Farmer volunteers to manage Belleville’s Old Town Market to keep it alive this season

Teri Maddox
·2 min read
Bryan Lehr, in green T-shirt, is the new manager of Old Town Market in downtown Belleville, shown in this 2019 file photo. His father, Art Lehr, owns Lehr’s Vegetable Farm in rural Columbia.

Belleville’s Old Town Market will be back this season, thanks to a Columbia farmer who has offered to serve as manager to keep it going while the city plans for its replacement.

Old Town formerly was managed for 11 years by Belleville Main Street, which stepped aside in November. Mayor Patty Gregory wants to convert a city-owned building next to City Hall into a new year-round, indoor-outdoor market with artists and other vendors, in addition to farmers.

Old Town will be managed this season by Bryan Lehr, son of Art Lehr, owner of Lehr’s Vegetable Farm in rural Columbia. The family has been operating a stand at Old Town since the early 2000s.

Market hours will be 7:30 a.m. to noon on Saturdays, beginning May 6 and ending in November, on the northwest corner of South Charles and East Washington streets in Belleville.

“We’re not going to close the street,” Lehr said. “We’re just going to set up in the parking lot. But we’re going to be in the same location that we’ve been for the past four years.”

Lehr expects a half-dozen vendors, including two to three farmers who sell produce and plants and one who sells locally-raised meat, as well as people who make dog treats and German pretzels.

Several vendors left Old Town before last season due to late planning by Belleville Main Street and availability of other markets in the region, Lehr said, but it still attracted up to 200 customers each week.

Lehr’s Vegetable Farm also operates stands at markets in Columbia on Thursdays and Waterloo on Saturdays.

“I’ve got a lot of customers (in Belleville) who have been faithful to us for quite a few years,” Bryan Lehr said. “Some of them have been with us from the beginning. I didn’t want to leave them hanging.”

The city of Belleville recently was awarded a nearly $425,000 tourism grant from the state of Illinois to convert a city-owned building at 117 S. Illinois St. into a new Belleville City Market as a replacement for Old Town Market, which was established in 2000.

The city can claim the grant, which is made up of federal COVID-relief funds, if the City Council votes to spend about $421,000 to match it.

Lehr’s Vegetable Farm was founded in 1918 by Bryan Lehr’s great-grandfather. Before that, the family farmed in Mehlville, Missouri. Today, they sell vegetables, fruits, hanging baskets and other plants.