Culture and Connections : The French Market ’ s Enduring History
America ’ s oldest and best loved public market writes its own history every day . With each new sunrise on Decatur Street , history repeats itself in fresh and new ways . For over two hundred years , New Orleans residents have enjoyed “ making groceries ” at the old French Market in the Quarter .
Though I have been a New Orleanian all my life , my view of the French Quarter remains as distant and mystified as a tourist ’ s . Growing up on the Westbank , my family would often visit the edge of Algiers to watch the cargo boats drift across the Mississippi . Sitting on the grassy levee in the all-consuming sunlight , the humidity sticking to my skin like wet sand , the rusted boats seemed to shimmer over the horizon , floating to the levees at the other end of the river .
Over the levees running along the edge of French Quarter rests one of the nation ’ s most historically rich and culturally diverse markets . The French Market , as we understand it today , began as a trading site for Native nations in the area , who traded with each other and with European explorers during the colonial period . As far into the late 1600s , the trading post was well regarded for its distinctive intermingling of
24 | The French Quarterly
BY VINICIO HERNANDEZ
languages and cultures , known among the Natives as “ Bulbancha ”: “ the place of many tongues .” The Native market , established by the Oumas nation , sold goods to travelers exploring the southern riverfront , including Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville , the colonial governor of Louisiana . He later founded the city of New Orleans in 1718 .
After the city ’ s founding , the Oumas and Tchouchoumas nations would structure markets along Bayou Saint John . By the 1760s , they consolidated trading spaces — the first of many unions which would expand the southern market into a thriving cultural hub . By the late 1700s , Spanish officials would erect the first informal , open-air market structure “ between the water ’ s edge and the first row of houses ” because of the Indian Law Compilation , an ordinance Spain upheld for their colonies . Butcher stands were later gathered at the riverbank , near the site of present-day Café du Monde . Around 1782 , the first official market was erected at Chartres Street and Dumaine Street .
The August 1812 hurricane destroyed some early market structures . Though left without a market that year , in 1813 the “ Meat Market ” (“ Le