The Original Farmers Market

Arthur Gilmore ran a dairy farm in Los Angeles for 20 years before drilling for water in 1900 and striking oil instead. His son Earl Bell Gilmore expanded the oil business to over 3,000 gas stations across the West Coast. City planners didn’t like oil derricks in a dense population center, so the oil business eventually closed and the land became a dirt lot by the mid-1930s during the Great Depression. In 1934, two entrepreneurs invited local farmers to park their trucks on the property for a small fee and sell fresh produce directly to the public. The cost to rent space was fifty cents per day. The market now features over 100 shops visited by 3 million people annually, with vendors speaking about 23 different languages.