The Glenview Farmers' Market was started in 1988 by the Glenview Women of Today. After 19 years, the group realized that managing the market was no longer in alignment with their mission. Many groups in Glenview were approached, and the Glenview Park District agreed to take over the market and move it - naturally - to Wagner Farm.
Click here to go directly to the Glenview Farmers' Market website. (Link will open in a new tab.)
Wagner Farm was, at one point, a truck farm. Truck farms were crucial to the growth of the Chicago area, with farmers bringing their fresh produce to central locations like the Water Street Market.
The 1925 Census of Agriculture from the USDA provides the following statistics regarding the number of acres that were devoted to certain crops:
| Cook County | DuPage County | Lake County | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Potatoes | 1,310 acres | 385 acres | 700 acres |
| Cabbage | 2,128 acres | 52 acres | 21 acres |
| Onions | 4,400 acres | 21 acres | 142 acres |
| Tomatoes | 1,772 acres | 39 acres | 4 acres |
You can see that Cook County, where Wagner Farm is located, was providing the vast majority of produce in the area.
To celebrate Wagner Farm's Truck Farming history, a market wagon was constructed and is now on display. The exhibit was built in-house, and the wagon is designed using pictures of old produce wagons that were actually at the Water Street market. The wagon is typical of one that a farmer would have driven to market, and includes a fiberglass horse harnessed up so that people can try their hand at driving.