Shopping foray turns into a nostalgia trip

PHILADELPHIA Blacked-out and locked doors at 801 Market St. were opened once again Saturday, allowing hundreds of people to step onto the marble floor of the building that once housed Strawbridge & Clothier, part of whose first floor now hosts the "Franklin Flea" pop-up flea market.

Many of the visitors once worked or shopped in the building and were drawn back by nostalgia.

As 40 vendors hawked their wares - vintage posters, furniture, artwork, clothing - people browsed or began their holiday shopping.

"Such a great, diverse group, all ages, and people from all walks of life of Philly," said Mark Vevle, who organized the flea market. "It was great."

Vevle ran the Brooklyn Flea Market's Northern Liberties offshoot, Brooklyn Flea Philly, until its closure Oct. 27 after a lukewarm reception from Philadelphians evidently irked by the New York name.

If all goes well, Vevle hopes to continue the market in Philadelphia after this season, opening in an outdoor location next spring.

At 801 Market, Vevle said, he had many people "thanking me for bringing this space back to life, a lot of employees of the previous Strawbridge's that hadn't been in for many years. . . . It felt like one big reunion with them."

Such as Samuel Yeck, who had been on his way to Reading Terminal Market when he walked past the building where he worked from 1959 through 1996.

"I started to walk by, and I saw the doors open," said Yeck, 73, who worked in the store's delivery department. "I thought it was a good chance to see the piggy."

He was not the only one who pulled back the dividing curtains to see the large bronze statue of the boar, once a popular rendezvous point.

Person after person pulled back the curtain and pulled out cellphones seeking to take a photo of the statue. A security officer, however, kept them from getting close enough to rub the creature's snout for good luck, once a tradition among Strawbridge's shoppers and employees.

The security guard, Alexander Philmore, 56, said he could relate to the nostalgia. He had worked in various departments at the store.

"I walked the whole building. I walked inside, reminiscing," said Philmore, who arrived at 7 a.m. and began reliving the memories of his 15 years as a store employee. "I used to come down here all the time, I knew it like the back of my hand."

Betsy Horen knew she had to visit when she heard that the space would be open Saturday. Horen, 68, spent 26 years traveling the globe as a buyer for the department store, seeking out handbags and small leather goods.

"That was my department. The escalator right here, fine jewelry over there. Cosmetics," Horen said, excitedly pointing to vendors' tables and booths, describing the departments that had stood there years before. "I look at it and it's not that bright because we used to have the displays, but it's still that feeling of this place and what it was."

The Strawbridge store became a Macy's, before shutting for good in 2006.

The flea market will be open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. every Saturday until Christmas, and from noon to 7 p.m. Dec. 20.

"Everybody's been coming here all day," Philmore said of the spot from where the boar could be seen. "It's like a homecoming."