Listen for the bustle of vendors at Central Market, also known as Lancaster Central Market, here in Penn Square. Until 2005, when it was transferred to a trust, this was the oldest municipally-operated market in the United States. A public marketplace was deeded on this site in 1730 as part of the settlement of Lancaster, and the marketplace was officially chartered by King George II on May 1, 1742, designating Lancaster as a market town.
Central Market occupies a portion of that original marketplace; the first permanent building was erected in 1757. The current building, completed in 1889, is a brick structure with a hipped and gabled terra cotta roof in the Romanesque Revival style, and it measures 20,540 square feet. Today roughly 60 vendors fill the hall, principally selling fresh fruits and produce, meats, cheeses, fish and seafood, baked goods, and flowers.
Their products reflect Amish, Pennsylvania Dutch, German, Greek, Caribbean, Middle Eastern, and Slavic origins. Listen: the bustle, the voices, the scents. Beside the market stands the old City Hall—Lancaster's very first skyscraper—anchoring Penn Square alongside the market's brick walls.