The origins of the market started in 1880, when Arthur Fremont Gilmore and his partner, who had come from Illinois, bought two dairy farms in the Los Angeles area. Gilmore bought what is now called The Original Farmers Market, and his partner bought the land plot nowadays known as the grove. Ten years later the partners decided to split their holdings and Gilmore took control of the large 256-acre ranch, its dairy herd, and farmhands at what is now the world-famous Original Farmers Market and Grove. The market started when a dozen nearby farmers began to park their trucks on a field to sell fresh produce to local residents. The cost to rent the space was fifty cents per day.