Since 1846, Cross Street Market has been the commercial heart of the Federal Hill community, and you have reached one of Baltimore's historic neighborhood markets. Cross Street Market was established in 1846 to serve the working-class maritime community that populated Federal Hill and the surrounding neighborhood — ship captains, caulkers, riggers, rope makers, and dock workers who needed a place to buy fresh provisions within walking distance of their rowhouses. The market building has been rebuilt and renovated several times over the years but has maintained its essential character as a neighborhood institution.
Baltimore's system of public markets was unusual among American cities: the city owned and operated a network of market houses distributed through the neighborhoods, each selling fresh produce, meat, seafood, and prepared foods in a building maintained by the municipality. The Cross Street Market became particularly famous for its raw bar — oysters and clams on the half-shell served at the counter — and for the freshness of its seafood, drawn from the Chesapeake Bay just miles away. In the mid-twentieth century, as supermarkets eroded the economic logic of neighborhood markets, Cross Street declined.
A renovation in the 1970s and subsequent investment turned it into a destination market, drawing visitors from across the city. The raw bar tradition survives, and on a Friday afternoon the market bar stools fill with Federal Hill residents who have been doing exactly the same thing for over a century.