It was also known as Marketplace Square, as from the 1730s through the 1950s it served as a center of commerce and was home to four successive market houses. Prior to Union General Sherman's arrival in December 1864, it was also the site of a slave market with some indications of slaves being held under the northwest corner of the square. A large brick building was built in the 1850s to house the market, facing south on Barnard St. In 1954 the city signed a 50-year lease with the Savannah Merchants Cooperative Parking Association, allowing the association to raze the existing structure and construct a parking garage to serve the City Market retail project. Anger over the demolition of the market house helped spur the historic preservation movement in Savannah. The outer structure of this city market building influenced the design of the Kroger grocery store on Gwinnett St and the Publix grocery store in the Twelve Oaks shopping center on Abercorn Street.