By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma
joanne@wktv.org


As Bruce and Marti Johns sit in the little white booth at the Studio 28 Flea Market, they swap more than just money and spaces, they share the stories that make up the 50-year history of the market.

“He’s been doing it for 35 and I’ve been doing this for 33,” Marti said and with a laugh adds. “I just knew if I wanted to spend my weekends with him that I was going to have to do this.”

“It’s always been about family,” Bruce Johns said. “For 35 years, we have seen these people every weekend, sharing their stories, their lives from wedding announcements to babies coming to everything that happens from one weekend to another.”

Started 50 years ago when the East Beltline Drive-In was still located at 1400 28th St. SW, the flea market will have its last weekend this Saturday and Sunday. The 13 acres along the back side of the property along Prairie Avenue, and where the market is located, is in the final stages of being sold. The lot is owned by Studio C, which owns and operates Celebration! Cinema.

“It is not a money maker and over the past several years it has made enough to cover the taxes,” said Emily Loeks, public relations and community affairs for Studio C. For most of its history, it has cost 50 cents for attendees. Vendors pay a separate fee to get a spot.

“In reality, you are not going to keep such a prime piece of property vacant forever,” Loeks said. The entire property is 20 acres with seven acres along 28th Street still available.

In fact many of the vendors and attendees said they knew the market could end some day. 

“I think for the past 10 years, there has been a rumor that this is going to be the last one,” Bruce Johns said. “Well, this year, it really is the last one.”

There have been some efforts to try and relocate the market to another location, but with one option falling through, it does not appear that anything will happen this year. So instead, vendors and attendees are spending the last weekend celebrating the market’s history.

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Officially started on May 20, 1970, the market was the idea of John D. Loeks, the founder to Celebration! Cinemas. Loeks already operated the East Beltline Drive-In on the site.

“My grandfather was an entrepreneur,” Loeks said. “He started many things. He had a trampoline park, a putt-putt golf and succeed with many ventures, one that became Showspan, which brings in all the sports expos and other shows.”

“According to my understanding, [John D.] Loeks went to California and saw a market like this and decided to bring it here,” Johns said.

Loeks said that the drive-in at the time was empty for parts of the week, so it was set up that vendors could have a space between each post on the drive-in lot.

In the early years, vendors would wait in line and then race once the doors were open to stake out their spot. After the drive-in was closed and the lot was paved for Studio 28, lines were added to indicate spots with vendors being able to rent a designated spot for the day, weekend, or month.

The market has 457 booths. On its biggest weekend in the summer, there might be 300 vendors and about 4,000 customers, Loeks said. More recently, the market is usually half to three-fourths full, mostly depending on the weather, she said. The market has been impacted by other local markets opening but the closest one similar the Studio 28 Flea Market it is in Paw Paw, according to attendees.

“There is something about the feel to this particular market,” said Alex Cardosa, of Dorr, who has attended various flea markets for about 30 years. Cardosa said he spends about every weekend from April to October, when the market is usually open, with his wife, walking and looking for deals on a variety of items such as tools, antiques, artifacts, collectibles or “just the unusual.”

“Wet a certain amount of farm choirs done in the morning and then come here to get our exercise in,” said Cardosa’s wife Sharon, with Cardosa adding “the folks here just really make it work.”

Grand Rapids resident Lynn Baker agreed as she has been a vendor at the market since it opened 50 years ago.

“I’m low income and so this has been a way for me to supplement my income,” said Baker, who said she attends other markets in the summer as well. Baker sells home goods, clothing, and accessories. “I love coming. I love the people. I love what I do.”

“It’s the people,” said Grand Rapids resident Tami Eisenhuth. Eisenhuth said she had been coming to the market since she was a little girl with her mother Lorene, who was known as the cookie lady. 

“She would bring tins of cookies with her and hand them out to people,” Eisenhuth said. “She would tell people not to wash the tins because she was afraid they would not let them air property and then the tins would rust.”

Bruce Johns said he remember those cookies and this past week, as a tribute to her mother, Eisenhuth handed out cookies to her Studio 28 Flea Market “family.”

“When my mother died,” Eisenhuth said with a tear in her eye, “we put her stuff out to sell. People were like ‘Lions, tigers, and bears, oh my!’ because there were a lot of lions and bears. People bought something to remember her.”

“When it closes next weekend, it will be the end for me,” said Allie Henning who started his business after his plant shutdown 20 years ago. “I have been to other markets and this is the one I do. In fact, it is now the only one I do and I have a clientele that follows me. But when its done, I’m done too.”

Last weekend also will be the last for the Johns as well. 

“I would do this for another 50 years,” Bruce Johns said. “But things do have to come to an end. So instead, I am going to look forward to having my weekends free, play with grandchildren and do a little traveling.”

The Studio 28 Flea Market is open from 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. Some vendors are there as early as 6 a.m. While the address is listed as 28th Street, the main entrance is off of Prairie Avenue across from the Wyoming High School. For more information, visit the Facebook page, Studio 28 Flea Market.