Hell’s Kitchen Flea Market takes over for Chelsea’s

By Brooke Edwards

“How much is this?” a woman asked, as she plucked a cream and silver antique coffeepot from the collection of vintage toys and kitschy glassware in front of her.

“Twenty-five dollars,” Scott Groves replied, barely glancing at the item in her hand.

“Will you take $20?” the woman shot back with a hint of a smile.

“Sure,” Groves shrugged, as he walked over to collect his payment. It was an easy exchange for the flea market veteran.

Groves was one of 100 or so vendors lining 39th St. Sunday afternoon at the Hell’s Kitchen Flea Market.

“I’ve been doing this for 14 years,” Groves said. But 12 of those years were not in Hell’s Kitchen. They were a mile away, at the historic Chelsea Flea Market.

Famous for its fashionable antiques and celebrity clientele, the Chelsea Market was actually once several markets along 24th and 25th streets, between Fifth and Sixth avenues. Collectively, these lots came to be known as The Annex Antique Fair and Flea Markets, and they were a mainstay of Chelsea culture for nearly 30 years.

“Andy Warhol used to actually walk up to me and ask, ‘Do you want a copy of my magazine?’” reminisced antique suitcase vendor Ron Fennick, about his years at the Chelsea Market.

Fennick and his twin brother, Rob, say celebrity clients were common there. They dropped names such as Molly Ringwald and Catherine Deneuve. A highlight was when they saw one of their antique Louis Vuitton suitcases behind Kate Winslet in Vogue magazine. The Fennick brothers’ memories from the Chelsea Flea Market live up to its reputation.

But one by one, the old Chelsea lots began to be absorbed by construction projects. When the largest lot on the corner of 25th St. and Sixth Ave. was sold to make way for condos in August 2005, The Annex vendors had a choice: Fight for space in the single-remaining lot or move on. Most of them chose the latter, and moved to Hell’s Kitchen.

Though the Hell’s Kitchen Market has only been around since 2003, long-time Annex shopper Stewart Bloom pointed out, “This place has a lot of history.” In the 1930s, one of the largest pushcart markets in the city was located on the same site.

Bloom has been coming to the Annex, old and new, nearly every weekend for years. The new location is actually closer to his apartment, on the corner of 43rd St. and 10th Ave.

On Sunday Bloom said, “This has been the most vendors we’ve seen in quite a few months.” While the comfortable, early fall weather was an obvious factor, Bloom also attributes the market’s growth to the transformation of Hell’s Kitchen’s reputation.

“When I told people where I lived,” Bloom said, “they used to say, ‘You live where?’ Now they say, ‘You live there?’”

Still, Bloom said it is not what the old Chelsea market was. “I think people just don’t venture over this far west. They still like that Midtown idea.”

Wondering among the Buddha statues, fur coats and endless rows of antique jewelry was one East-Sider who did venture west. Enid Johnstone was visiting the market for the first time with her husband, Arno, and their 4-year-old son, Pascal. The family came looking for artwork.

“We just moved here,” Johnstone said, “so there’s not much in the apartment.” She laughed as Pascal ran up to a large oil painting, eagerly pointing out what he liked. Johnstone said she was happy with what she was finding at the market, though she noticed, “It’s not very busy.”

Vendor Mike Lincoln was also there for the first time with his Conservation Photography, and he also found the market a bit on the slow side. He began setting up his booth at 7 a.m. and planned to stay until 5 that night, despite not having sold anything yet.

When asked if he’d come back, he said, “We’ll see. If someone buys a couple of pictures, I definitely will. But with these markets, you can’t just go to one and if you don’t sell, not come back. You never know how it will be the next time.”

Past a ceramic black lab and dried blowfish, and just before the $25 Remington typewriter and bearskin rug with head intact, was Vintage Optical owner Kirby Harris.

Harris could sum up his feelings about the market’s move to Hell’s Kitchen in one word: “Sad.”

For a length of time he would only describe as “years,” Harris ran his business from the Chelsea market. “It was an old habit to go there,” he says. “It was like home.”

Since moving, Harris says sales of his vintage and new frames have dropped.

“It’s a little slower here because we’re not on the avenue,” he said. Also, the Hell’s Kitchen market seems to have a younger clientele, which typically means not as much money to spend.

Just then, WNYC reporter Kathleen Horan tried on a pair of black, horn-rimmed sunglasses.

“Those are $25,” Harris replied. “They are 1960s frames with brand-new lenses.”

Horan asked Harris to hold them while she went to an ATM. He agreed, and continued on a more positive note.

“This market is improving,” he said. “We’re getting busier.”

But vendor Bob Pannullo says he’s been around too long for that type of optimism.

When he heard about the move, Pannullo said, “I knew it was bad.” He said, “It’s the beginning of the end for flea markets in New York City.”

Pannullo says he’s had to completely change what he sells to adjust to the new market.

“I used to sell furniture,” he said. But with the increasingly young and touristy clientele at the Hell’s Kitchen Market, that doesn’t work, he says. “Now I sell watches, jewelry, violins…anything they can carry with them. My artwork—I don’t even bring it anymore.”

When asked if his collection has a name, like the nearby esoteric “Store Without Walls,” Pannullo laughed. “You know what I call it? ‘Junk Junk.’” But he said, “You never know what’ll sell. I’m ready to throw something in the garbage and I forget, and then it sells.”

Still, he said, business is slow. “It just seems no matter what, it doesn’t seem to click.”

Fearing the change, Pannullo said a few of his fellow vendors from the Chelsea Market chose to stay at the last remaining lot, on the north side of 25th St., between Fifth and Sixth avenues.

“There’s still some old-timers down there,” Pannullo said, his face lighting up a bit as he remembered old friends. “Like Old Joe. Joe Burns won’t come up here. It’s too far west.”

Sure enough, that same afternoon at what remains of the Chelsea Market, Old Joe Burns was still at it. He wasn’t hard to find. After this reporter dropped his name to one of the vendors, the man called out, “J.B.!” and pointed to a gray-haired man with a kind face in the back corner of the lot.

Burns said he has been working at the Chelsea Flea Market for “maybe 15 years,” though he used to work down the street at the dollar lot (there was a $1 admission fee).

He says his instinct told him to stick with the Chelsea lot rather than follow the hordes to Hell’s Kitchen. And, he says, “We made it. Business is steady. Everyday seems to be good for me. Nothing’s changed.”

Proving his point, Burns turned to sell a hand-woven rug for $100, and threw in a vase for good measure. Another satisfied customer.