In 1801, following a decade or more of informal activity, Kingston's market was incorporated as an important urban facility and has functioned as such continuously ever since. But it was such a different place. First of all, imagine that in 1801 there was no building in the middle of the market square: no City Hall. Rather, what was there was amounted to more of a village green with just enough traffic to keep the weeds and grass down. Vendors came and went when they felt like it and traded from locations of their choice. Occasionally, town picnics and church gatherings were held there, right in the centre of town. The Market Square might have been the principal site of commerce and major meeting place, but in many ways it was more rural than urban and often presented quite a bucolic scene in a settlement that was little more than a village. Also, imagine Brock, King, and Market Streets not as paved streets but as rough, wagon paths leading to and around a large field that accommodated the market. And none of the buildings so familiar to us around the Market Square existed in 1801. What were there were modest one or two-story log or frame buildings housing the merchants of the day and their shops. Nor was there much traffic other than pedestrians, riders, and carriages, all travelling to trade on the square. But as Kingston grew, there were some signs of change. On 13 May 1811, the Clerk of the Peace announced the rules for the "New Kingston Market." Stalls were provided for the farmers and eight butchers were accommodated in the market house. The market was to be open daily except Sundays, between 6 a.m. and 4 p.m., and the regulations established that "the square between St. George's Church and the river, in the town of Kingston, should be the place, where all butcher's meat, butter, eggs, poultry, fish and vegetables should be exposed to sale." As Kingston boomed because of its strategic role in the 1812 War, the town grew and prospered -- as did the vendors and merchants and all the others serving the needs of a growing populace and garrison. Kingston's rise to dominance seemed assured in the ensuing decades. In the 1830's, the construction of Fort Henry, the Rideau Canal, and the Penitentiary attracted large numbers of skilled masons, labourers, and tradesmen to the area. The growing prosperity of the town, together with the availability of these trades at reasonable cost, facilitated the "limestone revolution" and all who could converted their wooden-frame homes to limestone structures. Also, the "great fire" of 1840 devastated the downtown and waterfront adding impetus to this dominance of stone over wood, many of these fine structures surviving to the present. In 1841, Kingston was selected to be the capital of the "United Province of Canada" and Lord Sydenham opened the first Legislative Council and House of Assembly. It was thought that even greater prosperity was certainly to follow and the town fathers immediately started construction of a new civic building worthy of a capital. Given the ethos the day, it is not surprising that it was built in city's most prominent location: smack in the middle of the Market Square!