.capitol streets.
TOM RALL SAYS FAREWELL TO EASTERN MARKET “For Me, It Was Always About the People”
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by Elizabeth O’Gorek
t was my life’s work,” Tom Rall said, doors. “Attendance was always shoulder-tospeaking of the Flea Market at Eastern shoulder and vendors did very well,” rememMarket, which he helped establish and exbers McCarty. In addition to Kashmir Boupand. “To me it means relationships with tiques, other local businesses that incubated hundreds of wonderful people, going back at the Flea Market include Silk Road and Chathrough dozens of years.” teau Animeaux, which under current ownerYou probably know Tom Rall, even if you ship became Howl to the Chief. don’t know you do. He is the man in the hat, Shake Up the Eastern Market seller who until last DecemSoon, the lively Sunday markets began to draw ber could be found every weekend on Seventh the attention of the Eastern Market managers. St. near Pennsylvania Ave. SE behind a table Until 1991, the market itself, operating out of full of antique maps and prints. the South Hall, had been closed on Sundays; But don’t let his place at the end of the now, with so much going on, they decided to street fool you. Rall helped give the market a open all weekend. new beginning. For more than 35 years from Brady Rall, Tom Rall and Michael Berman in front of The Flea Market When the market opened on Sundays, 1984 to 2011, Tom Rall organized Sunday at Eastern Market, Sunday, Feb. 6, 2022. Photo: E. O’Gorek/CCN the farmers began to sell on Sundays too. That vending near Eastern Market, bringing venProject in 2009 that the two made a deal and shook meant a shake up; Rall had to find space for dors from all over the country and the world hands on it. those of his vendors displaced from under the farmer’s to Capitol Hill and changing the nature of the market “That was a 20-year handshake. Two guys lost canopy or blocking entrances to the building. and the neighborhood. His work would help found in the ’60s!” Harrod laughed, recounting the moment. Rall approached Principal Princess Whitfield of multiple businesses and impact many lives. “And you’ve seen what he’s done.” Hine Junior High School, located between 7th and But, he said, the biggest impact was on his own. 8th streets on Pennsylvania Avenue SE, asking if the Founding The Flea Market Coming to DC Flea Market could lease the parking lot on Sundays. That began some heady days. Rall named his enHailing from Middleport, Ohio, Rall graduated from Whitfield agreed and so Rall’s Flea Market would hapterprise The Flea Market at Eastern Market and imKent State in 1969. A conscientious objector, he came pen at Hine for the next 26 years, until it was surplantmediately began to advertise the market and recruit to DC to take an alternate service position with the ed by development in 2015. vendors. Within two or three years, the Sunday Flea United Methodist Church, leaving behind a career as The changing scene throughout the ‘80s and Market filled the North Hall and the open spaces una journalist. He moved on to work with the South‘90s, both at the market and in the neighborhood overder the farmer’s canopy and started to wrap around ern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), later all, fed competing visions for Eastern Market. Eastern the market on C Street SE. Market Community Advisory Committee (EMCAC) working to organize a union at the State Department. Rall and his vendors lived their lives at the marChair Donna Scheeder recalls how Rall worked with Later, Rall turned to the antique business, finding ket; in 1988, he and his wife, Debbi, were married in local artist Michael Berman to ensure that the outdoor treasures in the Shenandoah and selling them at urban the North Hall. Their children were market babies, markets would remain part of that vision, working to venues like the Georgetown Flea Market. In 1978, a spending weekends playing with one another between ensure safeguards for the outdoor markets were built Capitol Hill friend asked him to do a benefit auction tables and stalls, recalls Tom’s son, Brady. “There’s a into Eastern Market legislation in the late 1990s. at Market 5, the gallery managed by John Harrod in handful of us second-generation kids who grew up In 2004, Rall officially asked Berman to help him Eastern Market’s North Hall. here on the weekends.” After that success, Rall began regular Saturday run the markets, and the two formed Diverse Mar”Overall, those were great years,” remembered auctions at Market 5, until in 1983, Harrod asked him ket Managements (DMM). They organized the downPat McCarthy. She and her husband, David Mahajan, if he wanted to begin selling his antiques on Sundays. town Holiday Market and later markets in Crystal City, own Kashmir Boutiques (760 C St. SE), but they got Rall found he was often the only Sunday exhibiPenn Quarter and Southwest. By 2007, Rall said, their start selling garments from the Kashmir region tor, so he asked Harrod if he could manage the Sunday DMM was managing 200 exhibitors at the Eastern at the Sunday Flea Market, now right outside their markets for him. Harrod told the Capitol Hill History Market alone, and seeing as many as 20,000 people a
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