While the days of the Half Lord of the Fishes pose are over at 4916 Baltimore Ave. in West Philly, another neighborhood store will soon occupy the former Wake Up Yoga location.
Employees announced their intentions to leave the site this spring due to a decrease in students. Perhaps the existence of two Yoga studios within four blocks of one another oversaturated the area with atman, as Studio 34 is located at 4522 Baltimore Ave.
Baltimore Ave
Replacing Wake Up Yoga? The Marvelous, the record and music store now located on Penn’s campus at 208 S. 40th St. in an underground (no, not a ya gotta know the password place, an actual basement) location among a strip of stores that includes a RadioShack, Ben & Jerry’s and Last Word Bookshop.
Current Marvelous location
Future Marvelous location
Employee Dave Koch told us a mix of things caused The Marvelous staff to take interest in the Baltimore Ave. location. Those being “we live there” and “the rent’s cheaper,” among others. He said they’ll look forward to operating in an area where they already know many people who will frequent the store.
It will mean a wide collection of vinyl and various musical instruments and accessories in a neighborhood with as many musicians as the Comcast Center has suits. It also means another locally owned store along the far end of the Baltimore Avenue Commercial Corridor. Right up the street at 50th and Baltimore you’ll find the Satellite Café, Firehouse Bicycles and Dock Street Brewery. And when (if?) the Apple Lofts are renovated and open, it will only mean more people who may want to buy vinyl. And vinyl, if you’re into it, is the kind of thing you struggle to pass by when you chance upon the velvet tape.
Dock Street, Satellite, et al
We’ll see if Baltimore Ave. above 48th Street continues to grow. Just this spring there was the relocation of Mariposa, and now Starr Boutique is coming to 5015 Baltimore, next door to an urban farm that opened this spring. We suspect there will be more, sooner rather than later.
–Lou Mancinelli