A Farmers Market Mystery

Posted August 8, 2019 at 5:50 am by

Here’s this month’s his­to­ry col­umn from the San Juan His­tor­i­cal Soci­ety and Muse­um.

We don’t know very much about this pho­to­graph. Can you help? Its image file indi­cates it was tak­en in 1983. This pho­to­graph was labeled sim­ply “Farm­ers Mar­ket next to the Amer­i­can Legion.”

Who knows the year when the mar­ket moved up to the Cour­t­house park­ing lot? We know its last sum­mer there was in 2011 because it moved to its per­ma­nent year-round home at the San Juan Islands Agri­cul­tur­al Guild’s Brick­works that September.

From hum­ble begin­nings with a few farm­ers, The San Juan Island Farm­ers Mar­ket was estab­lished in 1987 and has grown to include about 35 local ven­dors rep­re­sent­ing local farm­ers, crafters, musi­cians, and com­mu­ni­ty organizations.

In a short time (his­tor­i­cal­ly speak­ing), a sim­ple snap­shot can become an impor­tant rec­ol­lec­tion of the past and a com­mu­ni­ty’s history.

What are your mem­o­ries of the “old farm­ers mar­ket” ? If you can fill in any of the details about this ear­ly pho­to­graph, won’t you please com­ment here or con­tact the San Juan His­tor­i­cal Soci­ety and Muse­um?

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Categories: History
4 comments:

4 comments...

  1. Would have to go back through the pub­lic records, but I believe the BOCC approved the use of the Cour­t­house park­ing lot for the Farm­ers Mar­ket in 1998 or 99. While it was­n’t maybe the best spot, it did have a nice view!

    Comment by Darcie Nielsen on August 8, 2019 at 11:56 am

  2. Thanks for this addi­tion­al infor­ma­tion, Dar­cie. Each detail builds a bet­ter snap­shot of times past.

    Comment by Robin Jacobson on August 8, 2019 at 2:28 pm

  3. Leesa Wal­dron sold plant starts at the farm­ers mar­ket in front of the legion

    Comment by Jane Burton Bell on August 9, 2019 at 1:07 am

  4. Leesa and her beau­ti­ful flow­ers! Thank you, Jane.

    Comment by Robin Jacobson on August 9, 2019 at 11:54 am

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