Object Details
- See more items in
- Asian American Foodways Project Records
- Asian American Foodways Project Records / Series 1: Neighborhoods with Asian American food businesses
- Sponsor
- This Asian Pacific American Foodways Project received Federal support from the Asian Pacific American Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center.
- Biographical / Historical
- Union Market is located at the intersection of Florida Avenue and 4th Street, NE, in Washington, DC. It opened in 1931 as the Union Terminal Market, an outdoor market with mostly Jewish, Italian, and Greek wholesale merchants who had relocated after the Central Terminal Market was razed to make way for the National Archives Building. A complex of warehouses was built in 1967 to accommodate changing health and safety regulations at what became known as the Florida Avenue Market. Korean and Chinese immigrants began to establish wholesale businesses, and by 1974, Korean merchants founded the Florida Avenue Market Merchants and Property Owners Association to advocate for their rights. After a Red Line Metro station opened nearby in the 1990s, the area was redeveloped for retail and residential use, and rising rents forced many of these merchants to close or relocate to the suburbs of Virginia and Maryland.
- Date
- 2021
- Archival Repository
- Anacostia Community Museum Archives
- Type
- Archival materials
- Collection Citation
- Asian American Foodways Project Records, Anacostia Community Museum, Smithsonian Institution.
- Collection Rights
- Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
- Scope and Contents
- This subseries contains photographs, created in 2021, documenting Asian American food businesses located at Union Market in Washington, DC. Photographs document current and former wholesalers, kitchen supply companies, and food distributors owned and operated by Asian Americans.
- Collection Restrictions
- Use of the materials requires an appointment. Please contact the archivist to make an appointment: ACMarchives@si.edu.
- Record ID
- ebl-1694736000760-1694736003015-0
