Celebrating South Street

When the Orlons scored a hit single in 1963 with "South Street," their lyric about being the place where hippies meet was prescient.

The bohemians who populated the block and created the first South Street Renaissance wouldn't arrive for a few years. Certainly, no one could foresee that in 2010 those same hippie-entrepreneurs would hold a South Street Renaissance 40th Reunion this weekend with historical landmark tours, food tastings, and parties - and invite the rest of the city.

"We're having this event because 40 years ago, a group of people created an incredible neighborhood in an area condemned by the city for a highway," says Joel Spivak, a South Street business owner. "We brought Philadelphia into the 20th century."

By 1970, Isaiah and Julia Zagar already had built their Eye's Gallery; they came to South Street in 1968 after Peace Corps service in Peru. "That left Isaiah and I the next 40-plus years to work on South Street, have two children, make mosaic murals, and open the Magic Garden," says Julia Zagar, matron of the famed family.

In 1970, the Snydermans, Rick and Ruth, opened their gallery - one that Spivak helped them construct, after he had assisted them in creating the communal cafe the Crooked Mirror but long before opening his kitsch Rocketships and Accessories. Gerry Givnish opened the Painted Bride as an arts center in 1969 before eventually moving to Old City. After leaving New York City the year previous, Tom Bissinger, the artistic director of the Theater of the Living Arts, was in full swing with a repertory company that included Danny DeVito and Judd Hirsch.

"The theater was pivotal to the Renaissance because it was the focal point of the Save South Street effort as it was a popular destination," says Bill Curry, a Miami journalist then en route to The Inquirer. (Curry eventually co-owned Paper Moon's smoke shop and Copabanana.)

"The bohemian community opened stores and cafes around TLA's success. The critical mass allowed them to stop the Crosstown Expressway," says Curry, who with Spivak became the block's historians.

The expressway was responsible for South Street's becoming an alternative-lifestyle mecca when then-city planner Edmund Bacon (father of actor Kevin) envisioned it going where South Street sits. That news sent the once-profitable Jewish immigrant sellers' strip, renowned since the turn of the century, into a depression.

Businesses closed throughout the late '60s. Property values went into a tailspin. South Street became a slum until smart bohemians took over, bought into the chaos, and opened now-famous locations along the block.

"As a final symbolic gesture, artists planted decorative flowering pear trees just before the city was going to build ramps to connect the projected Crosstown Expressway to I-95 in October 1970," says Curry.

The protest worked.

The city called off the expressway, and South Street thrived.

Eateries like Jim's Steaks, South Street Souvlaki, and Bridget Foy's opened and have lasted until the present with original owners. JC Dobbs and TLA became live-music havens, though the former closed and changed into Pontiac Grille, only to be rechristened Dobbs when new owners took over.

"You can't re-create JC Dobbs with a new bar or what that bar was like then or the 'family' of people who worked and hung there daily," says George Manney, whose Last Minute Jam Band was a Dobbs mainstay. "All you can do is show off the truly emotional journey." That's why Manney, now a documentary filmmaker, made Meet Me on South Street: The JC Dobbs Story, which will debut during this weekend's festivities.

While much of Manney's film documents the evolution of South Street's fertile music and art subculture from the '70s through the late '90s, it avoids talking about the block's headaches of the last decade, including flash mobs, and the lengthy reconstruction and streetscape fiasco that broke up pavement and led to more than a few business closings.

In a manner befitting the first renaissance, those headaches have made South Street stronger. The block's real estate agents have cut rents and opened themselves up to pop-up shops and artist-run storefront galleries and such, as happened in the '60s and '70s. Old friends such as Stephen Starr (who ran hot spots Starz and Ripley's in that area) returned to open Pizzeria Stella.

The South Street Renaissance 40th Reunion celebrates the storied block's past and future with events at the Magic Garden, Copa, and even at the Painted Bride's Old City location for a finale concert. "Facebook has been crucial in whipping our archives into shape and getting hold of old friends," Curry says with a laugh.

The architects of the 40th reunion also opened themselves up to splinter groups such as the punks of the '80s who are having a 30th reunion. "We felt it was important to celebrate the birth of the street as well as its dirty teenage years," says WXPN DJ Robert Drake, who will cohost a barhopping dance party.

"It was a glorious time, really, full of fun, life, creativity," says Susan Lunenfeld, a onetime South Street dress-shop owner and TLA costume designer who now makes Western show clothing for women. "We're having the reunion to celebrate that.

"The future? We morphed and changed it one time, so why not again?"

Tickets: $100 for an all-event all-access pass. $60 for Friday's gala. $15 for Sunday's Painted Bride event. More individual event prices and information: 215-514-2791, www.

southstreetrenaissance.com.

Friday

Opening Gala Schmooze Reception. Dinner and screening of Jeremiah Zagar's "In a Dream" starts at 5 p.m. Friday at the Zagar family Magic Gardens, 1020 South St.

Saturday

Walking tour "From Head House to Levi's." With Joel Spivak. Starts at 2 p.m. Saturday at Head House Square, Second and Lombard Streets.

"Meet Me on South Street." Screening of George Manney's documentary "Meet Me on South Street: The Story of JC Dobbs," plus other related documentaries. 4 to 10 p.m. on Saturday upstairs at Copabanana, 344 South St.

Sunday

Live music/ theater event and lecture. With emcee Gerry Givnish, Tom Bissinger's Playback Theatre, Ellen Forman, Charles Cohen and Jeff Cain, Philadelphia Dance Projects, Manfred Fischbeck's Group Motion, and more, starts at 2 p.m. Sunday, Painted Bride Art Center, 230 Vine St.

Running of the Punks. Sunday at 8 p.m. at Tattooed Mom, 530 South St. (free), continuing with DJs Bobby Startup, Robert Drake, and Psydde Delicious at Fluid, 613 S. Fourth St. Tickets: $5. Information: 215-629-3686, www.fluidnightclub.com.

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