"Market Dates: 1st Saturday of the month (9 AM - 3 PM). *Excluding JAN/OCT."
That line sits at the bottom of every Farmersville Market listing on the Chamber's events page. If you took it at its word, you'd have skipped downtown last Saturday. But the market didn't actually take October off. On Oct. 3, Farmersville Market and Education Row ran from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Onion Shed, on South Main Street and around the downtown square, as part of the 46th annual Old Time Saturday. That's an hour earlier and two hours later than a normal 9-to-3 market day.
So the October "gap" was really the market folding into a bigger day, and both still centered on one building. Look at the rest of the fall calendar and the same thing keeps happening. Downtown Farmersville schedules around the Onion Shed, a loading dock the railroads built so the town could ship onions.
A Packing Dock That Kept Its Job Description
The shed at 151 South Main is one of several that railroad companies built in Farmersville to pack and ship the Collin County Sweets. A history put together by the city's Main Street Program says local farmers started planting onions in 1925. By 1935, Farmersville was known as the "Onion Capitol of North Texas." Texas Time Travel dates this particular shed to 1935, when the onion trade was already well established in town.
The onion trade had its own calendar. Migrant crews arrived each January to plant onion slips and came back in late May or June for the harvest. Many of Farmersville's young men worked the sheds, grading and sacking onions to ship by rail across the country. The city's history says the smell of onions filled the town. During peak seasons there was even an onion festival, with a parade, marching bands and an onion queen named Queen Noino, which is "onion" spelled backwards.
The industry faded once growers in South and West Texas developed onion varieties suited to their own soil. Those onions kept longer than the delicate Collin County Sweets and were easier to ship. The shed stayed standing. The Main Street Program restored it in 2002, and that work won the Texas Downtown Association's Community Spirit Award in 2003.
Today the city describes the shed as a restored onion-industry loading dock with a historical marker at the west entrance. It hosts monthly market days and community events, and you can reserve it for other uses by calling 972-782-6151. It was built to gather a town's harvest in one spot, and it still gathers the town.
Old Time Saturday Showed the Pattern
The Oct. 3 schedule is the clearest example. The Audie Murphy Hero Run 5K started at The Onion Shed at 8 a.m., with runners and teams heading out along the Chaparral Trail. The market and Education Row opened around the shed and the square at the same hour. The city held the Old Time Saturday Car Show from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the First Baptist Church parking lot at 124 S. Washington St. At 8:15 a.m., organizers recognized the Silver Centennial Citizen, an adult age 65 or older who lives, works or is active in Farmersville. That honoree also gets a special place in the Old Time Saturday parade.
So the race, the market and the opening ceremony all started within a block of the shed in the first fifteen minutes. The car show was the only piece set up elsewhere, and it was still downtown. Everything that happens between now and Christmas follows that same layout.
What's Left on the Shed's Fall Calendar
From today, Oct. 4, here's what remains through mid-December, in order:
- Saturday, Oct. 10, 6:30 to 9 p.m.: Mutts and Music at the Onion Shed. This is the fifth annual fundraiser. The Clay Potter Band plays, and auction proceeds go to Hillcrest Animal Rescue and Home Sweet Home.
- Thursday, Oct. 15, 6 p.m.: Red Brick Car Nite. The Chamber lists it but doesn't give a location, so check with the Chamber before you head out.
- Friday, Oct. 30, 6 to 8 p.m.: Scare on the Square in Historic Downtown Farmersville. It's a costume and trick-or-treat night. The Chamber calls it "one of Farmersville's favorite family traditions." Booth sign-ups go through Christi Houston at the Chamber, 972-782-6533.
- Saturday, Nov. 7, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.: Farmersville Market returns to the Historic Onion Shed on its regular first-Saturday schedule.
- Thursday, Nov. 19, 6 p.m.: Red Brick Car Nite again, with no location listed.
- Saturday, Dec. 5, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.: Farmersville Holiday Market at the Historic Onion Shed.
- Saturday, Dec. 12: Farmersville Christmas Parade downtown at 6 p.m. The Rudolph Run is that morning.
The Chamber describes the market as local vendors selling handmade and artisan goods and fresh local produce, along with food and family activities. Vendors can apply through an online form linked from the listing. There's one address quirk. The Chamber's market listings put the shed at 154 S. Main St., but the city's facility page says 151 South Main. Either number gets you to the same loading dock with the historical marker on the west side.
The market's other skipped month is January, and the Chamber doesn't say why. In the shed's working years, January was when the planting crews came to town.
The Blocks Around the Shed
Event nights fill up McKinney Street and South Main, and the shops and restaurants there make a market morning into a full afternoon. Here's what the Farmersville Chamber lists within a short walk. The directory pages aren't dated, so call ahead if you're planning around a particular stop.
Coffee and food
- Cup & Canter, 206 McKinney St. Its own website currently takes online orders.
- Burro-itos, 100 McKinney St., and Jalapenos of Farmersville, 117 McKinney St.
- Wood And Time Smokehouse, 101 Candy St., Ste. A.
- The Rusty Pistons, 124 McKinney St. The Chamber lists it as a restaurant, bar and live-music venue, which makes it an easy next stop after an evening event at the shed.
Shops
- 1850 Mercantile, 135 S. Main St., and Main Street Antiques & More, 103 S. Main St.
- Indulgence Soapery Boutique, 111 McKinney St.; The Hay Loft, 120 McKinney St.; and Market Affair, 101-B Candy St.
- True Roots Boutique, 132 McKinney St.
True Roots is the newest storefront on that list. Last December, the Farmersville Times reported that sisters Jenger McTee and Jennifer Fetty had opened their downtown McT-Shirts custom-apparel and True Roots Boutique shop that fall. It joined a downtown that runs on a monthly market crowd, so a new shop there opens into foot traffic the shed brings in on a set schedule.
If You're Coming From Elsewhere in Eastern Collin County
Some of Farmersville's neighbors have fall events on the same weeks. Lavon's City Council minutes list a Fall Festival & Neighborhood Night Out for Thursday, Oct. 15, from 6 to 8 p.m. The city names City Hall Park as the home of its Fall Festival. That's the same evening as the October Red Brick Car Nite. Wylie's free Boo on Ballard trick-or-treat event runs Thursday, Oct. 29, from 6 to 8 p.m. in Historic Downtown Wylie and Olde City Park, 112 S. Ballard Ave. That's one night before Scare on the Square, so families who want both can do Wylie on Thursday and Farmersville's square on Friday.
Planning ahead, Princeton Town Center, the 66-acre retail project at Beauchamp Boulevard and U.S. 380, broke ground on its Kroger Marketplace on July 15. Stores there aren't expected to open until about December 2027. Until then, the Farmersville Holiday Market on Dec. 5 sits on the shed's ninety-year-old dock.
If the Onion Shed is already part of your Saturdays and you've wondered what homes within walking distance of downtown Farmersville are like, or how eastern Collin County properties are moving this fall, Rosie Carrasco Cox is glad to talk it through with you in English or Spanish. Schedule a free consultation, and maybe we'll catch you at the Holiday Market.
