Area less than one acre Architect Unknown NRHP Reference # 70000451 Added to NRHP 15 September 1970 | Built 1838 Architectural style Other Opened 1838 | |
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Location Market Sq., Fayetteville, North Carolina Similar Evans Metropolitan AME Zion, Downtown Fayetteville, Museum of the Cape Fear Hist, First Baptist Church, St John's Episcopal Church | ||
The Market House is an unusual combination town hall and town market building in the heart of Fayetteville, Cumberland County, North Carolina. Built in 1832, has an arcaded open ground level, and a meeting hall above, a form believed to be unique in the United States, but with precedents in England. It served both functions until the early 20th century, and was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1973. It now houses a museum on the upper level.
Description and history
The Market House is located in the rotary at the center of the junction of Green, Person, Gillespie, and Hay Streets, in downtown Fayetteville. It is a two story brick building, with an open arcaded ground floor and a large meeting space on the second floor. It has a hip roof, above which rises a tower that houses a belfry and clock, and is topped by a dome and weathervane. The arches that form the arcade are symmetrical arrangements of round and lancet-pointed arches, framed in stone. Portions of the arcade extend beyond the second floor block, creating single-story sections that are topped by balustrades.
The Market House was built in 1832, on the site of the building that had housed the state legislature 1788-1793; it was one of many buildings destroyed by a devastating 1831 fire. The ground floor was used as a market space until 1907, and the upper level as town hall until 1906. Faced with the prospect of demolition, a private organization was formed to take over maintenance of the property. The Market House Museum is located on the second floor and features 'rotating monthly, special-emphasis Market House exhibits'.
The building is believed to be a unique example of an English form, and its design may have been based in part on similar English halls found in South Shields, Stockton-on-Tees, and Abingdon-on-Thames. Buildings with similar function include Faneuil Hall in Boston, Massachusetts, which originally had an arcaded ground floor until the 1806 expansion, and the City Market in Charleston, South Carolina, which retains its arcaded ground floor; both of these buildings are also National Historic Landmarks.
