Montgomery's Court Square, then known as the Artesian Basin, served as the city's main auction block for enslaved people, land, and livestock throughout the mid-19th century. Captives were held in nearby slave depots along Market Street (now Dexter Avenue) and Commerce Street — Montgomery had as many slave depots as hotels and banks by 1859 — before being marched to the square for sale. Historical markers placed around Court Square Fountain now document this history alongside the square's later role in the Civil Rights Movement, just steps from where Rosa Parks boarded her bus in 1955.