Passing the Main Street Station (C. & O. and Seaboard) on the left, you
come to the Old Market. On this site, from the earliest days, the
farmers would gather to sell their produce to the city folk. To the left
of the market, Negro washerwomen used to spread their wash on the grassy
bank of Shockoe Creek, the frequent floods of which were the chief
excitement of the old town. The women chatted and lightened their work
by singing. The darkies’ melodious voices, blending with the cries of
the food hawkers, must have made the market the gayest spot in Richmond.
¶ _Continue on Main, halting three-fourths of the way between Nineteenth
and Twentieth._