Starting in 1980, an Eau Claire Farmers Market Association was formed, and the site selected was the London Square Mall parking lot. The market typically consisted of 10 to 20 vendors selling a variety of farm produce and flowers with the season extending from the middle of June until the end of October.
After the 1993 season, the Eau Claire Farmers Market decided to move back to London Square mall. At about this time a number of truck farmers decided to remain in the downtown area and the Downtown Farmers Market was established. With the assistance of the Eau Claire Main Street Association and the City of Eau Claire, the Downtown Farmers Market officially opened for business in June 1994, with approximately 25 vendors in the Railroad Street parking lot.
The Eau Claire Downtown Farmers Market has now grown to a membership of 70 vendors. The market members aspire to offer an increasingly wide variety of vegetables, fruits, flowers, breads, and more, and to offer products of highest quality and freshness. The market is a producer only market, which means all vendors are required to sell products that are grown or sourced from local vendors. The Downtown Farmers Market operates in a covered pavilion in Phoenix Park located on the corner of Riverfront Terrace and Madison Street.
Below is a slideshow of the construction of our facility in Phoenix Park.
Philip Arthur Chute
September 7, 1941 – November 11, 2013
Philip, together with his wife Judith, was the visionary who not only founded the Eau Claire Downtown Farmers Market in 1994, but doggedly persisted in securing a covered home for the market. The manifestation of his vision and hard work became a reality in 2006. It can be seen by anyone visiting the beautiful Farmers’ Market Pavilion at Phoenix Park in Eau Claire, WI. This page is dedicated to Philip A. Chute: “a towering oak, a lover of nature, a steward of the land, with 72 growth rings; each a significant band.”
“In years to come some will tell their children about what a faithful brother he was; or what a devoted husband or dedicated dad, for sure; or what a larger–than-life grandfather or a teacher that inspired; or admirable scholar and colleague that never tired.
But in years to come we will tell about the man who founded and managed the Eau Claire Downtown Farmers Market– the man who changed the very fortunes of families and farms in the Chippewa Valley.”