Reflections on South Street

The South Street Renaissance was a special moment in time — part of the cultural revolution of the 60s and 70s that occurred worldwide. Here we talk with former business owners Ruth Snyderman (Snyderman and Works Galleries), Philip Roger Roy (Grendel’s Liar), Dale Shuffler (Gazoo, Lickety Split), Joel Spivak (Rocketships and Accessories), Albert Malmfelt (TLA) and current business owners Mona Plumer (Plumer Real Estate), Cathy Blair (Rocker Head Salon) and Rita Gaudet deVecchis (deVecchis Gallery) about their memories of the Renaissance.

A candle is shown by Guy Campbell to customer Kathy Chamberg at The Beginning Shop in 1970.

Wasko, photographer. George D. McDowell Philadelphia Evening Bulletin Collection, Special Collections Research Center, Temple University Libraries, Philadelphia, PA.

What year did you move to South Street?

Joel Spivak: In 1965, I worked for an architect named Frank Weiss and we designed the renovations for Theatre of the Living Arts. After that, I lived in Vermont for a while. [I was back on South Street] the weekend of Woodstock for the first Head House Crafts Fair. There, I met Julia and Isaiah Zagar and got involved with building the Crooked Mirror. Then I met Ruth and Rick Snyderman and they [needed help] building the Works Gallery. I wasn’t planning on staying but [I’ve been here ever since].

Dale Shuffler: In 1967, after Graduate School, I decided to go to Europe with two of my friends. What had been a plan to do a year in Europe turned into a trip through Turkey to the Middle East and then across North Africa. When we returned, we settled into a house on Gaskill Street. As it turned out, many [other] art students had found cheap space on South Street, since it was to be torn down.

Ruth Snyderman: I moved my gallery, The Works Gallery, to South Street in 1970. We began working on the renovation in 1969 with Joel Spivak and set designers from TLA. I opened my business at 2017 Locust Street in 1965, moved it to 319 South Street in 1970 and kept the Center City space as well until 1972. Rick joined me in 1972.

Albert Malmfelt: I came to South Street in June of 1971 to supervise the conversion of a shuttered live theater (334-336 South Street) into a cinema, manage the physical renovations, attend to advertising and publicity, hire a staff, and get the business up and running.

Philip Roger Roy: My grandmother, Mary Marcus Axler, owned the Blue Bird Bridal Shoppe at 531 South Street for 65 years. I started Grendel's Lair Cabaret Theater at 500 South Street in August 1972 and continued until 1987.

By 1977, South Street had become a close-knit thriving business district.

Two men are shown carrying a dressing table along South Street, [1977], Tinney, photographer. George D. McDowell Philadelphia Evening Bulletin Collection, Special Collections Research Center, Temple University Libraries, Philadelphia, PA.

Rita Gaudet deVecchis: My late husband opened our gallery at 528 South 4th Street in March of 1969, doing framing and having shows for local artists. In 1972, we rented the building at 400 South Street (now Jim's Steaks). It hadn't been occupied in fourteen years, and the stories that accompany the work we did and the things we found are priceless. On June 27, 1974, we made settlement on our current building at 404 1/2 South Street. It was my birthday. For eighteen months, we occupied both locations before consolidating into one in late December 1975.

Cathy Blair: I opened Rocker Head Salon at 617 S. 3rd Street in the late 80s. After five years, I moved my business across the street to 608 S. 3rd Street, and have been there since.

What were you paying for rent?

Joel Spivak: While building the Works Gallery, I ran into a fella named “Wolfie Bubbles” — Chris Hodge was his [real] name — who I had gone to art school with earlier in the sixties. He said he had an apartment available [at 624 South Street] that he was renting for $25 a month. I went and looked at the apartment and it was gorgeous! It had two floors and living room and kitchen and a backyard. And I said, I'll take it!

Ruth Snyderman: The whole building on South Street rented for $135/month. We rented the upstairs to a couple connected with TLA and split the rent. We payed $67.50/month. We could afford to take a chance.

Philip Roger Roy: $500/month to start. A lot more 15 years later.

Albert Malmfelt: We were paying $2,500 a month, which was far and away the highest rent on South Street at the time.

Cathy Blair: I paid $500 a month for the store and $500 a month for an apartment.

Dale Shuffler: Gazoo was $75.00 a month; so was "Cast of Thousands“ (another artist commune). I don’t exactly remember the price for Lickety Split, but I doubt it was over $100.00. We gutted the space and redid it as a greenhouse.

What was South Street like when you arrived?

Dale Shuffler: South Street at this time was art students and the hip crowd, along with some Jewish merchants we befriended, or tried to. One – Kitty Newman – who had a toy shop, was a good friend and attended our big dinners on holidays.

Ruth Snyderman: South Street was really bombed out when we arrived. Many buildings were boarded up, as merchants had fled due to the threat of the Crosstown Expressway. The lots were filled with trash. There were some dangerous bars just off of South Street. In fact, my son saw someone lying on

the sidewalk who had been shot and killed just around the corner. The night we moved in there was a shooting across the street in front of TLA. TLA was a professional theater then.

Albert Malmfelt: It was an odd mixture of decades-old businesses (bridal shops, clothing stores, delicatessens, saloons, and the like) and some cafes, shops and galleries operated by newer, younger people. It was primarily a daytime commercial environment, with almost no after-dark activity.

John deVecchis works in his frame shop on the 400 block of South Street in 1977.

South Street frame shop, [1977], Tinney, photographer. George D. McDowell Philadelphia Evening Bulletin Collection, Special Collections Research Center, Temple University Libraries, Philadelphia, PA

A favorite anecdote of mine — one that I have told many times over the years — is of three of us who were working on the project going out to dinner on a Saturday night. We'd had an exhausting week and wanted a good meal. There was no place nearby to eat, so we decided to go to Ralph's on 9th Street. Anyway, we three went to Ralph's, where we ate and drank ourselves into a state of contentment, and then walked back to TLA. We went up 9th to South and then headed east. Having perhaps had too much wine, we decided that it would be amusing to walk in the middle of the street to see what would happen. Well, nothing happened. South Street was deserted. Three laughing guys walked with their backs to any oncoming vehicular traffic all the way from 9th to 4th and never had to move aside. No cars came along. We may have seen a couple of pedestrians, but no more. This was at 10 p.m. on a Saturday night in July! Can you imagine? By the time we reached TLA, we were nearly hysterical at the thought that in a few weeks we were going to open a business there that would be operating primarily at night.

Cathy Blair: Back then South Street was booming. We had some cute little boutiques around at that time: Neo Deco, Zog, Zipperhead, French Connection and Graffiti, to name a few. We also had some great restaurants as well. Cafe Nola and The Knave of Hearts were two of my favorites. Also Hurricane Alley, which was attached to Cafe Nola. You had a hard time getting in on the weekend without knowing someone, it was that busy.

How did the culture develop?

Dale Shuffler: I suggested to a gang of current art students [that we] rent a house in the 200 block and form an artists’ co-op. Since we were all gay, we called it Gazoo. We also convinced two female friends to rent the shop next store. They opened “The Last Dress Shop Before the River.“ Eventually Gazoo dissolved, and another group of guys moved in to try this experiment in communal living. [Around the same time], Rick and Ruth Snyderman opened The Works. My traveling companions opened The Black Banana Cafe on 4th Street. [It was successful] and they helped me and another friend open Lickety Split. It should be noted that in those days, there were few restaurants except in ethnic neighborhoods. Things were happening very organically and we were all helping each other with our projects.

Ruth Snyderman: Many artists, poets, dancers and musicians came to South Street – as the rents were so cheap. There were 10 craft shops up and down the street. My husband Rick was able to take several tenants to Provident National Bank to apply for mortgages to buy their buildings. That stabilized the neighborhood. We used to have community dinners at Tom Bissinger's building – TCP – on 4th Street, and we had a food coop. We all knew each other from the dinners and South Street seders.

Joel Spivak: The South Street community was amazing, because everyone was very supportive. There was a good selection of longtime residents who were very nice people, and all the new people were really nice. The openly gay community got along with the straight community. There were hippies, there were people who went to the academy, and there were people who went to Philadelphia College of Art. These different little groups of people would all come together and just become one big group, and that's why the neighborhood flourished. Everybody got along.

Martha Wheaton displays eskimo and Indian art in The Touchstone at 424 South Street in 1977.

Salesperson at Touchstone, [1977], Tinney, photographer. George D. McDowell Philadelphia Evening Bulletin Collection, Special Collections Research Center, Temple University Libraries, Philadelphia, PA

Philip Roger Roy: Al Malmfelt took the old defunct TLA theater (live theater) and transformed it into a premiere art cinema, bringing hundreds (even thousands) of patrons each week to South Street for many years. When Grendel's Lair opened, we also brought 500 - 1,000 more patrons to South Street each week. The combined flow of his movie patrons and my patrons of theater, live music, comedy and dancing [helped turn] South Street [into a major destination] for the college and post-college crowd – and those who longed for a Greenwich Village type atmosphere.

Rita Gaudet deVecchis: We were married in May of 1973, and our reception was held in our gallery, utilizing both floors. Guests included not only our families and friends, but also any person who wandered in off the street. Every level of society was represented: from "Cigarette Ed" to Gilroy Roberts, sculptor of the Kennedy Half-Dollar.

When did the South Street Renaissance formalize? Who else was involved?

Albert Malmfelt: To the best of my recollection, the Renaissance was never a formal entity, but a phrase or slogan used in various ways by different people to signify the new South Street.

Dale Shuffler: I really have a weak memory of the actual beginning of the Renaissance, but I do know I joined in and events were planned. The Zagars had a parade. I suggested a “Hippie House Tour,” so people could expel their ideas that we were all freaks. I eventually purchased a couple of shell houses and rehabbed them. Lots of materials that were used were salvaged from different abandoned places in the neighborhood, as well as the demolition of the waterfront.

Ruth Snyderman: I want to say that the South Street Renaissance began in 1970, as we use that date to plan our reunions. Bill Curry, Julia and Isaiah [Zagar], Tom Bissinger, Dale Shuffler, Ron Kaplan, Ed Beckerman and many others were involved, as well as the two of us. The old merchants were also involved. They had been on the street years before we arrived and they joined us.

Joel Spivak: We wanted the fight the highway. But, to do that, you needed to be a recognized community group and we didn’t have a name. Also, the official map of downtown Philadelphia ended on Lombard Street. Rick Snyderman realized we really needed that map to be moved one block to the south, so people could find South Street. And, in order to do that, we had to have a name. That’s when we became the South Street Renaissance. It took about three years of lobbying the city of Philadelphia to get that map redrawn.

How did the South Street Renaissance become involved with protesting plans for the Crosstown Expressway? What kinds of tactics did the Renaissance deploy?

Ruth Snyderman: We were all involved with demonstrations against the highway.

Joel Spivak: I was also involved with QVNA in the early seventies, and that's how I knew all of the the Polish ladies in the neighborhood. I convinced the Polish women to go with me one day to City Hill to protest the Crosstown Expressway. We were holding these big signs that said “Houses not highways” and marching inside the City Hall Courtyard. While we were marching, I heard music outside the courtyard, so I looked outside and saw this parade coming down Market Street and going around City Hall. I noticed that, between two high-school bands, there was about 50 ft. of space. I went to all of the women and said, “When this band passes us, we are going to go out in the street.” And they were terrified and said “We can get arrested.” And I said, “Maybe we will.” Having been in the anti-war demonstrations, I thought it was no big deal.

So we slipped into the space between the bands and became part of the parade. As we made our way around City Hall, we came upon this bandstand with all these dignitaries and TV crews who were filming the parade. Our demonstration against the Crosstown Expressway was on the news later that day.

Albert Malmfelt: The protest poster — which was designed by Charlie Bordin — consisted of a traffic STOP symbol with the words: "STOP I-95 RAMPS." We posted one of these conspicuously in the cinema. Some, but not all, of the other merchants did the same. There were merchants who had been on the street for a long time who were hoping the Crosstown would be built, and that they would get enough federal money for their property to enable them to retire to Florida. The one thing I was able to do that was different was to put the protest design on the TLA Cinema printed program, 30,000 copies of which were distributed around the city. With each of these programs being seem by at least several people, the exposure was significant, and I like to think helped to make a difference. The Crosstown Expressway was cancelled not long afterward.

Were there any other causes that the Renaissance supported or protested?

Ruth Snyderman: The Renaissance supported bringing outside groups to the neighborhood for tours, dinners, festivals, etc., to make the city aware of the creativity of the neighborhood. It supported the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) movement early on. Many members of the community were gay. We all were against the Mayor's treatment of assaulting gay males.

Did you move your business off South Street and, if so, why?

Ruth Snyderman: Rick opened the Snyderman Gallery in the 80s and had a lease for 10 years. When that expired, we found a beautiful building on Cherry Street in Old City, and were able to buy it. After two years of applying for a construction loan and renovating, the Snyderman Gallery moved in. I remained on South Street with the Works Gallery for a few more years, until we felt it was viable for my business to move. It was much busier on South Street than Old City, but customers stopped coming to South Street – as the new stores were becoming much more commercial and appealed to a different audience. The Eyes Gallery is one of the last standing original shops from the late 60s.

Dale Shuffler: After three years, I left Lickety Split, but my last [business] partner kept it going for 30 years I think. I went back to doing and teaching art, which I still do today. In 1984, I sold the property and moved to Chester County, where I am now. Also did several other South Streeters.

Do you think that the South Street Renaissance has ended? If so, was there a particular event that caused this?

Ruth Snyderman: The South Street Renaissance stopped in the 80s, when so many businesses closed or left the street. The feeling continued that we felt attached to each other to this day. The 20th reunion had about 400 people, and the 40th had close to 200. Of course, quite a number of people are no longer alive – drugs, etc. There was an event that stopped the Renaissance. It was a festival that included rock bands and people were on rooftops at 6th & South and threw beer cans down chimneys and ruined the street. I believe it was WXPN that sponsored it and South Street was never the same after that. The festivals that we had created stopped.

Dale Shuffler: My fantasy was that we would all buy property and be able to control the way it went; but as soon as the Renaissance won, the speculators moved in like locusts. First the Black Banana moved to Old City, as well as most of the artists. Then the Painted Bride went to Old City. But speculators followed. They always follow artists, because they know artists find cheap large spaces.

Cathy Blair: A New York businessman came into the area buying up storefronts and jacking up the rents so high that the small businesses couldn't make it. And that was the decline of South Street. One by one they closed. You can't charge thousands a month and expect a small business to make it.

Rita Gaudet deVecchis: I am tired of the negative press that the street gets, especially the tired reporters who insist upon digging up the "riot" from 2001 – like it was South Street's fault. The melee was caused by an unruly group of drunks, most of whom did NOT live in Philadelphia or anywhere near South Street. Most were underaged and brought their booze with them.

Joel Spivak: I don't think it ended. You can still see, as I’m calling it, the South Street Spirit. [During the Renaissance], when people were in trouble or needed some money or needed whatever they needed, an amazing amount of people showed up to help. When Bridget Foy's caught on fire, every restaurant in the neighborhood reached out to employ their employees. That’s what I mean about the South Street Spirit.

What do you think the future of South Street looks like?

Dale Shuffler: If the artists had been able to own and control the properties, it would be a better place than the honkeytonk place it is today. Once speculators owned the properties, they raised the rents. The same thing happened to Old City and Manayunk.

Kenny Kodak and David Lore, who call themselves the Minstrels of South Street, entertain passersby in 1981.

"Just singin' a song for spring,” [1981], Govan, photographer. George D. McDowell Philadelphia Evening Bulletin Collection, Special Collections Research Center, Temple University Libraries, Philadelphia, PA.

Ruth Snyderman: Right now the future of South Street is kind of bleak. Some new businesses have moved in and some blocks are better than others. But there must be at least 50 vacancies. When Michael Axelrod (from N. Y.) started buying up many of the buildings and charging very high rents, none of the small shops could survive and chains started filling the spaces. The special feeling left the street. Michael Axelrod has sold quite a number of buildings now, but he still has a big share in the street. Nothing will change to make it affordable again, I fear.

Mona Plumer: I believe that [South Street] has always been an ever-evolving area with a vitality that may change, but does not fade. The rebuilding of Bridget Foys will bring a new life to the 200 block, and the addition of the long-awaited grocery store would make the stretch central to the Queen Village neighborhood. Other positive changes await as you travel up the street.

Rita Gaudet deVecchis: I love South Street. It is a street that is always in flux, with one constant: alacrity. Whether it be: tourists exhibiting the excitement of their first visit to the street; the enthusiasm of store owners to welcome new businesses as they open; the eagerness of folks to readily pitch in and help when and where it's needed; and the positive energy of diversity that is enveloped and welcomed here. There is an energy on South Street that can be found no where else on this planet. While many cities may have streets likened to ours, how many are bordered on both sides by a historical urban neighborhood like Queen Village? If they exist, I've not seen them. That we co-exist is amazing.

Are there any lessons you learned that might help South Street rebound again today?

Albert Malmfelt: The one lesson I learned, to my regret, is that I should have owned my building. Buildings owned by those operating the businesses located in them — not chains or absentee landlords — can make those businesses viable on a long-term basis.