Founded in 1821, the Indianapolis City Market still fills this brick and limestone hall in front of you, its front gable flanked by square towers. The one-story, rectangular brick building is trimmed in limestone, with a front gable center section flanked by square towers — architecture that has anchored this block since it opened in 1886. What began as a farmers market has become today’s lively food hall, but traces of its past remain: the site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974, and the marketplace originally consisted of two separate buildings, the Market House and Tomlinson Hall.
In the basement, known as the Indianapolis Catacombs, memory hangs on a quirky footnote — a vendor once tried, unsuccessfully, to convert it into a shopping mall. You’ll also be touching a place that introduced the city to bananas, brought here by Italian immigrants who imported the fruit. Recently the market has continued to evolve: in 2021 it received $270,000 in direct subsidies from the city, and on June 15, 2022 the city announced plans to replace the east wing added in the 1980s with an 11-story, 60-unit apartment building that includes 8,000 square feet of office space.
Notice that this market once introduced Indianapolis to bananas, brought here by Italian immigrants.