Farmers have sold here since 1863, which makes the Broad Street Market in Midtown Harrisburg one of the oldest continuously operating farmers markets in the country. Opened in 1863 and originally established on Broad Street (now Verbeke Street) by the Verbeke family, this place began as the West Harrisburg Market Company, incorporated on April 20, 1860 by William K. Verbeke. The market is actually two separate structures: the older Stone Market house, completed in 1863 and originally called the "West Harrisburg Market House," and the Brick Market house, built between 1874 and 1878. From 1869 a wooden frame wing once spanned from the Stone Building to the Capitol Street alley until its destruction in 1976–1977.
During the American Civil War this market helped feed the 300,000 Union soldiers who mustered through nearby Camp Curtin, a reminder of how markets sustained communities in wartime. In 1979 ownership passed to the City of Harrisburg, which operated the market until 1996 under a city-appointed agency. That year the city completed a $2.5 million, award-winning restoration designed to reposition the market for the future. Notice the two markethouses standing along Verbeke Street, with the line stretching toward Capitol Street.