9. Though There Used to Be A Thriving Flower Market in Union Square

Photo from Library of Congress

The Union Square Greenmarket has provided fresh food and plants from local farmers to the public since 1976. As New York City’s first and largest greenmarket, it serves over 250,000 people during peak season, with about 140 participating farmers and producers. Though the very first market had only seven participating farmers, its success actually sparked the revitalization of the entire Union Square neighborhood, which had a become a declining area with drug problems during the 1970s. But before the Union Square Greenmarket came to Union Square, another kind of market flourished in the area a century earlier: a flower market within the very same stands where protesting took place.