landmarks—Eastern Market, in continuous operation on Capitol Hill since 1873, and the Georgetown Branch of the D.C. Public Library, housed in a mansion built in 1935—on April 30. But Eastern Market played phoenix, setting up shingles in temporary quarters just four months later, thanks to the immediate response of the new city administration, the Capitol Hill community, the merchants themselves and a core of loyal local customers. Anxiously awaiting the upcoming Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, traditionally their busiest season of the year, the surviving vendors are fingers-crossed optimists. What could have been the end now looks like a positive rebirth.
The fire, caused by faulty electrical wiring, broke out in South Hall. Two of Eastern Market’s three distinct parts, the Center and North Halls, were not heavily damaged, and reopened for business on the original site within a few weeks. But the market’s main draw, South Hall, where generations of food and produce vendors maintained stalls, was destroyed. Roused from their beds by frantic early morning phone calls, the merchants, many with decades-old roots in the market, feared the worst.
But the District of Columbia, in what may have been a speed record for the
bureaucracy of a major city, opened a newly built structure Aug. 25, dubbed East Hall, as the vendors’ stopgap home during the planned two-year, $25 million repair and renovation of South Hall. Located on part of the playground of Hine Junior High School, directly across 7th Street from the original market, the huge heated and air-conditioned tentlike temporary structure cost the city $2.6 million, which includes a million dollars’ worth of new equipment. On weekends, the remainder of the playground is filled by the regular cast of flea market and arts-and-crafts vendors.
Jose Canales, who owns Canales Deli inside the South Hall and the Tortilla Café across 7th Street, SE, is a cornerstone of his family’s Eastern Market dynasty. “My family, we have been here for 24 years. I was the first to come from El Salvador, in 1979. Then, about 10 years later, my younger brother Jorge came, and then maybe five years later, my older brother Emilio. Jorge runs Eastern Market Grocery, and Emilio runs Canales Quality Meats,” he says.
In the world of noshes, Canales beat a path from theory to practice. At home in El Salvador, he’d been studying agricultural engineering, but when his college was shut down because of political unrest, 20-year-old Jose came, alone, to the United States, where he worked in construction for 11 years. “Each year I hoped to return, but after a number of years, the idea just became remote,” he says. In 1983 he went to work at the Market, eventually buying his own stall and, later, the Tortilla Café. “So,” the pedigreed agriculturist laughs, “I’m still with food!”
Although nine members of his extended family now work at the market, the Canales family may not hold the record. “The Glasgow family,” whose stalls include Union Meats, Market Lunch and Southern Maryland Seafood, “also has very many members working here,” Canales demurs. Long tenure at Eastern Market is not uncommon on either side of the counter. Several generations of Capitol Hill families have grown up buying from such stalwarts as the Calormirises—now in their third generation at the market—and the Inmans, as well. The hard work and dedication of these families, along with the other vendors with stalls both inside and out, has given Eastern Market its distinctive D.C. character and its staying power.
The first weeks after the fire were like a long nightmare for the vendors and their families. Canales thought his family’s days at Eastern Market were over. “It was just devastating, very shocking and also hard mentally. It changed our life completely because it was such a big blow to our economy,” he says. But with East Hall up and running, he is guardedly optimistic. “I think the market will come back. We are heading for the busiest time of the year, the holidays, when people look for items typically sold in markets, like turkeys and country meats, hams and certain pork items. I think that’s going to be a big help.”
Jose Canales’ brother Jorge, of Eastern Market Grocery, agrees. “The future looks bright. But when my brother Emilio called me from the market at 5 o’clock in the morning and the fire was still burning, I thought it was all over and we were going to have to do something else.” Jorge gives the main credit for the swift turn of events to the mayor and the community. As for the year’s end, “We’re going to be even busier,” he adds.
Carlos Canales, 26, was born in El Salvador like his father, Emilio, and his uncles, but he came to the United States when he was 5. “The first week after the fire was a very stressful week because we weren’t sure what was going to happen, but the way things have worked out, it’s no longer a life-threatening situation.” Carlos adds that his family’s spirits got a big boost from the opening of the temporary structure in late August. “I never saw that many people at one time in the old market. It was kind of overwhelming, but don’t get me wrong, it was wonderful! We saw lots of old customers and lots of new faces. It made me think things are going to work out just great.”
Several times in the past, Washington has almost lost Eastern Market, which has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1971, and the merchants themselves have had to save it. But this time, the local government and the community were on the job before the smoke cleared. Mayor Adrian Fenty, elected the previous November, was at the market early on the morning of April 30. He and his office drove the rebuilding efforts from the government side, along with Ward 6 City Council member Tommy Wells and Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District’s delegate to the U.S. Congress. Immediate and ongoing help came from a number of citizen groups, especially the Capitol Hill Community Foundation, which had raised and distributed more than $400,000 to the financially strapped vendors by the time the East Hall opened. The week of the opening, Home Depot gave each of the 13 displaced vendors $2,000. In a thank-you letter to the Capitol Hill Community Foundation, longtime Eastern Market merchant Bill Glasgow wrote, “I don’t know if the Foundation fired up the Community, or if the Community fired up the Foundation, but the result was a Community that was not going to be denied their Market …”
As the year ends, Washington’s favorite market, no stranger to hard times, is facing the future with renewed confidence. Carlos Canales says, “Eastern Market was here long before my time and, hopefully, it will still be here long after.”