In 2010, city leaders implemented parking fees in the Cultural District. A (perhaps intended) consequence was the slow death of the Cattle Barn Flea Market, the city’s oldest bazaar. The market vacated the premises early this year after a 40-year run.
Fleas might be tiny, but they’re fierce. And so are flea market vendors. They packed up their pottery, vintage cowboy boots, jewelry, antique toasters, custom knives, and assorted junk and moved to the West Side three months ago.
New Cattle Barn Flea Market, 8629 Camp Bowie West, near the intersection of Las Vegas Trail, looks nothing like the old place. For starters, there’s no barn, no dirt floors, no flies constantly buzzing. Located in a strip mall, the new locale features three important things that the old barn was missing –– air conditioning, heating, and free parking. The owner kept the Cattle Barn name because it’s iconic and resonates with locals.
“This place is a lot better,” said Charles Estell, a vendor since 1993. “It smells better than the old barn.”
Still, it’s a tight squeeze.
“We don’t have as much space,” he said. “I used to sell furniture and big stuff, but I can’t do it in here. But I can do a lot of little stuff.”
Estell’s new space, situated just inside the front doors and to the left, is 10 by 10 feet. That’s about three times smaller than his previous space. The old cattle barn offered 80,000 square feet and up to 100 vendors in its heyday. The new market is only 10,000 square feet. About 65 vendors are currently packed inside, although there is still plenty of room for customers to browse comfortably. Several vendors lease sidewalk space in front of the store, and another 20 or so are on a waiting list to lease spaces inside.
As the old Cattle Barn days wound down, flea market owner Norman Pannell hedged on whether to find a new spot. His vendors encouraged him. They wanted to continue selling their wares. But some of Pannell’s acquaintances thought it might be tough to recapture the magic. The old place felt historic. Vendors and customers had been traipsing those three long aisles, browsing through treasures for decades. The sea of parking lots at the complex was generally barren of cars, particularly since the market closed during the annual stock show.
Now city officials and various Fort Worth businessmen led by Ed Bass are fired up about building a $450 million equestrian center nearby. A scruffy flea market didn’t seem to fit the image. Getting rid of them was as easy as charging for parking. Fees were $3 at first. People grumbled but continued coming. Then fees jumped to $5. Then $8. Then $10. Customers bailed. Vendors had to pay too –– $20 a weekend, on top of their lease fees. Most quit. The barn, once so alive on weekends, had become dismal and depressing.
Pannell, though, decided to keep it alive.
“Everybody thought I was crazy getting this one,” he said, looking around his new environs last weekend while the place buzzed with activity. “We were full the first day we were open.”
Cattle Barn is the only indoor flea market in this part of Texas. Antique malls and consignment stores rent spaces to vendors but operate like a regular store. Shoppers browse the booths, but vendors are rarely around. A store cashier handles transactions. The new Cattle Barn resembles an antique mall when you walk inside now, except the vendors are in their booths or milling around and shooting the breeze, ready to haggle and swap and make cash deals.
“I didn’t know this place was here,” said Roy Sumpter, who was driving along Camp Bowie Boulevard when he saw the huge “Flea Market” sign on the building. Sumpter prefers yard sales and flea markets over antique malls. He didn’t shop for long before he found the perfect something –– a vintage poker chip holder.
“It’s a nostalgic, probably early 1960s,” he said. “It’s all wooden. Even the poker chips are wood. The cards are old. My family reunion is in two weeks, and I’m going to put this on the table, and we’re going to use them to play poker.”
Estell said word is out about the new location, and crowds have been strong. Pannell spent about $10,000 on signage, including huge letters above his front doors that are visible a block away.
The successful move and the waiting list for vendors have convinced Pannell he can make another one work. This week he signed a deal with the owner of the former Goodwill Store in River Oaks, near the intersection of Jacksboro Highway and River Oaks Boulevard. He hopes to have New Cattle Barn Flea Market No. 2 opened in July.
“It’s going to be the next big thing,” he said.
A wall splits that building down the middle. Goodwill used to sell clothes on one side and knickknacks on the other. Pannel wants to put another indoor flea market where the clothes were and an auction house on the other side. And while antiques could make up much of the merchandise, he’ll continue operating like a flea market.
“I’m providing something uniquely new,” he said. “They call them ‘inside flea markets’ out on Mansfield Highway, but they still have a cashier at the front door and you don’t have to be there to sell. We’re a flea market. You go to the individual person to buy his wares, whatever he’s got. Here it’s like a big family. People get to know each other.”
The grand dame is Jean Klein. She’s the white-haired woman who leased the southwest corner booth at the old place for 40 years.
“I was there from a month after they opened to the end,” she said. “I really hated to see it go, but that $10 parking just killed us.”
Once again, she nabbed a corner booth. And she’s happy about the move.
“This new place is good,” she said. “I almost had a heat stroke one year [at the old barn]. The last three years out there I’d have to go home when it got 100 degrees.”
On Saturday, the air conditioning was refreshing for customers, if not for Klein. She was cold.
“I really am glad the manager found a place for us to be because I was going to retire,” she said. “That was going to be the end of it for me. But I think it’s going to work out for the best.”
