Italian Market’s Getting An (Old) New Name

Hmm. We never knew this but it turns out the Italian Market’s real name is the “Ninth Street Curb Market.” Who knew? They’re even adding a historical marker to the Ninth Street strip:


“It’s always been called Ninth Street,” says Celeste Morello, a local historian who worked for the last 16 years researching, writing letters and making phone calls to garner historical recognition for the market. She says the term “Italian Market” emerged in the mid-’70s when large supermarket chains moved into the area, and the Ninth Street Market began to decline, leaving a predominantly Italian population.

According to Morello, for the marker text to be approved, the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission insisted that its title “include the present multicultural nature of the market”—and that’s telling. Though over the years Ninth Street has been home to a wide variety of immigrant groups, it’s arguably never been more multicultural than it is today.”

But it’s still the Italian Market to us.

Sign Language [Philadelphia Weekly]

Italian Market’s Getting An (Old) New Name