Lafayette Avenue is the only street in Soulard that crosses the highway without a jarring sense of discontinuity. On it, one arrives at the pulsating heart of the Soulard neighborhood: the Soulard Farmer's Market.

Soulard Market in its present form was constructed in 1928, to plans by Albert Osburg (also noted for designing Homer G. Phillips Hospital on the north side.) But the land has been a marketplace since the 1840s. The market bustles daily with fruit, vegetable and meat sellers, and throngs of shoppers buying from them.

Behind the market stands the former Welsh Baby Carriage Factory, an F-shaped building dating from the late 1880s and originally built for the Hamilton Brown Shoe Company. In more recent years it was used as a haunted house and for storage. After a stint of vacancy, it was converted in 2005 to the Soulard Market Apartments.

9th Street comes to an ignomious end at I-55; the former proximity of St. Vincent de Paul Church can be seen here.