Portland’s Marvelous New Million Dollar Public Market opened on Dec. 14, 1933. The building ran 620 feet along Front Street between the Hawthorne and Morrison bridges and it was equal to eleven stories high, with 220,000 square feet of floor space for approximately 200 merchants. 

The Market was made up of concessions and stalls for groceries, produce, meats, fish, poultry, flowers, tea, tobacco, candy, preserves, prepared foods, dairy foods and baked goods. While the main floor catered solely to the shopper’s food needs, the mezzanine was reserved exclusively for specialty and personal service shops including household goods, barbers, beauticians, optometrists, dentists, typists, dry cleaners and a gas station.

When shoppers were finished, the market’s passenger elevator awaited to take them either to the roof where their cars, groceries and attendant awaited them, or, if they did not feel like going home just yet, they could visit the market’s 500-seat auditorium to watch domestic demonstrations of all sorts given from a modern kitchen set up on stage