Italian Market, Philadelphia

South 9th Street Curb Market

Pennsylvania Historical Marker
A weekend crowd during the Christmas season at Di Bruno Bros. cheese shop in the Italian Market
Location within Philadelphia
Location	Bella Vista, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Coordinates	39°56′20″N 75°09′28″W / 39.939°N 75.1578°W / 39.939; -75.1578
PHMC dedicated	October 12, 2007

The Italian Market is the popular name for the South 9th Street Curb Market, an area of South Philadelphia featuring awning covered sidewalks, curb carts, grocery shops, cafes, restaurants, bakeries, cheese shops, butcher shops, etc., many with an Italian influence. The historical heart of the market is the area of 9th Street between Christian Street and Washington Avenue,^[1] the commercial district chartered in 1915, the South Ninth Street Business Men's Association, covered the area between Catharine to Federal and Eighth to Tenth streets,^[2] and the market is now generally considered to extend from Fitzwater Street at the north to Wharton Street at the south. The term Italian Market is also used to generally describe the surrounding neighborhood between South Street to the North and Wharton Street to the South running a few blocks to the east and west of 9th street.

Although it is considered the social and commercial heart of the Philadelphia Italian community, the Ninth Street Market also contained many Jewish businesses in its inception.^[1] In recent years, an influx of immigrants from Latin America, mainly from Mexico and to a lesser degree from Central American countries like Guatemala and El Salvador, has significantly contributed to the Italian Market area, and, in the southern Italian Market in particular, the Market is now also home to many stores and restaurants catering to South Philadelphia's Hispanic population in addition to the Italian-American community.