The New Lexington Market & Baltimore's Biggest Stoop

When will you be able to grab a bite to eat in the new Lexington Market? What surprises will you find as you walk through the brightly lit new building? From highly crafted merchant stalls to Baltimore's Biggest Stoop,  Baltimore Public Markets Corp. President and CEO Paul Ruppert and Director of Marketing, Cherrie Woods, dish on all of the latest of Baltimore's flagship public food hall and market ... including how the University of Maryland, Baltimore helped entrepreneurs launch their business at the new location.

Make sure to check out our other October Bonus Episode: "Visiting the Catacombs and Edgar Allan Poe's Grave in Baltimore." 

Listen to The UMB Pulse on Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, and wherever you like to listen. The UMB Pulse is also now on YouTube.

Visit our website at umaryland.edu/pulse or email us at umbpulse@umaryland.edu.

Transcript

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Cherrie: 0:00

The Baltimore's largest stoop

Dana: 0:01

I love the name. I love the name.

Cherrie: 0:04

There's multi uses for that stoop area, but we're really excited because we know that stoops are really, really dear to every Baltimorean's heart.

Dana: 0:27

So here we are talking about food again. One of my favorite subjects.

Charles: 0:31

Yes. That was our first episode of The Pulse, wasn't it?

Jena: 0:34

Yeah. Talking all about food on campus and what was open, what wasn't opened and all that stuff. So now we're talking about something else that might be opening soon. Well, is opening soon?

Dana: 0:45

Next month. Well actually sooner some of the shops in Lexington Market after their big re modernization effort.

Charles: 0:53

And it is so beautiful. It, it has gorgeous light. The the shed architecture. We had a sneak peek tour inside of it before we re uh, recorded this episode. And just to see all the little touches and individual stalls coming along. I'm excited that there is some place near our office to get coffee and donuts again.

Jena: 1:14

Grab lunch.

Dana: 1:16

Shop for flowers.

Jena: 1:17

For flowers. Yeah. Apparently there's gonna be like, uh, extra like shops and maybe even outdoor farmers market in addition to the one that's already, um, in the, the park plaza. So,

Dana: 1:27

And hopefully bring back the crab derby. That was such a fun event they used to host. Well, I think it's coming back. Um, local businesses come in and they set up tables. They have a crab picking contest, there's vendors. It's really fun. Oh, awesome.

Charles: 1:42

That's much better than what I thought you were going say

Dana: 1:44

Well, and then you watch the crabs, like the crab race to see who's who goes fast. Yeah.

Jena: 1:49

That's what I thought also when you said that. I was like, hmm. Watching

Charles: 1:52

Like is this like at the Pinewood Derby I did in Cub Scouts. but with crabs?

Jena: 1:58

Well, Lexington Market has been just a fixture in Baltimore. It's the flagship of the market system here in Baltimore, and now it's getting a whole new makeover with all this great stuff happening and we gotta sneak peek of all the things that are coming our way in Lexington Market.

Charles: 2:15

Yeah, we don't wanna steal all the thunder. So, Dana, who do we have on the show today?

Dana: 2:18

We have Paul Ruppert from the market as well as Cherrie Woods, and they'll be sharing all. Information and hot tips.

Charles: 2:26

All right, so enjoy the show.

Dana: 2:30

Okay. I'm very excited today to be here with Paul Ruppert and Cherrie Woods from the Lexington Market. We're gonna talk about all things Lexington Market, a little bit about what the history was what's going on right now with your renovations and what you foresee in the, in the near future. So welcome.

Paul: 2:46

Thank you very much.

Cherrie: 2:47

Thanks.

Dana: 2:48

So let's kick it off by talking a little bit about the history of Lexington Market. It's been here for a very long time. Right.

Paul: 2:55

That's right. So the first talk of a market here on this hill was back in 1782 where folks started gathering for market activities. The first building was constructed in 1806, so that's when we tied the first building to a Lexington Market. And then we've been through several iterations over that long, over 200 year history, and we're about to open our next, I think it might be the seventh building that we've built over the, over that period of time.

Dana: 3:24

Wow.

Charles: 3:24

What's great about having this conversation is the University of Maryland, Baltimore is really intertwined with Lexington Market. Being on Lexington Street with several of our buildings, you can see on the curb some of the old stall numbers from long, long time ago. And it's just wonderful. And I don't know if you can maybe talk a little bit about that history of those numbers that people see on the sidewalk still to this day.

Cherrie: 3:49

Well, I was, you know, I'm relatively new to the market, but I did a tour with Johns Hopkins who does the Baltimore Heritage Series, and so that was part of the walk and the tour was seeing those stall numbers engraved on the sidewalks. Because at one point, that was the market that each stall number represented a merchant. And so when they came to sell their goods or their wares, they were assigned, they would say, Oh, you're assigned to that spot. And so they would know that's the spot that they set up on Lexington Street. So that was part of the history of when the market was actually an outdoor market. So it was exciting to see that those engravings still exist. If you walk on Lexington Street, you could see them engraved in the sidewalk.

Paul: 4:32

And at our peak there were over a thousand stalls in the market stretched for three blocks.

Jena: 4:37

Over a thousand? That's incredible.

Paul: 4:39

Yes.

Dana: 4:40

Well, that's, that's a good way to segue into the next part. How many stalls do you anticipate the new market having?

Paul: 4:46

So in the new market will be 50 stalls, so a mixture of prepared foods and fresh foods.

Charles: 4:51

And let's get to what people really want to know. When can they walk inside the market and get some food?

Paul: 4:57

Very soon. Very soon. We hope to open it in a couple of weeks with a few stalls, maybe six to 10 stalls, and then over the course of the fall, we'll gradually add additional stalls.

MIC2: 5:06

Okay, so

Charles: 5:07

we are recording this on September 27th, so we're thinking maybe early October?

Paul: 5:13

Early to mid-October.

Charles: 5:15

So tell me a a little bit about the inspiration for the new market building. I mean, it really feels like a big city market. We've seen some of the markets been renovated across the city, whether it's the Cross Street Market or Broadway, they're fantastic, but with the size and she magnitude of Lexington Market it feels like, you know, you're back in the big leagues.

Paul: 5:35

Lexington Market is the flagship market for the public market system here in Baltimore. And by the way, Baltimore is the only city in the United States that still has a system. Every other city has been dwindled down to just really one market building. And when we redesigned, when we came up with this design for the new market building, we wanted to echo back to. Kind of traditional designs for markets. And so that's the shed roof and it's the the great number of windows that are in there. So there's a lot of light that comes in there. It's different from the building that we have just said goodbye to, which was our home for 70 years, which was very dark. Served, served great purpose and it was great part of our history. So we're sad to say goodbye to our old home, but we're excited about this new.

Dana: 6:23

Well, and we're very thankful for having had the opportunity before this recording to walk through the new market, the exterior spaces. And what I, I agree with what you're saying, Paul. The, the light in there is just incredible. Talk a little about that room at the, the, what is that? The east side, I guess, right?

Cherrie: 6:40

The Baltimore Room? Yes. So we're really excited to have the Baltimore Room. It will serve as both a space for public programming, but even more so it, it's an opportunity for us to host private events. It's an amazing space. As you saw. There's the opportunity to have a projector that can come down. We can close off the space with garage style doors. And so we are, we're really hoping to host important events in the city prior to the market even, of course we have an open dead, but we've hosted Baltimore Birthday Bash for Live Baltimore, and we also hosted Baltimore Homecoming in an active construction site. And both events went really well. So we got to see sort of a rehearsal for events that we could host in the market. But yes, the Baltimore Room will be you know, dedicated to having private events that's, that's something new that we wanna really foster and grow

Charles: 7:29

Those garage doors really, you know, open up that space literally. And then closing them off. It still still brings, you know, that, that light that Dana was talking about and has that nice shed feel. So there's little touches and everywhere throughout

Jena: 7:44

the building. It's great because, you know, like, you were saying it's multifaceted, so you can host your private events. You can have like, a movie series or something like that, but you can also put the picnic tables down. Have it just be a common space for everyone to sit, eat, and socialize.

Charles: 7:59

Let's orient ourselves and almost like a audio tour, audiobook tour maybe and, and help people figure out the navigation of the market. So take us through the front door, what people can expect there as they walk through the market.

Paul: 8:12

There are several entrances, entrance doors to the market. So we stretch on Lexington Street, between Paca Street and Eutaw Street. So you can enter on Eutaw Street, you can enter on Paca Street, or you can enter on our new plaza. When you come in Paca Street for instance, you'll be on the upper level. So there are two levels to the new market. The upper level is more prepared foods, so that's where you're gonna get your coffee, your lunch, your dinner to have in the market. The lower level, which is you enter on Eutaw Street, that's where we have our fresh foods, so that's where the butcher will be. Our seafood stalls, produce stalls, that sort of thing. And then if you go out the north doors, those are the doors that go out to the plaza. There are three doors on that side. We'll have outdoor seating there. We'll also have the opportunity to do special events out there -- farmers markets, flea markets, that sort of thing.

Charles: 9:00

And the plazas open now, right? Cause we've seen a food truck out there today.

Paul: 9:03

That's right. So the plaza is open now. We have couple food trucks out there while we wait for the new market to open.

Dana: 9:10

We left out one thing in the very center of the, the new building. Tell us what you call that area with the, the step down.

Cherrie: 9:19

Oh, the Baltimore's largest stoop

Dana: 9:21

I love the name. I love the name.

Cherrie: 9:23

Or the grand staircase. So yes, that's a an a way to attach both the upper and the lower level. And of course we also have elevators, but that stoop area is, is an amazing area. And again, Baltimore's largest stoop. And we can have customers seated there just enjoying meals or spending time reading whatever they're doing. Of course, they have to purchase something to eat as well, but we could also have, as Paul shared earlier, we could have choirs singing there on that stoop. It can also serve as a stage area, so, There's multi uses for that stoop area, but we're really excited because we know that stoops are really, really dear to every Baltimorean's heart. It's kind of part of the culture here. And so we're excited to host what we're calling Baltimore's largest stoop.

Dana: 10:10

And you're working with Seawall for the actual construction. Tell us how UMB is connected to you. Why are we good neighbors?

Paul: 10:18

Yeah. You're, you're, you are. University of Maryland, Baltimore is our best and closest neighbor. So we really see the success of Lexington Market as being tied to the success of University of Maryland, Baltimore. Since we've been situated next to each other, we've depended on staff, faculty, students from the university to be our customers. And , we built this market to be for all of Baltimore and for every visitor to Baltimore. But really when we look at redesigning and redeveloping our markets, we're focused on the neighborhood and we're, we're trying to answer. From our neighbors. What is it that they wanna see? So that's University of Maryland. It's all the folks who are moving into the downtown area. So we know that there are more residents who live here. Of course they're all the office workers. There're fewer of them now than before the pandemic, but we hope that they're coming back. But really, the University of Maryland, Baltimore, there students, their faculty and the staff we see as as central to our success.

Charles: 11:14

And we're going to have a larger presence in the area here soon, in the next few years. As we mentioned on our October full episode with Dean Judy Postman, so the University of Maryland School of Social Work, The School of Social Work will be constructing a new building right on Lexington Street beside 620 Lexington. So you'll have students now coming up further north on campus and faculty and staff. So you'll see that foot traffic there soon. And you mentioned about being catalyst for, for the neighborhood as we looked outside of the market. There's that new apartment building that has risen and a hotel attached. So you're already seeing maybe the, I guess, canceling out of any telecommute issues with just people in the core right beside there.

Paul: 11:59

That's right. There are new people who are coming to the neighborhood all the time. We have, as you mentioned, to the south of Lexington Market, there's a brand new building there that's apartments and Marriott's Spring Hill Suites hotel. Since you've brought up the School of Social Work I'll bring up something that we've been working with them closely on, which is something that's called the Eutaw Street Initiative, and it's working with students and faculty in the School of Social Work to try to address some of the challenges that we have in our neighborhood. And so really Lexington Market is, we consider it's the center of the city. It's where all of our transportation comes together. It's our subway. It's seven bus lines, it's our light rail, it's right near the highway. And because of that, it's where people come, you know, to gather and to hang out. And many of the folks who come here are you know, Are our great customers at Lexington Market, but there are a few who are suffering from challenges, either mental health challenges or substance use disorder challenges. And what we've been able to do over these past couple of years is partner with the University of Maryland's Baltimore School of Social Work to figure out support systems for those folks who might be in need of support.

Dana: 13:05

Really encouraging to see such a new, beautiful building as well as community cooperation and support.

Charles: 13:12

Another part of, UMB's involvement is there is a special entrepreneur fund, right? And initially it was a 1.3 million fund. I don't know if that's still current today. And UMB's been a part of that. Tell me a little bit about what that fund does and if it's being, already put to use.

Paul: 13:29

It is, It's been central to us moving forward with our merchants. So the Baltimore Community Lending is the organization that's been administering that fund and what it's allowed for our merchants to apply for funding to be able to purchase their equipment that they need to open in the new stalls. As part of this project, we have raised funds. It's a 45 million project, and we've raised funds to do all of the construction for the market, and then we've provided. Construction dollars for the stalls. And so what we ask for the merchants is to provide their equipment and so they've been able, many of those merchants have been able to go to Baltimore Community Lending and apply for funding through that vehicle.

Charles: 14:14

Some of the stalls really look like shops with the amount of detail that they put in, into their work. It feels like when you walk into a food hall or walk into the new Lexington Market, it feels like a little journey, almost, almost like walking around Epcot a little bit, like all the different countries in a way. Like you get a little flavor here and there of, of the different cultures and, and it feels like you're walking into like a gates of a new country a little bit

Paul: 14:36

Yeah. So we worked with our architect, BCT, local architect, and they have worked with each of the individual merchants to design their stalls so that they represent both their needs in terms of where the equipment is laid down, but also the personality of their specific business.

Jena: 14:53

And speaking of just the look of everything we noticed when we walked through there was some artwork on the walls and murals. Do you wanna talk to a little bit about that and where all that came from?

Cherrie: 15:02

Okay. So yes, art is very important to the market. Of course, we're in the Bromo Art Center, we're part of, of that community. And so four, four or five, I'm trying to think, four artists were commissioned to create artwork, so works of art, public art for the market, and they are Chan Wallace, Ernest Shaw, Jr. Oletha Devane and her son, and there's one other piece called Food Play REED Bmore, I believe is his name. So that's really, really important and you, I mean, that's gonna be a core part of the market, being part of the Bromo Arts Center and. Having art as central to the design and the look of the market. So yes, we made sure they were all Baltimore connected or Baltimore based artists. And so as you walk around you can see a lot of the beauty of the art and we wanted to make sure that we were part of the art community

Jena: 15:55

And I think you said that one of the pieces of art that's on the inside of the building Is a collage of photos from the old Lexington Market building.

Cherrie: 16:03

Yes. Shan Wallace, the Baltimore native she had been taking photos of the old market for years and years from her child and on up, and so we worked with our commissioner to create that piece. She said she's still working on the final name of it, but it is definitely a representation of the old market. You'll see different merchants there. You'll see people in the market and certainly signage of, you know, even hog maws and, and different things, chicklings, things that people like and that, that tie into the old market. So it's, it's really a connector in that we have the old market represented in a new market in such a central piece. It's a beautiful piece of art work.

Dana: 16:42

and I think the last question I have is what's happening to the old market space that's still existing?

Paul: 16:48

So we'll be using the existing market for our offices. We'll continue to be in that space. We'll also have storage in that space, and we'll also be joined by the Parking Authority of Baltimore City. We'll be moving their offices into our building. We anticipate that we'll be there for another 10 years or so, and then there'll be a redevelopment opportunity.

Charles: 17:07

What's the best way people can find out more about what's happening at the market and stay in touch?

Paul: 17:12

So our website is lexingtonmarket.org. So that's a great way you can also follow us on social

Cherrie: 17:18

Yes, we are on social media, Lexington Market, on IG, we're on Facebook, ig, and under Baltimore Public Markets. We're also on Twitter and we're on LinkedIn, So, and the new website for Lexington Market will be live very soon, but in the interim, you could still go to Lexingtonmarket.org and find out some information about what's coming.

Dana: 17:40

Well, I don't know about you, but I can't wait to get some Connie's Chicken. I've been missing them and I look forward to seeing the new vendors, the new stalls. It sounds like a great opportunity not just to eat, but to pick up some wares that, you know, we can use as gifts or to decorate our own homes.

Jena: 17:54

I saw there was a sign for a roastery, like right at the front of the building, and I'm very excited to get some coffee there.

Paul: 17:59

Yeah.

Charles: 18:00

And donuts right beside there.

Jena: 18:01

Exactly. It's perfect

Cherrie: 18:02

Oh, do wanna add, we will also have kiosks in the new market. I think there will be about 12 kiosks with smaller merchants having different items in the kiosks. So that's, that's an addition. And we'll also have popups you know, all year round until it gets too cold. We'll have popups on the plaza as well. So that's all part of the plan when we actually reopen.

Jena: 18:24

And that grand Reopening should be sometime in November, right?

Paul: 18:28

That's right. That's what we hope. We hope to have the mayor and the governor here to cut a ribbon in November.

Cherrie: 18:33

Yep.

Charles: 18:34

We'll be there,

Jena: 18:35

Yep. Definitely.

Charles: 18:36

All right. Well Thank you. so much.

Paul: 18:37

Thank you.

Cherrie: 18:38

Thank you