Baltimore's first fish market stood near this site as early as 1773. The first market building, Centre Market, was authorized by act of the state legislature in 1784 and was also known as Marsh Market because it was built on Thomas Harrison's marsh. Throughout the nineteenth century, merchants sold dry goods, horses, and fresh fruits and vegetables here, and slave auctions were also held here. In 1851, what was perhaps America's finest market-type assembly hall was built here between Baltimore and Water Streets to house the Maryland Institute. Presidents Pierce and Fillmore were nominated at national political conventions held here, and President Lincoln delivered his Liberty Speech here on April 18, 1864, three years after the Pratt Street Riots. The Maryland Institute was destroyed in the Great Baltimore Fire of 1904, and the marketplace was expanded in the rebuilding that followed. Built in 1907, the current structure served as Baltimore's wholesale Fish Market and was one of three market buildings erected in a row, all designed by architects Otto Simonson and Theodore Wells Pietsch, with the others housing Baltimore's retail and wholesale produce markets. The Fish Market thrived for almost a century before closing in 1984, when the Maryland Wholesale Seafood Center opened in Jessup, Maryland. In 1997, the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore granted the Baltimore Children's Museum a 100-year lease on the Fish Market to establish Port Discovery, one of the nation's largest children's museums.