Save Eastern Market

Howdy, all -- just a quick note that Canales Quality Meats, Market Poultry and Calomiris Fruits & Vegetables will all be open today and tomorrow under the Market shed for your pre-Fourth needs!

Hey everyone -- just a quick reminder that the annual Capitol Hill Fourth of July parade will take place tomorrow, and will run from 8th and I Streets north to the Market and just beyond. The U.S. Marine Corps band will lead the parade (it's the same drum and bugle corps that performs at the Marine Parades inside the Barracks every Friday night!), and the organizers wanted to make sure to include the Market in this year's route -- so show up along the route, or outside the Market, and enjoy a bit of the flavor of the Hill this Independence Day!

Based on a tip from one of our readers, I wandered over to the Market this morning -- and sure enough, workmen are out right now building the wood frame for the foundation! I assume this means that we're a mere few days away from the cement pour, just in time for the delivery of the temporary building that's supposed to happen next weekend. Awesome!

The scene this morning at the East Hall site:

We've heard this Saturday is the day the building will be delivered... fingers crossed!

There's been a little bit of movement over at the East Hall site over the past few days -- on Thursday and Friday, the workers finished pouring the cement foundation, while the frame around the foundation was removed yesterday and today in preparation for the building's arrival this week! According to Gary Peterson, the building is scheduled to show up this Thursday, and will be fully erected by a week from today. In addition, most all the equipment for the merchants has been delivered and is awaiting installation in the East Hall, meaning that plans are afoot for a “soft opening” sometime around the first day of August. Not all the merchants will be ready to open in the new building by that date, though -- it looks like August 14th is the current target date to be back at 100% operations, including the Market Lunch (bluebucks and bricks!).

On another exciting note, the folks at the Capitol Hill Community Foundation have worked hard to start up the Eastern Market Music Series, a new weekly event that'll bring two groups of musicians to the space in front of Port City Java every Sunday through the end of September. This coming Sunday, July 22nd, Rick Franklin and Mike Baytop will start things off with their Piedmont-style blues and ragtime music at 10:30 AM, and will be followed by the vintage blues of The Resonators at 1:00 PM. The full schedule is available at the CHCF website, and we're going to add all the performers onto the calendar!

Eastern Market has been named a Travelocity “Local Secret, Big Find”, sharing the moniker with the likes of Politics and Prose and the Tune Inn. Cool!

It appears that the folks at Capitol Hill Chorale are going to be the ones responsible for a lot of the physical work that's going into the Eastern Market Music Series (starting this Sunday!) -- they're asking for volunteers to assist with setup, breakdown, and that sort of thing. If you're available to help, drop a note to Parker (parkerj100@aol.com); for right now, they're specifically looking for help this coming Sunday, July 22nd.

Unfortunately, we just got word that Canales Quality Meats won't be at the Market today or this weekend -- their refrigerated truck has been in for repairs this entire week and won't be ready in time to set up shop this weekend. They promise to be back next weekend, though!

Hooray!

This seems to be moving along nicely!

There's an EMCAC meeting tonight at the Old Naval Hospital; it's at 7 PM (I think!). The agenda includes status updates on the temporary building (or what's now being called the East Hall by those in the know), status updates on the restoration of the South Hall, and a discussion of the current move to bring management of all parts of Eastern Market under one management company. The Voice of the Hill has more information on that last item in an article from earlier this week.

I took more pictures of East Hall progress yesterday evening -- they were out in the rain, putting the siding panels up on the new structure! -- but forgot to get them off the camera this morning. With any luck, they'll be even further along when I get home tonight, and I'll put a picture or two online.

It won't be news to those of you who read this site regularly, but NBC4 has an article tonight about how the completion of the East Hall temporary building will be delayed. What they're really saying is that the original Fenty administration estimates were for the building to be finished by the end of July, but now it looks like it'll be mid-August... but again, that's something we've known for a while here.

I just wandered over, and it looks like the construction folks are finishing off the exterior of the new East Hall building! (There are a few more pix here.) The HVAC ducts are hanging from the building waiting to be hooked up to the housings that are patiently waiting in the Hine Junior High parking lot, and they've already wrapped a few panels on the eastern face of the building with a sky-blue wrapping that looks like it'll have all the names of the merchants on it.

Gary Peterson sent an update out today that said that it looks like August 18th is the fully-up-and-running date for the building, and that the CHCF intends to cover the costs of whatever the merchants need to make that date happen! The other news he passed on is that for now, the DDOT intends to keep Seventh Street closed to traffic on weekends, and will be evaluating the impact of the closing over the course of the fall.

DCist posted a bit yesterday about the anticipated opening of the East Hall, fleshing out details from the NBC4/Examiner stories with statements by Mike Bowers and information about the funds that've been raised or earmarked for the rebuilding efforts.

Finally, the Eastern Market Music Series will continue this Sunday, with the blues & R&B of Daryl Davis at 10:30 AM, and the Piedmont blues of Little Bit a Blues at 1:00 PM. Last weekend's performances looked to be pretty well-attended, which is great!