For years, if you wanted the Kaufman County Farmers Market, you went to the square. Vendors set up in a loop right there among the storefronts, tents forming what longtime seller Matthew Corbett has described as a donut shape, sometimes with even more vendors crowded into the middle. It worked, mostly, but it also meant elbow-to-elbow foot traffic on a patch of pavement never designed to hold a full market and everything else downtown does on a Saturday morning.
That market does not set up on the square anymore. In 2025, it moved about a mile and a quarter to the Kaufman County Poor Farm at 3948 S. Houston Street, and this year the shift has settled into something that looks less like a relocation and more like a permanent split. The square kept the parades, the storefronts, and now a working art studio with a genuine Dallas pedigree. The market got its own ground, with room to grow into something the old tent circle never could.
If you live here, that split is worth understanding, because it changes how you plan a Saturday and where you look for what's new.
Why the Market Actually Left
The public explanation was practical. Corbett, who started vending in 2019, said the packed layout on the square made it hard for shoppers to see everything on offer. The farm at 3948 S. Houston has a concrete path circling the property, and vendors who made the move said it gave the market room to breathe and room to expand.
There was also history sitting under the new spot that most people driving past never clock. The Kaufman County Poor Farm dates to 1881, when the county purchased more than 400 acres just over a mile from the courthouse square to house indigent residents, a state mandate that followed a Reconstruction-era amendment to the Texas Constitution. It is believed to be the only county poor farm site in the country still owned by the county that established it. That history is part of why the market's move reads less like an eviction and more like an upgrade. The farm was already a place worth visiting. Now it has a reason to visit on a Saturday morning.
The county has kept building on that. In May 2026, the Poor Farm hosted the grand opening of a new Pollinator Garden alongside a regular farmers market day, giving the site a second draw beyond produce and jam. When the market relocated, about 20 vendors set up along those paths on opening day, selling homemade jams, hot sauce, tamales, and produce. The current season ran on the same second-and-fourth-Saturday schedule from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., with the spring run closing out on June 27, 2026, ahead of a summer break and a planned fall relaunch. Organizers have said the exact fall dates get announced closer to the season, so anyone planning around it should check the market's Facebook page before setting a calendar reminder.
What Moved Into the Space It Left
Here is the part that makes the split feel less like a loss and more like specialization. While the market was finding its new home, the square was quietly picking up a different kind of anchor.
Tony Collins Art, a custom lighting and metalwork studio that built the rotating structure holding Dallas's iconic ExxonMobil Pegasus sign at the Omni Dallas Hotel, relocated its headquarters from the Cedars neighborhood in Dallas to 112 S. Jackson Street on the Kaufman square. The building itself has its own layered history. It once served as Kaufman's City Hall, its fire station, and its senior center, and it was headed for demolition into a parking lot before Tony and Holly Collins asked the city what it planned to do with it.
The company committed to restoring the building's original historic facade and to installing a piece of custom public art on the square as part of the deal. Kaufman Fire Chief Ronnie Davis reportedly let the Collins team scan historic photos of the department dating back to 1926, with plans to display them inside. Mayor Jeff Jordan said at the time:
"It's great to see this historic building being preserved, restored and put to good use once again."
The renovation targeted a mid-2024 completion, and current business directories list Tony Collins Art as an active Kaufman address today, meaning the studio that once needed an appointment to visit in Dallas now operates out of a building right on the square where the old farmers market tents used to stand.
That is not a coincidence of timing so much as a pattern. The Kaufman Economic Development Corporation now counts more than 35 businesses calling downtown home, a number that has grown as the square has shifted from a once-a-month market venue toward a district built around permanent storefronts, a working art studio, and events big enough to fill the whole space without needing a market layout to share it with.
The Fall Calendar, If You're Marking One
With the market off the square, the square itself gets used differently. The two headline events left on it this fall show what that space is actually for now:
- October 17, 2026 — Kaufman Harvest Fest. The parade kicks off at 9 a.m. with typically more than 100 entries, followed by a full day of festivities on the Downtown Square through 5 p.m., including a Kids Zone, food trucks, live music, and a vendor market, with many Downtown Merchants staying open through the event.
- Later this year — Christmas on the Square. The lighted parade runs down S. Washington Street, turns onto W. Grove Street, and ends at Shannon Park, followed by a tree lighting and photos with Santa at City Hall. The day also includes a Kids Zone, food trucks, live music, and a holiday vendor market, with downtown merchants participating.
- Fall market relaunch — the Kaufman County Farmers Market returns to the Poor Farm after its summer break, on the same second-and-fourth-Saturday pattern it ran this spring, with exact dates to be announced on the market's Facebook page.
None of these need the square to double as a produce aisle anymore. The parade route, the Kids Zone, the vendor tents for the holiday market, all of it fits because the everyday farmers market traffic moved somewhere with its own room to grow.
Where to Eat While You're There
The square still does double duty as Kaufman's dining strip, and a few spots are worth building a Saturday around. My Love's Diner, tucked near the square, serves the kind of classic American comfort food that makes it a return trip rather than a one-off. Jesse's Fajitas n Ritas on West Mulberry Street has built a following on fajitas and margaritas with a family-first atmosphere. For something quieter, Especially For You Tea Room sits inside the 1908 Historic First National Bank Building, known for old-fashioned service and a lemonade tea that regulars ask for by name. Roma's Italian Restaurant on Kings Fort Parkway rounds out the options if you want pasta after a morning at the Poor Farm.
What the Split Actually Means
The easy read on all this is that Kaufman's downtown got smaller when the market left. The more accurate read is that it got specific. The square stopped trying to be a market square and a parade route and a storefront district all in the same 200 square feet, and instead let each piece find its own ground. The Poor Farm, a site with more history than most people driving past it realize, got a market with room to actually expand. The square got a working art studio with a Dallas résumé, a dining lineup anchored in century-old buildings, and two headline events that fill the space without a single vendor tent in the way.
That is not a downtown that lost something. It is a downtown that finally figured out what each part of it is for.
If you already call Kaufman home, keep an eye on the market's Facebook page for the fall relaunch dates, and pencil in October 17 for Harvest Fest. If you are still weighing whether this county fits the next chapter of your life, or you are already here and curious what your home is worth in today's market, The Cole Home Team knows this square, this farm, and this county well enough to walk you through both. Request a free home valuation whenever you're ready, no pressure, just neighbors who happen to sell houses.
