SoWa Market: Rebirth of Boston’s South End

From Monday to Saturday, the parking lot at 540 Harrison Ave. in the South End is no different from any other lot in Boston. Rows of cars rest idle, encircled by low-lying historic brick buildings.

But on Sunday, everything changes. Cars are replaced by a village of white tents, tables and shelves filled with crafts and hordes of eager shoppers. Fresh lilies, handmade blown-glass ornaments and duck-shaped wicker tables are just some of the different things customers can purchase.

The cause of this transformation is the SoWa Open Market, where every Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. May through October, local artisans and craftspeople convene to sell their creations to customers from Boston and beyond.

The market will wrap up its sixth season on Oct. 25 with a special ‘Market of the Living Dead,’ featuring costume contests and free treats. This event will cap off the market’s most expansive season yet.

Prior to this season, the market was solely dedicated to crafts. This spring, it expanded to include antiques, which are sold in a high-ceilinged brick building that once housed Boston’s trolleys. The Food and Produce Market at 500 Harrison Ave. also began this season, as did the Imports Market at 450/460 Harrison Ave., which features arts and crafts from all over the globe.

‘You’d be pressed to find another market that sells the items that are being sold at the SoWa Open market,’ Marc LaCasse, a lawyer who has lived in the South End for seven years, said. ‘They claim, and they rightly do so, to be the only open market in the city that sells the combination of the things that are sold.’

TRANSFORMING THE SOUTH END

SoWa stands for ‘South of Washington Street,’ an homage to New York’s bohemian-chic SoHo (South of Houston) district. SoWa showcases the South End’s burgeoning reputation as a hip neighborhood, home to yuppies, artists and students alike. But the neighborhood surrounding the SoWa Open Market was not always so genteel. The streets around the market are now lined with yoga studios, pet spas and French bistros, but as recently as 15 years ago, abandoned lots and dingy buildings took the space.

‘Washington Street and Harrison Avenue were just ‘do not go there’ zones. It was horrible,’ LaCasse said. ‘There were no restaurants, there were no stores, no residential buildings.’

Bruce Wescott, a postmaster from Scituate and long-time antique dealer, who began selling his wares at the market this June, said he was shocked by the transformation. When he used to come into the city as recently as 13 years ago, the South End buildings were entirely different.

‘I think they sand-blasted every building here,’ Wescott said of the new cleanliness. Now, the South End features modern, clean buildings with gardens on the roofs, he said.

LaCasse said the South End started to change in 1997 and began to truly revitalize in 1999 and 2000. Although the neighborhood still has its share of problems, such as poverty and projects, its reputation continues to improve ‘-‘- thanks, in large part, to projects such as the SoWa Open Market.

‘It serves to cross-promote the entire neighborhood,’ LaCasse said. He explained that Chris Masci, the market’s founder, and his associates use clever, retro-vintage promotional materials to lure a visitors who would never otherwise come to the South End. And once they get there, they spend money in places besides the market.

Visitors can expect to find specialty vendors each week in addition to the regulars. Boston Handmade, an organization of local craftspeople and artists, was featured at the market on June 14th, and BerkshireMade, a similar western Massachusetts-based group was featured on Sept. 13th.

On Oct. 25th, the last day the market will be open this year, SoWa organizers have arranged for New York based group of artists and designers called NewNew to have 15 tables at the market. NewNew vendors have been featured at SoWa several times in the past year with the tag line ‘Gotham to Beantown.’

BETTER THAN EBAY

After exploring the crafts, visitors can wander into the cavernous ex-trolley barn to browse through Boston’s relics, where, according to antiques dealer Sandie Fowler, they can have an experience far beyond staying at home and shopping on Ebay.

‘What pictures [on the Internet] can’t get is richness and depth,’ Fowler, who offers shoppers the chance to take home a slice of fin-de-siecle European treasures, said. For 20 years, Fowler has been dealing antique tiles, most of which were created between 1880 and 1920 to decorate European buildings.

Wescott, who has been dealing antiques since he left the military in 1971, agreed with Fowler about the advantages of the real world SoWa market. ‘There’s nothing like the personal touch. You can’t feel and touch on Ebay,’ Wescott said as he lovingly rolled a silver platter in old newspaper and pushed it into a box. He gestured to the Oriental runner on the floor, saying that many of his visitors that day had asked to touch the rug. Wescott sells expensive furniture, silver platters and crystal glasses, but he also has a steadfast following among college students because of his $2 bags of jewelry.

‘[College students] come and bring their friends,’ Wescott said, laying out several bags of white and blue vintage bead necklaces.

Despite the torrential rain and wet snow that the Nor’easter had dumped on Boston last week, Wescott said he saw about 30 people come through the antiques market, which was enough to make a day’s pay.

But people don’t only come from Boston proper to visit SoWa. ‘I was amazed by the number of people from all over Massachusetts who were discovering this cool neighborhood from 30 miles away, as opposed to from Brookline,’ LaCasse said. ‘[The market] has drawn in a whole new kind of visitor to the neighborhood, and that’s a great thing.’