The MUNICIPAL MARKET, Main and Virginia, Twelfth and Thirteenth Sts. is housed in two buildings separated by a narrow driveway. The older structure, with a marquee overhanging the sidewalk on Main Street, is a two-story building of modified Romanesque design built in 1912. The other, erected in 1935, is one-story in height and of modern warehouse design. The market serves as a wholesale clearing house for local fruit and vegetable farmers and for truckers from the Southwest. Approximately 30,000 trucks belonging to "gypsy" truckers and retail merchants use the markets facilities and handling an annual business of almost $1,250,000. Apples, tomatoes, grapes, and strawberries are the principal produce. All businesses wholesale. – Missouri: A Guide to the "Show-Me" State, 1941, Joplin section, pg. 239 .
The older building mentioned still exists but is in rough shape and appears to be used for storage only. The newer 1935 building is used as a fleamarket.