Fayetteville Market House: History & 2026 Repurposing

The Market House is the two-story brick building with a clock tower at the center of Market Square, the traffic circle where Hay, Person, Gillespie and Green streets meet in downtown Fayetteville. It is a National Historic Landmark and the city's best-known building. It is also the subject of a long public debate, because enslaved people were bought and sold at the market that operated on its ground floor.

This guide covers what happened on this site, how the building was used, and the status of the city's repurposing project as of October 2026.

Quick facts

Item	Detail
Location	Market Square, downtown Fayetteville
Completed	By 1832, after the 1831 fire
Earlier building on the site	The State House, where North Carolina ratified the U.S. Constitution in 1789
Original uses	Open-air market on the ground floor, town hall upstairs
National Register of Historic Places	Listed 1970
National Historic Landmark	Designated 1973
Current project	City repurposing, with plaza and pedestrian work expected to finish in late fall 2026

Before the Market House: the State House and 1789

The ground under the Market House mattered before the current building existed. The state's historical marker program explains that Fayetteville built a large brick State House in the hope of becoming North Carolina's capital. The General Assembly met in Fayetteville in 1789, 1790 and 1793 before settling permanently in Raleigh.

In November 1789 a state convention met in that building, and on November 21, 1789, North Carolina ratified the U.S. Constitution, the twelfth state to do so. The same building is where the University of North Carolina was chartered in 1789, and where the state ceded the western land that became Tennessee.

The 1831 fire and the new building

In 1831 a fire swept through Fayetteville. The state marker program says it destroyed about 600 houses, Fayetteville Academy and the State House. Louis D. Henry directed the rebuilding on the State House site, and the Market House was finished by 1832.

The building follows a British market-house pattern: an open, arcaded ground floor for trade, an enclosed upper floor for civic business, a hip roof and a clock tower with a cupola. The ground floor operated as a market until 1907, and the upper floor held town government until 1906. When the building was nearly lost in the early 1900s, the Women's Civic Association saved it in 1906.

Fayetteville was the first place in North America named for the Marquis de Lafayette, and a marker at the Market House records that he addressed the town's citizens here during his 1825 visit.

The market and slavery

The Market House was a general market, and the state's historical marker text states that slave sales took place there in the mid-nineteenth century. Researchers who have studied surviving records describe sales that were spread out over time and usually involved small numbers of people, and some local accounts stress that it was a general market rather than a dedicated slave auction house like those in large port cities. Those details do not change the core fact: men, women and children were sold as property in this building.

That history is the reason the Market House has been contested for decades, and why the city removed its image from official branding.

2020 to today: from protest to repurposing

During the George Floyd protests on May 30, 2020, protesters tried to set the building on fire. The fire was put out quickly and caused minor damage.

On April 15, 2021, the City Council voted 9 to 1 to repurpose the building rather than remove it, and directed the Fayetteville-Cumberland Human Relations team to gather public input with help from the U.S. Department of Justice. In August 2022 the council approved a repurposing plan built on input from about 500 people, with the space to be used for educational, historical and artistic displays that emphasize local Black history. A $1.5 million state grant pays for the renovations.

The four phases

The city has laid the project out in four parts:

1. Structural restoration. Work began in May 2025. A preservation contractor replaced deteriorated wood, roof supports and the copper roof, and refaced the tower clocks.
2. Decorative LED lighting. The building is now lit at night, and the system can change colors for community recognitions.
3. Accessibility and pedestrian safety. Construction started June 29, 2026, under a $648,519.20 contract with Morgan Trucking & General Construction. The work expands the center plaza by about 2,950 square feet, adds two pedestrian splitter islands and crosswalks to the building, builds an ADA-accessible ramp from the Hay Street approach, resurfaces the circle and adds drainage. The city expects this phase to finish in late fall 2026.
4. Informational kiosks. The final phase adds displays on the history of the Market House and Fayetteville. The city has not published a date for it.

Visiting the Market House today

• What you can see. The exterior, the arcade and the tower are visible from the sidewalks around Market Square. The city has not announced regular public hours for the interior, so plan on an outside visit.
• Construction. Until the pedestrian phase is done, expect lane closures around the circle. The city posts updates on its road closures page.
• Crossing safely. Traffic moves continuously around the square. Use marked crosswalks and do not cut across the circle.
• Best time for photos. After dark, when the new lighting is on.
• Make it a walk. Hay Street runs west from the square past restaurants, galleries and shops. Our downtown Fayetteville guide maps the walk, and 4th Friday is the busiest evening downtown each month.

Related history stops

The Market House is one stop on a longer story. The Fayetteville history guide gives the full timeline, and the heritage sites guide lists other places to see, from Liberty Point to the history museum in the old railroad depot. The 1897 Poe House shows Fayetteville life at the turn of the 20th century.

Sources

• NC Department of Natural and Cultural Resources: Old Town Hall marker (I-14)
• City of Fayetteville: Market House repurposing continues with new lighting (Sept. 2025)
• City of Fayetteville: Market House pedestrian safety improvements begin June 29 (2026)
• CityView: What's going on with the Market House repurposing project? (2024)
• NCpedia: Fayetteville

Details checked October 2026.