In the mid-eighteenth century, public markets in Piscataway, Bladensburg, and Georgetown, in Maryland, and in Alexandria, Virginia served both shoppers and vendors in the area which was soon to become the District of Columbia. No markets were planned for inside the limits of the Federal City when it was laid out in 1790. However, markets were such an essential piece of urban life that Thomas Jefferson included public markets in his list of necessities to be incorporated into