The "1913" in this market's name isn't a marketing flourish; it's the actual year the market opened. In 1913, when the Honam rail line's Mokpo–Songjeong-ri section opened, a market sprang up around the new station under the name "Daily Songjeong Station-Front Market." Wherever a railway went, people and goods followed, and this station-front market grew naturally out of that traffic. The market ran under various names for over a century before it took on its current identity fairly recently. When KTX high-speed rail opened at Gwangju Songjeong Station in 2015, out-of-town visitor numbers jumped. The following year, in 2016, a redevelopment project backed by a credit card company renamed it "1913 Songjeong Station Market" — playing up the market's century-old pedigree — and modernized it into its current, tidied-up form.
Even while keeping its century-old name on the sign, the market hasn't stayed frozen in the past. With government support, young merchants moved into empty storefronts, so shops carrying the nostalgia of the 1970s-'80s generation now sit shoulder to shoulder with newer businesses run by younger entrepreneurs. Because it's a short walk from Gwangju Songjeong Station, where the KTX pulls in, this is a natural stop to fill spare time — whether you're just arriving in the city or killing the last hour before your train leaves.