Category:Allentown Farmers Market, Allentown Pennsylvania

The Allentown Fairgrounds Farmers Market is located at 1825 W Chew St in Allentown, adjacent and underneath the Grandstand at the Allentown Fairgrounds.

The market contains over 65 merchants that also sell items such as meats and poultry, seafood, and baked goods. In addition to the food stands, there are numerous restaurants which you can enjoy. The Farmers Market is open year-round, although it does close for two weeks, during the last week of August and the first week of September during Fair Week.

The market can be dated to the 1870s, when one was established at the old Allentown Fairgrounds, then located in the vicinity of 5th and Liberty Streets. It occupied Industrial Hall, one of the buildings used for the fair. In 1889 the Lehigh County Agricultural Society moved the Fairgrounds to 17th and Chew. The market followed it, with the Industrial Building being rebuilt at the new fairgrounds. By 1912 it had merged with something called the Morning Market which for a number of years had operated at the corner of 8th and Gordon Streets. It was closed in 1917 with the use of the Fairgrounds by the Army, however it was reopened in 1919 after the Army returned the site to civilian use.

In June 1932, Robert Wheeler, a former Allentown city councilman, acquired a large former silk mill building on 12th Street between Chew and Liberty Streets and opened it as a farmers market, called the "Farmart". The market in the Fairgrounds Industrial Building relocated to the new location. This drew in many farmers until January 1946 when the building was sold to a necktie manufacturer, and the market moved back to the Allentown Fairgrounds Industrial Building (then known as Machinery Hall), being known as the "Farmer's Fair Market".

The current farmer's market began in July 1953 as the "Fairgrounds Market and Auction Company". The market was expanded to include space under the grandstand building as well as Machinery Hall and expanding the market to about 100 merchants. Machinery Hall burned down in August 1956, and many of the merchants temporarily moved to a facility in Khunsville to continue their businesses.

In September 1958, a large addition was built to the west of the grandstand was completed in time for the Allentown Fair, and in October, the majority of the farmer's market moved into it, calling itself the "Big Market", with a series of stands, leased by local food businesses, selling a wide variety of products The area under the grandstand was partially turned into a supermarket, The "Big Market" was open only on Fridays and Saturdays, and operated as a concession by H & M Concessions, who leased the market from the Agricultural Society, who owned the fairgrounds property.

H & M operated the market until February 1980, when it sold the lease to the market to the RAN Holding Group. They renamed it the Allentown Fair Grounds Farmers Big Market. In 1982 Dan Wuchter took over the RAN Holding Group and renamed the market the Allentown Fairgrounds Farmer's Market, He also expanded the hours of the market to what they are today.