Old First Market
Passing the Main Street Station (C. & O. and Seaboard) on the left, you come to the Old Market. On this site, from the earliest days, the farmers would gather to sell their produce to the city folk. To the left of the market, Negro washerwomen used to spread their wash on the grassy bank of Shockoe Creek, the frequent floods of which were the chief excitement of the old town. The women chatted and lightened their work by singing. The darkies’ melodious voices, blending with the cries of the food hawkers, must have made the market the gayest spot in Richmond. ¶ Continue on Main, halting three-fourths of the way between Nineteenth and Twentieth.