Amid Shock, Vows to Rebuild Eastern Market
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Eastern Market
Photo of Eastern Market by Greg Barber/Express
IT'S A SAD MORNING. The heart of Capitol Hill has never been the Capitol and its campus. Historic Eastern Market, which has sat on 7th Street SE for the past 134 years, has served has the neighborhood's village center, its emotional heart.
And now, the market's vibrant South Hall has been gutted, destroyed by fire.
The situation could be a lot worse — the northern half of the market escaped major damage — but there's really no way of looking at the fire in a the-glass-is-half-full kind of way. As The Post's Marc Fisher writes this morning: "... [I]t's painful to realize just how important a spot like this really is."
As the initial shock eases today, the sobering reality is setting in. It's going to take a lot of work to not only rebuild the market in the long term, but also to assist its vendors who are now homeless in the short term. 
One can only hope that Eastern Market doesn't meet the same fate as the O Street Market in Shaw, pictured at right, which sits as a shell, waiting to be rebuilt after sustaining damage in the 2003 President's Day snowstorm.
D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty, D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton and community leaders have said Eastern Market will be rebuilt. Fenty told The Post this morning: "How could we not?"
Since there's nothing that can be done to bring the place back to the way it was, here's a trip down memory lane on this depressing Monday morning, courtesy of D.C.'s photoblogging community ...
» 1 » 2 » 3 » 4 » 5 » 6 » 7 » 8 » 9 » 10 » 11 » 12 ...
» "Historic Capitol Hill Marketplace Burns" [WaPo]
» "Eastern Market: What We've Lost" [Raw Fisher/WaPo]
» "Eastern Market Fire" [Erin M/Flickr]
» "Eastern Market: Tremendous Loss" [D.C. Council Member Tommy Wells]
» "Eastern Market Is Gone" [District Matters]
At right, file photo of Shaw's O Street Market's shell by Dennis Brack/The Washington Post
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I'm new in the city and one of the most enjoyable places I've seen in Washington is Eastern Market and last saturday morning I took my friend for breakfast and he liked so much too, I'm glad I did it before the place was gone.
By Yayel , Posted April 30, 2007 1:48 PMI lived directly across the street from the Market for a year. I loved that place and the neighborhood it anchored. Seeing that picture of my beloved old market all burned has my eyes welling up. I hope they rebuild it quickly.
By Julia , Posted April 30, 2007 3:30 PMI just moved to DC a month ago, and after visiting Eastern Market this Saturday it easily became my favorite spot in the city. I'm sad that it's inevitably going to lose so much of its character and activity in the coming months.
By Michael Tyznik , Posted April 30, 2007 6:58 PM