“It was a beautiful market, anything you wanted you could always find,” remarks Letha Blount, a resident of Shaw since 1952. “ I used to go for produce and country sausage, pig’s feet and cooked food - everything,” she says, “and the nicest thing about it was that they had nice people working there, they were always trying to please you...[they would] always give you a little extra, to let you know they appreciated your business.”

These days the only things residents can find at the “market” are piles of trash and scattered bricks inside a chain-link fence; a site that might appear superfluous without any knowledge of its history. The lot at Ninth and O streets, adjacent to the Giant grocery store, is not just another vacant Shaw property; instead, it is one of three remaining landmark historical markets built as part of a post-Civil War effort to modernize the city’s infrastructure back in 1881.

After several years of delay and one devastating snowstorm, another effort to modernize the market is once again moving. The revised project by Roadside Development was recently given the green-light from the Advisory Neighborhood Commission 2C (ANC) to proceed with rebuilding on the historic site. Barring any further interruptions from Mother Nature or the approvals process, the project will break ground in 2008. Many residents hope that these plans will signal the long-awaited rebound of the Seventh and Ninth street corridors where many boarded-up buildings remain.

A Flavorful Past

For over 100 years, through several incarnations and closings, the market served as a place for residents to sell their wares, acquire food, and chat with neighbors. When the market first opened, German women and men constituted a large percentage of the sellers, bringing local goods to the small community. During the market’s heyday following World War II, the bustling marketplace was crowded by black sellers and clientele, filling the building with fresh fish, meats, vegetables and homemade baked goods. The O Street Market quickly became the primary shopping venue for Shaw residents through the 40s and 50s and was known as an affordable place to eat and socialize.

“People used to come from all over...it was a market!” recalls Lillian Gordon, a 57 year resident of Shaw. “It was a beautiful market, and it was a shame [when it closed],” she adds.

In the 1960s, increasing competition from grocery stores, overcrowding and health code violations initiated the market’s decline, and it eventually closed after the riots in 1968. Nine years later James Adkins, a Shaw resident and owner of Century Seafood Market, purchased the historic site with the help of DC government and over $4 million in loans from the US Department of Commerce; Giant Foods opened in 1980 as part of the scheme  – and as the first supermarket built in the District in 11 years. Adkins told the Washington Post in 1979 that critics had warned him that “Giant would never come back here.”

History Repeats? New Market Plans for the New O Street

The Adkins project eventually failed, ironically, as competition from the Giant pushed out the market’s food vendors. Drug dealing and violence also took a toll; the low point came in 1990 when five shoppers were shot in the market itself.

When Roadside Development stepped in as the new owner of the site in 2000, the only profitable tenant at O Street was a liquor store. At that time the development company had detailed plans to convert the market to four separate retail outlets and a parking structure. The plans were delayed by disagreements with the Historic Preservation Review Board; a snowstorm in 2003, which collapsed the roof of the structure, halted the plans altogether.

Back on track with a new plan approved by the Shaw ANC last December, Armond Spikell, a developer with Roadside, emphasizes the desire to keep with the original intent of O Street - as a market.

“The plan is to build a new Giant food store and incorporate the history of the O Street market building of the 1880s to meld with a 21st-century supermarket,” Spikell says. “We are very interested in bringing the best of both worlds; it will be a much larger store than what’s there now, it will offer a much wider variety of products and will be an efficient store that will result in aggressive, competitive pricing…and yet have unusual charm, as a portion will be in a historic building with high ceilings, lots of windows…”

“[The Giant] is what makes the project work,” remarks Shaw ANC Commissioner Alex Padro. “That’s the linchpin to get that historic 1881 market renovated; we will actually have some departments of the supermarkets in the market - true to one of the original uses,” he says.

“We are adding a small amount of local neighborhood retail reserved for local businesses, adding residential, affordable, market-rate and for-sale housing,” Spikell says. “We will also explore the possibility of including a small hotel.”

When asked if the housing component would change because of the tanking real estate market, Spikell responds that Roadside is confident that the high-density housing plans will be met with enough demand in the area to subsidize other parts of the project (like the parking) that are not profitable.

One of the biggest pieces of the project will take place below the surface: the 700 underground parking spaces. “The number one issue for years has been parking,” Padro says. “We want the maximum number of parking spaces; it’s more important than what’s above ground,” he states. “There’s a critical shortage right now and a lot of empty retail spaces because customers cannot come [to Shaw] and find a place to park.”

Though some renderings of what the complex would look like have been made available by Roadside, more detailed drawings are not. As part of the approvals process, Roadside must meet again with the Historic Preservation Review Board (HPRB) on the new plan and apply for a Planned Unit Development (PUD) from the Office of Zoning to complete the multi-purpose project.

“It’s a landmark building; of course we will be looking at how the reconstructed market is attached to the existing structure,” says Steve Collcott, a planner with the Historic Preservation Office. “It would be tested in preservation law to determine whether the alteration...is found compatible with the character of the landmark.”

Callcott says that Roadside has brought plans to the Preservation Office seeking feedback before going before the full board for review. “One of the shortcomings of the previous plan was that the new supermarket backed into a landmark building...with no doors or windows opening into the building on Seventh Street. One of our broader planning goals is to re-enliven the Seventh Street block...we were afraid it would be a very dead block,” Callcott says.

Community groups are also looking to provide input as the new plans move forward. “I’ve been here nine years, and diversity has to be planned for and committed to, or it doesn’t happen,” remarks Virginia Lee, a community advocate with ONE DC a local nonprofit that advocates for low-income housing.

Having met with Roadside over the years, Lee says they have advocated for low-income housing and are eager to meet again to discuss the new plans and possible community benefits.

“When we talked to people in the community, one of the biggest concerns was housing,” acknowledges Spikell. “Longtime residents have a fear of being displaced and a number of Section 8 [residents have been displaced], so our thought was to provide a project specific to those people, and adding an age restriction for seniors seemed like a great way to do that,” comments Spikell, adding that he does not know the exact number of units that will be made available.

“I look forward [to the development] and hope for expanded services [at the Giant],” says resident Tom Allen, who has lived at Ninth and P streets, NW, since 1970. “Our Giant is terrible,” he states, citing a lack of basic foods in the store and sub-par service.

Others are concerned about the transition when the existing Giant closes for the new development. “We’d like to get information to our community about what would be the other options when the store closes,” says Virginia Lee. Considering the large number of seniors in the area, access to markets in walking distance will be an issue during the transition.

“Giant has concerns for the safety of their customers, and selling food in the midst of a major construction project would be difficult. If they close the store, they would offer home delivery through their Peapod division and run shuttle busses to another store,” replies Spikell, who will meet with ONE DC again in March.

Hope for a Lasting Revival

“We hope it will be an anchor for the commercial corridor with retail and lots of parking,” Spikell comments.

“I would love to see O Street Market come back, I really truly would,” says Letha Blount yearning for the specialties of the old days. “All the vegetables and big brown eggs with the double yolks and homemade cakes and pies...the Giant is nice, but I used to get sugar cane and sassafras tea.”