Essay: Kingston's Dynamic Market Square
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Over two centuries have elapsed since the formal establishment of Kingston as a settlement in 1783. From these beginnings, there has always been a central market place: a place of congress dedicated to the essential need for merchants to meet their customers.
Over these years, Kingston's Market Square has served this purpose. Indeed, because of this continuity of form and function, some believe that there should be no change, now, or in the future.
Rather than attempting to dispel all the myths, I would like to take a brief walk through a long history that demonstrates how dynamic a place the Market Square has been. The importance of the location of this early marketing activity to the vitality of the growing town was recognized early.
In fact, in 1792, the Anglican Church saw it as such an important place that it acquired all of the property on the King Street side and built the first St. George's Church where the "Old Whig" building still stands today. It was in front of that little church — the first St. George's — that the populace of Kingston and the surrounding countryside gathered on a sunny Sunday afternoon on 8 July 1792 to hear Governor John Graves Simcoe proclaim that Upper Canada would be a separate constitutional jurisdiction. But if Kingston was much boosted by this event, it was not to be blessed by the role of first seat of government. That honour fell initially to Newark and eventually passed to York [Toronto], Kingston's urban rival at the time.
In 1801, following a decade or more of informal activity, Kingston's market was incorporated as an important urban facility and has functioned as such continuously ever since. But it was such a different place. First of all, imagine that in 1801 there was no building in the middle of the market square: no City Hall. Rather, what was there was amounted to more of a village green with just enough traffic to keep the weeds and grass down. Vendors came and went when they felt like it and traded from locations of their choice. Occasionally, town picnics and church gatherings were held there, right in the centre of town. The Market Square might have been the principal site of commerce and major meeting place, but in many ways it was more rural than urban and often presented quite a bucolic scene in a settlement that was little more than a village. Also, imagine Brock, King, and Market Streets not as paved streets but as rough, wagon paths leading to and around a large field that accommodated the market. And none of the buildings so familiar to us around the Market Square existed in 1801. What were there were modest one or two-story log or frame buildings housing the merchants of the day and their shops. Nor was there much traffic other than pedestrians, riders, and carriages, all travelling to trade on the square. But as Kingston grew, there were some signs of change.
On 13 May 1811, the Clerk of the Peace announced the rules for the "New Kingston Market." Stalls were provided for the farmers and eight butchers were accommodated in the market house. The market was to be open daily except Sundays, between 6 a.m. and 4 p.m., and the regulations established that "the square between St. George's Church and the river, in the town of Kingston, should be the place, where all butcher's meat, butter, eggs, poultry, fish and vegetables should be exposed to sale."
As Kingston boomed because of its strategic role in the 1812 War, the town grew and prospered — as did the vendors and merchants and all the others serving the needs of a growing populace and garrison. Kingston's rise to dominance seemed assured in the ensuing decades.
In the 1830's, the construction of Fort Henry, the Rideau Canal, and the Penitentiary attracted large numbers of skilled masons, labourers, and tradesmen to the area. The growing prosperity of the town, together with the availability of these trades at reasonable cost, facilitated the "limestone revolution" and all who could converted their wooden-frame homes to limestone structures. Also, the "great fire" of 1840 devastated the downtown and waterfront adding impetus to this dominance of stone over wood, many of these fine structures surviving to the present.
In 1841, Kingston was selected to be the capital of the "United Province of Canada" and Lord Sydenham opened the first Legislative Council and House of Assembly. It was thought that even greater prosperity was certainly to follow and the town fathers immediately started construction of a new civic building worthy of a capital. Given the ethos the day, it is not surprising that it was built in city's most prominent location: smack in the middle of the Market Square!
The new "City Hall
and Market Buildings" would house not only the council but also a grand meeting hall and space for what must have been one of the first indoor
shopping centres in Canada; the Market Shambles.
In 1847, an act to "Regulate the Public Market in the City of Kingston" reflected the need to better manage this new and expanded facility. To accommodate the increased number of traders, the City built wooden stalls along the sides of the shambles to provide more rentable covered space. Also, a new public amenity was provided there: water was pumped to the public well which was also located in the middle of the Market Square.
Nor is it surprising that the railway-boom of the mid-nineteenth century also looked downtown. Rail companies wanted their stations as close to urban centres as possible and soon all tracks passed between City Hall and the water. The terminal building of the Kingston and Pembroke Railway still exists directly across Ontario Street from Market Street, as does the Grand Trunk Station, only a block away.
New hotels were built on the square and several existing buildings were converted to hotels or saloons. Some would have it that most of these were patronized by Sir John A. Macdonald as he nurtured the seeds of Confederation and met with community leaders to discuss his ideas about nation building and economic expansion.
Certainly, economic prosperity resulted in industrial and commercial development dominating the waterfront section of the Market Square and expanded in both directions as coal docks, wharves, and factories were constructed. Nevertheless, a great range of retailing of consumer goods and food products continued to be sold in the public space on the King Street side of City Hall. By the middle of the nineteenth century, a weigh-scale was in place, allowing the official monitoring of weights of hay and livestock prior to sale.
By 1865, however, many former open-air marketers were moving to larger and permanent indoor retail quarters elsewhere in town, thus easing the demand for space in the Market Building. When the shambles burned, the large Green Garden portion at the King Street end was not restored. However, the demand for space in the Market Square did not abate and, on market days, stalls spilled up Brock Street and along King Street. Indeed, the Market Square was still the dominant social centre of the community.
On 1 July 1867, it was only natural that Confederation was proclaimed in the shadow of City Hall. Central it may have been, but salubrious it was not! The space was probably layered with mud and decaying manure and the accompanying smells were equally appropriate to its dominant function. But there were signs of progress: boardwalks now fronted most of the buildings; the most used paths had been cobbled; with electricity came hydro poles, a few electric street lamps, and the Electric Street Railway. Pedestrians began to get used to stepping out of the way for the "cars" and Sir John A.'s funeral in 1891 may have been the last major occasion when horse-drawn wagons dominated the procession.
During the "Roaring Twenties," the automobile, concrete, macadam, and traffic gradually forced the market off the space needed for roads. Moreover, refrigeration and the advent of the "Super Market" reduced the need for every day shopping. Health regulations contributed to the demise of the sale of fresh, fish, and poultry and the shambles were abandoned as a vending area. All of these prompted the decline of the open-air market.
Other changes symbolized the new priorities. With the invention of the infamous parking meter, the layout of Market Square was reoriented to facilitate automobiles, concrete sidewalks parallel to King Street were installed, and the space paved and lined to accommodate cars on non-market days. The Market Square became the "lot"; the police took over the shambles; the jail went into the basement; and a few shrubs were planted in the north court.
By mid-twentieth century, even City Hall went into disrepair and was condemned. In 1956, the magnificent front portico was removed for safety reasons and the demolition of the building was discussed. Naturally, this provoked a great public outcry and prompted a generation of improvements. By 1973, City Hall was fully restored and attention turned next to the Market Square. The City commissioned a study; Queen's University students of Art History submitted their concept; City staff made proposals; and several downtown committees studied the situation. There were public meetings, editorials, proposals from the public. Clearly, there was much concern over the future of what was seen to be the heart of downtown Kingston. Twice, the City captured Provincial money for improvements — but they were not implemented. Market Square Committees and subcommittees came and went for another whole generation without generating a single improvement. And so here we are. Back where we started with a wonderful bequest from the nineteenth century: a vital and living public space located in the heart of downtown Kingston. And interestingly, despite two centuries of attrition, Kingston's Official Plan still refers to the Market Square as "City Hall Square" and includes everything between Brock and Clarence Streets, and from King Street to the water. On paper and in legislation, at least, the original Market Square is still with us.
Marc Raymond is an optician by profession, a Canadian by birth and commitment, and an amateur historian interested in celebrating Kingston's past. This essay is from Historic Kingston Vol. 48 2000, The Annual Publication of the Kingston Historical Society.
