Since 1892 a train shed has covered the Reading Terminal Market, one of the great public markets in America, and it has never stopped trading. The Reading Terminal Market opened when the Reading Railroad built its terminal above it, using the ground floor as a covered market space to generate revenue from the vast iron-and-glass train shed. At its peak in the early twentieth century it contained over eight hundred vendors selling fresh produce, meat, poultry, dairy, baked goods, and prepared food to the households of Center City.
The Reading Railroad went bankrupt, the terminal stopped functioning as a train station and was later converted to the Pennsylvania Convention Center, but the market survived and in the 1970s, when it had declined to a fraction of its former glory, was saved by a campaign that brought in Amish and Mennonite vendors from Lancaster County. The Amish farmers who set up their stalls here — selling scrapple, shoofly pie, soft pretzels, and Lancaster County produce — drew customers back and helped revive the market. Today it contains about eighty vendors including the Amish stalls, the DiNic's roast pork sandwich stand, Bassetts Ice Cream which has been in business since 1861, and the Famous Fourth Street Cookie Company.