Release the Fleas
Market starts this weekend
Print
Share
Email to a friend
Add This
Article RatingImages
Tony Celesky talks about where the vendors will be located at the new flea market at the former Williams Grove Amusement Park.(Jason Malmont/The Sentinel)
For nearly a year, the merry-go-round, the roller coaster and the other rides at the William Grove Amusement Park have sat silent on the banks of the Yellow Breeches Creek. Now a flea market is breathing new life into the former fairgrounds.
On Sunday, Alan Kreitzer and Troy Celesky — the team that operated the Silver Spring flea market for years before Kreitzer sold the land to make way for a shopping center — are opening a new market they hope will match the success of their Silver Spring venture.
“It was probably the biggest flea market on the East Coast,” Celesky says. “We attracted people from Maryland and New York.”
After closing the Silver Spring market — which was started by Celesky’s grandmother and Kreitzer’s grandfather more than 25 years ago — Celesky says he and Kreitzer searched in vain for a new location, but to no avail. Then Kreitzer, who works as a promoter for the Williams Grove Speedway, got the notion to operate a flea market at the amusement park, which was shut down by owner Morgan Hughes last year.
‘Hard to compete’
“It was just too hard to compete with places like Hershey Park,” Celesky explains.
After exploring the place, Celesky agreed the charming spot would be perfect for a flea market. During a tour of the closed grounds, it wasn’t hard to see why.
Celesky, who is manager of the flea market, says the blacktop walkway circling through the park is perfect for customers to stroll around the grounds and explore the vendor options. Unlike the Silver Spring market, which took place in a huge, open field, the amusement park is shaded by trees and is bordered by the Yellow Breeches on one side and a small lake guarded by swans on the other.
“This will be good for strollers and carts,” he says. “If it rains, there’s not going to be anyone stuck in the mud.”
Kiddie rides to operate
But perhaps most enticing to customers — and their children — is the plan to reopen several of the kiddie rides during flea market hours, including the merry-go-round. Since the announcement earlier this month that the flea market would open, Celesky says vendors from the old Silver Spring market have been calling him nonstop to express their excitement.
“They say, ‘I want to go on the merry-go-round,’” he says.
But the rides aren’t the only park feature the market will take advantage of. Although the old amphitheater on the grounds is currently being used as a storage shed, Celesky says, it eventually will be an indoor market. So, too, will the former arcade, which can fit up to 40 vendors
“It’s air-conditioned, too,” Celesky says helpfully.
The food pavilions will remain just that, although instead of catering to ride-goers, flea market employees will feed vendors and their customers. Celesky hopes to have the food stands open by summer.
“I’m really excited,” he says. “The people I’ve been talking to are loving it because of the fact that’s it’s so different. It’s a nice set-up.”
Future dates
Although the flea market primarily will be on Sundays, Celesky says, it may open on the occasional Saturday in the hopes of attracting the many people who attend races at the speedway.
During the “World of Outlaw” event alone, Celesky notes, the speedway draws thousands of people who camp out on the surrounding grounds.
“We might be able to get 500 to 600 people walking around here,” he says.
Opens Sunday
At the flea market’s grand opening on Sunday, Celesky says, he expects about 100 to 150 vendors with more to come.
Most of those vendors, Celesky says, are regulars from the Silver Spring days.
Although he admits it was nice to sleep in on Sundays for the first time in decades, Celesky says, he missed his friends from the flea market who, over the years, had become an extended family.
“I’ve spent the past 25 years with a lot of these guys every Sunday,” he says. “They know my kids, We just all know each other. That was the hardest part, not seeing the people.”
