The Wednesday market with Old Greenwich in its name spent 2026 in Riverside, in a church parking lot at 11 Riverside Avenue. The lot fits the market better than its longtime home in Old Greenwich did. It has more parking, a traffic officer and a formal approval from the town. That approval has an end date, though. The Planning & Zoning Commission approved Wednesday tents at the St. Catherine of Siena & St. Agnes lot through November 11, 2026, and the permit has to be renewed every year.
Counting from today, that leaves five market days: October 14, 21 and 28, then November 4 and November 11. After that, nothing on record says where the market will be next June.
The Old Greenwich site never had formal approval
For years the market set up in the parking lot of Living Hope Community Church on West End Avenue in Old Greenwich. That ended in November 2025, during an unrelated hearing. The church had brought Planning & Zoning a plan for two new homes and a parking lot expanded from 74 to 96 spaces. During that review, P&Z Chair Margarita Alban asked whether the long-running Wednesday market had ever been approved. The church then offered to withdraw its permission for the market to use the lot.
The commission approved the two homes and denied the parking expansion. Its motion stated that the market had never been approved, and it recorded the church's withdrawal of its special-event request for the market, according to Greenwich Free Press. A petition story in the Greenwich Sentinel in June 2026 passed along a resident's account of noise and parking complaints. That account was secondhand, and the hearing record points to the approval question.
Co-founder and manager Dana Lee started looking for a new site. The Cohen Eastern Greenwich Civic Center couldn't take the market because it was hosting several summer camps, Alban said. Lee told the commission that space was not the hard part.
"Most of the churches in town offered, but the one that made the most sense was St. Catherine's because they have that giant parking lot and will not be doing their carnival this year."
That quote has two conditions in it. The market moved for the parking lot, and it fit this year partly because the parish carnival wasn't running. Both matter for 2027.
What the Riverside lot changed
Approval came in two steps. P&Z staff first approved a tent permit for up to 14 non-consecutive days between June 17 and September 16. The full commission then approved tents for more than 14 days, on Wednesdays through November 11. The vote was unanimous. Commissioners Mary Jenkins, Arn Welles, Anne Jones, Brooks Harris and Chair Alban all voted yes.
The setup is spread across three addresses. Vendor tents take up the 29 spaces at 11 Riverside Avenue, and shoppers park at 13 and 17 Riverside Avenue. The Greenwich Beacon counts about 70 shopper spaces on the east side of Riverside Avenue and says that's roughly double the parking at the old site.
Lee told the commission the extra parking is what shoppers have noticed most. "There's just a lot more parking where the other location had a circle and people would sit in the circle and wait for a spot," she said.
| Old site | Riverside site | |
|---|---|---|
| Host | Living Hope Community Church, West End Avenue, Old Greenwich | Parish of St. Catherine of Siena & St. Agnes, Riverside Avenue |
| Shopper parking | A circle where drivers waited for spots, per Lee | Lots at 13 and 17 Riverside Ave., about 70 spaces |
| Traffic control | None reported | A retired or off-duty police officer directing cars |
| Restrooms | None reported | Bathroom inside the church, plus a portable toilet and handwashing stations as the Health Department requires |
| Town approval | Never approved, per the November 2025 P&Z motion | Approved unanimously through November 11, 2026, renewed annually |
The approval assumes 12 to 15 vendors and 200 to 400 visitors a week. A crowd that size needs the extra parking. A commissioner who visited said parking was available and traffic "seemed to be well managed."
The rules for the Riverside lot
A formal approval means formal conditions. These are the ones a regular shopper will run into:
- Hours are 1 to 5 p.m., rain or shine, according to the approval coverage in Greenwich Free Press and the Greenwich Beacon. One other local listing gives different hours, so the market's Instagram is the place to confirm on the day.
- No early shopping, no pets and no smoking, under Health Department rules. If you walk your dog from Binney Park, the dog has to stay home on market day.
- No amplified sound. The commission added that condition because of the nearby Japanese School and to avoid disturbing church services.
- Church services come first. Lee said the market won't overlap with a Wednesday funeral, which runs 11 a.m. to noon, and noted the 5:15 p.m. church service.
The early hour matters too. Lee told the commission most shoppers come in the first half hour, and "We run out of things like strawberries and blueberries really quickly." Berry season is over, but that first-half-hour rush suggests the best of any given week still goes early.
What's on the tables in October
The Living Greenwich photo visit on October 1 found apple growers selling crates labeled by variety: Cortland, Empire, Macoun, Gala and McIntosh, with pears alongside. Another stand had pumpkins, gourds and squash, including butternut by the pound. The same visit found SoNo Baking Co. selling bread and pastries, and Mycelium Farm selling small containers of hydroponic lettuce and microgreens alongside its organic produce.
In its National Farmers Market Week coverage in early August, Greenwich Free Press named Jackie's Empanadas and Wave Hill Breads as local favorites. It also noted that the market is not a certified Connecticut farmers market, though several of its vendors carry the CT Grown label. The state keeps its list of certified markets at ctgrown.gov/farmersmarkets.
Waste Free Greenwich also has a tent at the market, and it does more than any produce stand to connect the market to the parks nearby. It sells food scrap kits with a countertop pail, a larger bin for weekly storage and rolls of compostable bags. Volunteers also help residents set up the free metroKEY app, which unlocks the food scrap smart bins the town opened in July 2026 at Binney Park and Cos Cob Park. The bins are open around the clock. Accounts are verified and activated within 48 business hours, so signing up at the tent on a Wednesday means you can likely use the Binney Park bin by the weekend. Full instructions are on the Waste Free Greenwich compost page.
The remaining Wednesdays, and what decides 2027
These are the market days left under the 2026 approval:
- Wednesday, October 14
- Wednesday, October 21
- Wednesday, October 28
- Wednesday, November 4
- Wednesday, November 11, the last day the permit covers
At least one community calendar lists a market on November 18. That date falls after the end of the approved permit, so November 11 is the date to count on.
Three things on record will shape next year. First, the permit has to be renewed every year, so the 2026 approval says nothing either way about 2027. Second, the original application asked for a recurring season from early June through the end of October. A renewal on those terms would give a shorter fall than this year's run into November. Third, Lee agreed that if the St. Catherine's carnival comes back in a future year, the market will skip that week.
Alban stated the commission's position at the July hearing: "We want you to be successful; people love having a farmers market, and we just want it to be seamless in the neighborhood." That statement is supportive. It is not a renewal, and none has been filed or announced yet. For now, the Wednesday market on Riverside Avenue has five afternoons confirmed, and the last one is November 11.
The Riverside Avenue market is a small example of how neighborhood amenities depend on approvals, renewals and who agrees to host them. A home's value is shaped the same way. If you live near Riverside Avenue and want to know how those factors affect your property, Konstantine G Wells can put together a free home valuation or set up a consultation.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
