Drew Costley Photography 

The Maine Avenue Fish Market is known affectionately as “The Wharf” by longtime residents of the Washington, D.C. region. Opened in 1805, it’s the oldest open-air fish market that is still operating in the United States.

 

Customers of the Maine Avenue Fish Market come from as far as an hour or two away to buy seafood from one of the several floating barges that house the market. But the market is located in a rapidly gentrifying area of Southeast D.C., with a 50,000 square-foot development set to open in 2017 that is aiming to change the landscape of the neighborhood. There are no immediate plans to displace the market, but will it survive in the long term?