Tallahassee’s Downtown Market Continues to Flourish

Every Saturday, from March through November, Ponce De Leon Park turns into a wonderful market, displaying Tallahassee’s best and brightest local entrepreneurs. With dozens of vendors providing everything from live music to clothes to fresh produce and everything in between, the Downtown Market has something for everyone. For over thirty years the market has been thriving, providing a community-based center for hopeful people to sell their wares and goods to those around them.

Some vendors, like Clay and Chlorophyll, have been there almost since the beginning. Selling on the second Saturday of the month, the couple who run the business have been selling at the market since college and have a wide range of plants that they grow themselves on display. Other vendors like artist Bill Holkham have also been cultivating their work for quite some time, with a wide array of prints of his original artwork for sale. Originally from England, Bill has spent his life traveling the world and capturing the moments he has put on canvas. Having been to over 40 countries and 30 states, he has hundreds of beautiful pieces depicting some of the most beautiful places in the world.

Artists like Pauline and Paola at The Infinity Nook are more recent additions to the Downtown Market scene but have a passion for their business. The duo makes handmade jewelry but have a special spotlight on their reclaimed oyster shell products. Ranging from keychains to earrings, all the shells have unique designs on them in a process invented by the owners. The oyster shells are locally sourced from Panacea and Panama City, “We get them from local restaurants and instead of going to waste my mom and I spend a week sanitizing them”, Pauline said when talking about the eco-friendly products. The vendor booth also sells other goods including earrings and bags, all handmade.

The Tallahassee Downtown Improvement Authority runs the Downtown Market and Chrissy Souders has been helping make it possible for the last four years. “We like to consider ourselves an entrepreneurial hub, people who have a dream, who want to start off with their dream, this is a great place to start”, Chrissy said. Many of the vendors go on to do other markets and even start brick and mortar businesses after finding success with the Downtown Market. “We like to consider ourselves a community”, she continued, “we all are there to help each other”.

The market has a special place in many people’s hearts with past vendors even coming back to help on the technical side of the booths. Victoria, one such past vendor couldn’t agree more, saying, “It’s just something that every Saturday I love coming to do because the people here are great, you get to really know the community and the small businesses of Tallahassee”.