Eastern Market Receives One City Location of the Month Distinction
The DC Office of Motion Picture and Television Development is pleased to recognize Eastern Market in Southeast Washington as the January 2013 One City Location of the Month. Located in a quaint 19th century brick building in the historic Capitol Hill neighborhood, Eastern Market is the oldest continually operated fresh food public market in the District. It is known as DC’s destination for fresh food, a gathering place for residents, and handmade arts and crafts, making this location a local icon and a unique illustration of what the nation’s capital has to offer as a destination for film.
Eastern Market, which originally opened in 1873, is located on 7th Street SE, a few blocks east of the US Capitol between North Carolina Avenue SE and C Street SE. The building was designed by Adolph Cluss, a prominent local architect who designed the Franklin and Sumner Schools as well as many other post-Civil War buildings in the District of Columbia. Typical of the commercial architecture of the time, Eastern Market is one of the few public markets left in the District and the only one retaining its original public market function.
The market was built as part of a larger, city-wide public market system and a desire to reshape the city’s image as urban, as opposed to its image at the time of a sleepy, southern village. As a result, it became the first city-owned market to be built under the public works program of the 1870s. It is currently listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Eastern Market was badly damaged by an early-morning fire on April 30, 2007. After two years of construction, the market building reopened on June 26, 2009. A year later, the Eastern Market renovation received the Outstanding Project Award from the Structural Engineering Association of Metropolitan Washington. Currently Eastern Market is preparing for another renovation with a goal to link Barracks Row (October 2012 Location of the Month) and Eastern Market in order to create a community gathering space.
Eastern Market has been featured in a number of feature films including “Body of Lies” starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe and “Mercury Rising” starring Bruce Willis and Alec Baldwin. In “Body of Lies” Eastern Market doubled as Amsterdam where a terrorist group set off a car bomb explosion outside the market.
In 2011, the DC Film Office launched its One City Location of the Month to bring attention to the wide range of varied, cinematically compelling locations that are available to film and television productions. Former One City Location of the Month recipients include the Maine Avenue Fish Market in Southwest, the Frederick Douglass House in Southeast, the Adams Morgan neighborhood in Northwest, and Gallaudet University in Northeast.
To learn more about Eastern Market and to view photos please visit the One City Location of the Month feature on our web site. If you are interested in using Eastern Market for a future filming location, please contact us at [email protected].