The Centre Market complex consists of two 19th-century market houses — the original 1853 structure and an 1890 addition — that together form the social heart of downtown Wheeling. The interior is lined with vendors selling produce, baked goods, local crafts, and food, and the surrounding streets have an honest working feel that distinguishes it from more gentrified market districts. On weekends the outdoor area fills with additional stalls and occasional live music.
The surrounding Centre Market Historic District preserves an unusually complete collection of Victorian commercial architecture from Wheeling's industrial prime. Walking a few blocks in any direction from the market takes you past iron-fronted storefronts, ornate brick warehouses, and an occasional grand civic building. It is one of the more intact 19th-century streetscapes in the mid-Atlantic region, and it survives largely because Wheeling's economic decline came early enough to prevent the urban renewal that razed so much elsewhere.