Glens Falls Farmer’s Market: Fifty Years Serving the Community
The Glens Falls Farmer’s Market celebrated their 50-Year Anniversary yesterday, marking an important milestone of bringing local farmers and the community together every Saturday morning. During the event, resident Casey Scoville read a beautiful letter from her father, Chris Scoville, who now lives in Florida. He was one of the founding members of this market back in 1976, and he wanted to share his own perspectives. I was graciously given permission from Casey to share the letter for others to read who were also unable to attend the festivities on Saturday.
As a businessman and owner of Scoville Jewelers, my dream was pretty simple: I wanted to find a way to breathe some life and generate more foot traffic into our downtown on a Saturday morning. Now, I knew business, but I didn’t know farming. That’s where Doc Joseph of Joseph's Restaurant, came in. Doc was the vital link between us and the local agricultural community. When he took the idea to the farmers, they were on board, but they had one very specific condition. They told Doc, “We love the idea of another outlet to sell our goods, but we want to set up quickly, open early, and sell out as fast as possible, so we can get back to work on the farm.”
As a result, we set the market to start at 7:00am, situated in the Exchange Street parking lot. Well, you can imagine the reaction from the downtown merchants. They looked at me and said, “We don’t even open until 9:30! What good is a market that starts at 7:00am going to do for us?” But the reality of what happened next is why we are still standing here in Downtown Glens Falls fifty years later.
The crowds didn’t just show up; they swarmed. There were so many people packing the market early in the morning that my fellow merchants realized that this was an opportunity, not a problem. Instead of resisting, they shifted their hours to satisfy the desires of this large crowd of customers. Exchange Street was closed to traffic and filled with artists, crafters, and performers. The City Fathers got involved, making part of Exchange Street a pedestrian space and building a small stage with electrical outlets for the performers. It became a weekly community celebration!
A couple of weeks ago, I had the absolute treat of visiting the ED Market Center, the new location for the Glens Falls Farmer’s Market. Seeing what this market has grown into over the last half-century, exploring the beautiful new facility, and soaking in that vibrant, bustling energy, filled me with immense pride. What started as a simple idea to boost downtown commerce has become the heartbeat of this community. Thank you to all of the founders, to the generations of hardworking farmers, to the adaptable merchants, and most importantly, to all of you who have kept this market thriving for fifty incredible years. Cheers to the next fifty!”
The celebration yesterday was a lovely community affair, with a birthday cake courtesy of longtime vendors, Dickinson’s Delights and Gifford Farm, face painting, balloon art, and farm animals from Warren County Cornell Cooperative Extension’s 4-H program. As Chris Scoville described, the newly constructed ED Market Center has been the new home for the Glens Falls Farmer’s Market since 2025, but has moved to different spaces over the years, most recently in the South Street Pavillion built in 2000. Last year, the South Street Pavillion was deconstructed, and recently reconstructed, at the Shirt Factory, thanks to local resident Pema Reed, who persuaded the owner of the Shirt Factory, Eric Unkauf, to help preserve the historic structure.
The Shirt Factory, a name that spurs memories of the original tenant decades ago, is a building with dozens of small businesses, from independent bookstores, art galleries, a tea shop, and more, in the east end of Glens Falls, New York. Its rebirth began in 1996, when Eric Unkauf, the current owner, purchased the building at auction and began the process of preservation and restoration. Eventually reopening in 1999, it had dozens of rooms for rent, igniting a firestorm of small businesses and artists to eventually call it home. Just like the Glens Falls Farmer’s Market has done for the community over fifty years.
If you live in the Glens Falls, New York region, I recommend stopping by on Saturday morning between 8am to 12pm to stroll through the ED Market Center to experience the iconic Glens Falls Farmer’s Market!
