On Wednesday, October 21, the Andersonville Farmers Market closes its 2026 season on Winona Street. From 3 to 7 p.m., stalls will fill the 1500 block between Clark and Ashland and the large AT&T lot at Winona and Clark. This is the market's second year at that spot, about half a mile south of Catalpa Avenue, where it used to be held. On Catalpa, the 40th Ward's September 29 construction report scheduled sidewalk framing and concrete pours for Elise Malary Plaza in the week of October 5.
The plaza is often described as something new for Andersonville. It is better understood as the permanent version of something the neighborhood has done on that one block for years, with barricades, barrels and folding tables.
Six Years of Borrowing One Block
Catalpa between Clark and Ashland closed to cars long before anyone drew a plaza. Block Club reported this spring that the stretch "routinely closes to car traffic for farmers markets and other neighborhood events." In 2020, Ald. Andre Vasquez proposed a pedestrian plaza there under the city's shared streets initiative, and the block was closed off with barricades and traffic barrels. At the June groundbreaking, he described what came next, according to Yahoo News:
"It became a place where independent businesses could set up small markets and events, and rallies and community gatherings could take place."
Local reporting from 2020 framed the problem in walking terms. Block Club described the car-oriented Catalpa block as a gap between the north and south ends of Clark Street's commercial corridor. The design process started that year with $750,000 in state funding and no set total budget.
The project took years to move from pilot to plaza:
- 2020. The first concept kept one westbound traffic lane and turned parking and sidewalk space over to pedestrians.
- 2022. Officials proposed closing the street to cars entirely, which meant a 67-foot plaza instead of roughly 38 feet beside a traffic lane. A traffic study found that nearby east-west streets could take the diverted cars.
- 2023. Vasquez, former Ald. Harry Osterman and city officials endorsed the car-free plan.
- 2024. The final design came out, and the plaza was named for Elise Malary.
- 2025. The farmers market moved to Winona to clear the block for construction, and the planned 2025 start slipped to 2026.
- April 2026. The city awarded Sumit Construction a $2.7 million contract.
- June 18, 2026. Groundbreaking at Catalpa and Ashland.
Not everyone agreed. When the car-free version was proposed in 2022, some neighbors raised concerns about mobility for seniors and about drivers cutting through the nearby Jewel and Walgreens parking lots. Others argued that a car-free plaza would make the neighborhood livelier. The final design responds to some of those points, as the next section shows.
Whom the Plaza Honors
Elise Malary was a Black trans activist who was born and raised in Andersonville. She worked at Equality Illinois, the Chicago Reader and the civil rights bureau of the Illinois Attorney General's office, and she was a founding member of the Chicago Therapy Collective. The same block of Catalpa was given the honorary name Elise Malary Way in 2024.
The 40th Ward's project page ties the name to how Malary used public space, calling it "a tribute to the way she used public spaces to bring people together." At the groundbreaking, Andersonville Chamber of Commerce secretary Dena Jo Pavlovic said the plaza "is going to make sure that never fades and people will be there to say who she was."
What Is Going Into the Ground This Month
The finished block is designed for the uses the pilot already proved out. The ward lists these features:
- Pavers and concrete sidewalks
- Raised planters with native pollinator plants
- Landscaped screens that separate the plaza from neighboring parking lots
- Shade structures
- Catenary lighting and pedestrian light poles
- Bench and island seating
- Bike racks and trash receptacles
The screens face the same parking lots that came up in the 2022 debate. The full street width leaves room for the market to come back. Block Club reported that the final design keeps the farmers market in the plaza. For traffic on nearby streets, a stoplight will go in at Berwyn and Ashland as part of the Ashland Avenue resurfacing project.
The September 29 report also lists the work immediately before the concrete pours: finishing the sprinkler system, grading stone and placing soil in the planters. Right now the main effect on foot traffic is a closed sidewalk on the west side at Catalpa and Clark. The report lists no parking restrictions and no utility shutoffs.
As for when the plaza will be finished, the published sources give three answers:
| Source |
Completion language |
| 40th Ward project overview |
"Spring 2027" |
| 40th Ward contractor update, September 29 |
Expected end date "12/1/2026" |
| June groundbreaking report |
"at the end of the year" |
None of the sources says whether these refer to different milestones. One reasonable reading is that construction could wrap up around December 1 while the first full use of the plaza waits for spring. The Chamber has said it expects the farmers market to return next spring.
The Fall Calendar Still Runs on the Old Arrangements
Until the plaza opens, Andersonville's public calendar keeps running on borrowed space. The final 2026 Vintage Market on September 27 was held at 1600 W. Catalpa and the St. Gregory parking lot, beside the construction fencing. The rest of the fall is spread up and down Clark:
| Date |
What |
Where |
| October 13 |
Bingofesten, a fundraiser for the Andersonville Sustainable Community Alliance |
Bramble Arts Loft, 5545 N. Clark St. |
| Mid-October, target |
De Colores opens |
5403 N. Clark St. |
| October 21 |
Last 2026 farmers market, 3 to 7 p.m. |
Winona between Clark and Ashland |
| October 31 |
Fright on Farragut, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.; business-district trick-or-treating 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. |
Clark and Farragut |
| November 1 to 15 |
Autumn Restaurant Week |
Participating restaurants |
| December 1 |
Contractor's expected plaza end date |
Catalpa, Clark to Ashland |
The Chamber's Restaurant Week page lists the 2026 dates, but it notes that its other details are carried over from 2025 and that 2026 information is coming, so the format and the restaurant list are not final.
The biggest change on Clark this fall is a restaurant from someone with deep local roots. Patricia Guerrero, who opened Edgewater Tacos at 5624 N. Broadway in 2018, plans to open De Colores in mid-October in the former Cescas Margarita Bar & Grill space. Cescas closed in late 2025 after 10 years. "I've lived on the same block for 53 years, so Edgewater and Andersonville is my home," she told Block Club.
De Colores will be a sit-down restaurant, unlike the mostly take-out Edgewater Tacos. Its menu draws on her mother's Ecuadorian, Cuban and Colombian heritage. Dishes include ropa vieja, tostones rellenos with carnitas, a hollowed-out pineapple stuffed with shrimp, red pimento, crema and melted cheese, and both Ecuadorian- and Colombian-style empanadas. The space itself shows how Clark Street businesses support each other. Benjamin Bloom, who runs Bloom & Co. and Heritage Home Supply nearby, told Guerrero about the storefront and led the design. The walls are hung with photos of her family.
The Spring Handoff
When the farmers market comes back, it will be returning to the block it used before 2025. Everything it sells is produced within 200 miles of Andersonville, according to the Block Club guide for this season. What will be new is the block itself: paved, planted and lit, with room for stalls, rather than a street closed off with barrels for an afternoon. Construction updates continue on the 40th Ward's Elise Malary Plaza page, and the city's project description is on its Catalpa Plaza Improvements page.
At Meridian Chicago, we follow projects like Catalpa because they change how a block works day to day long before they show up in any listing. If you would like to talk through what the plaza means for your stretch of Andersonville, let's work together.
