Soulard Farmers Market

Soulard is a historic neighborhood in St. Louis, Missouri. It is named for Antoine Soulard, who first began to develop the land. Soulard was a surveyor for the Spanish government and a refugee from the French Revolution in the 1790s. One of the oldest communities in the city, Soulard is today a largely residential neighborhood whose many businesses include restaurants, bars, and the North American headquarters of Anheuser-Busch, which houses the St. Louis Brewery. Half of the neighborhood north of Lynch Street is composed mostly of row homes and small apartments with the Anheuser-Busch Brewery and headquarters occupying most of the land south of Lynch. Many of its houses date to the mid- to late-19th century. Soulard also has several historic churches.Many of its bars host live music, especially the blues and jazz bands for which the city is known. The barrelhouse blues piano player James Crutchfield lived in the neighborhood from 1984 until his death in 2001, and performed in many of the nightclubs. The district hosts regular pub crawls. There are various neighborhood groups, including the Soulard Restoration Group and the Soulard Business Association, that organize events, keep the neighborhood clean and safe, and publish a newspaper, The Soulard Renaissance. It is home to the oldest farmers' market west of the Mississippi. More than a hundred vendors include farmers, produce vendors, meat shops, spice shop, florist shops, and food. Soulard Market is featured in the opening scene of Alan Schroeder's picture book Ragtime Tumpie.
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