Old Market (Louisville, Georgia)

The Old Market is a historic open-air structure in the middle of Louisville, Georgia. It was built around 1795 during the period when this town was the capital of Georgia. It was entered into the National Register of Historic Places on February 17, 1978.[3] The structure was built as a public market but was also sometimes used as a slave market. Amid the George Floyd protests in 2020, the city council of Louisville voted to have the structure removed from the town.[4]

Old Market
The Market in August 2020
LocationU.S. 1 (Bus) (Broad Street) at Georgia State Route 24 (Mulberry Street), Lousiville, Georgia
Coordinates32.99994°N 82.40929°W / 32.99994; -82.40929.
Part ofLouisville Commercial Historic District (ID93001469)
NRHP reference No.78000991[1][2]
Added to NRHPFebruary 17, 1978

History

The Old Market is four-sided (24 feet each) open-air shed with a pyramid-shaped roof. There is a steeple at the top containing a bell. Four heavy wooden timbers support each side. A new roof and a cement floor were added to the structure in the 1950s, and the timbers (which are now badly rotted) were reinforced with iron.[5]

The structure sits midway on a mall in the middle of Broad Street, at the intersection of Mulberry Street. It is currently surrounded by a low brick wall and shrubbery, all of recent origin.[5]

The market was built sometime between 1795 and 1798, based on extant newspapers of the time and other historical records.[6] It was originally constructed as a "market house" to be used for official sales such as property and furniture. However it was known to be used to sell slaves, and has commonly been called the "Slave Market" in recent years.[6] Recent research casts doubt on the contention that it was used to sell slaves.[7]

In June 2020 amid the George Floyd protests, a petition circulated in Louisville to have the Old Market removed from the town, which quickly gained 4,000 signatures. The town population is 2,500, about 30% of which are Black.[8] On June 13, 2020 a protest took place in the town attended by hundreds of people, and one of their demands was that the market had to go.[9] On August 11, 2020 the city council of Louisville voted four to one to remove the structure from the town's downtown area. The exact disposition of it has not yet been determined.[4]

See also

References

Notes
  1. Norwood 1977.
  2. "National Register Information System – Old Market (#78000991)". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. November 2, 2013. Retrieved August 13, 2020.
  3. Norwood 1977, p. 1.
  4. Thanawala, Sudhin (August 13, 2020). "Georgia city votes to remove pavilion where slaves were sold". The Atlanta Journal/Constitution. Archived from the original on August 14, 2020. Retrieved August 13, 2020.
  5. Norwood 1977, p. 2.
  6. Norwood 1977, p. 5.
  7. Explore Georgia
  8. Cooper, Wes (June 11, 2020). "Petition circulating to remove the "Old Slave Market"". News Channel 6 WJBF. Archived from the original on July 5, 2020.
  9. Vickers, Kim; Means, Brad (June 14, 2020). "Another weekend of protests in the CSRA begins in Jefferson County". News Channel 6 WJBF. Archived from the original on July 10, 2020.

Sources
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