ANAHEIM : PepperTree Faire Awaits Demolition

The PepperTree Faire, housed in an old 1920s building and cherished by people who have displayed their wares there for the past decade, has closed its doors.

The end came last week for the array of funky arts, crafts, antiques and other eclectic goods, in order to make way for a developer’s wrecking ball.

“I’m trying not to think too much about it, and just pack up and move on,” said Anita Carr, one of a handful of merchants packing their belongings.

For the past 11 years, Carr and others have sold knickknacks in the old building by the railroad tracks near the Civic Center, in what she called a family-like atmosphere where shopkeepers celebrated birthdays and held regular potlucks.

The building and land was recently sold to developers, who plan to level it and replace it with a cold-storage facility.

City Council members expressed reluctance to let the landmark go, but all eventually agreed it would be too costly--about $2 million--to move the structure to the city’s official historic area, Vintage Lane, and bring it up to city codes.

The building was first erected in 1922 by a German-immigrant social group, the German Concordia Club, which used the facility as a dance hall.

Afterward, the social club moved on but the hall remained, was renamed the Harmony Park Ballroom, and rocked with social dances and concerts through the 1950s and ‘60s.

The San Francisco Chronicle credits the ballroom as the birthplace of the now-famous teen dance song “Louie, Louie,” and recounted a story in which entertainer Richard Berry spontaneously created the hit there one night in 1955. “A lot of people met here,” Carr said. “A lot of people danced here. It was a fun place.”

The huge and spacious structure sits resolutely on Broadway Street with big front steps and twin pillars. Inside the front entrance, an ornate, carved tin roof lends operatic splendor to the dance hall. Beyond the lobby, a huge dance floor, now sectioned off into some two dozen merchants’ stalls, contains a small stage, still decorated with artwork depicting the city’s German heritage.

Adjacent to the dance floor is a tiny kitchen that recently served up sandwiches, beer and wine, and leads to an outdoor patio that is jam-packed with plants and trees that create a garden-like atmosphere.

An old gray cat, Annie, skipped across the patio as Carr recounted summer days when people would sit outside, drinking, eating and sharing company. She said her husband, Jack, built the patio booths from old church pews.

A number of merchants said they plan to relocate their shops. Others said they plan to retire.

A few leftovers remain behind--some kitchenwares, jewelry, old furniture, a framed California state flag--as shopkeepers make final trips to PepperTree to clean out their goods.

“It’s too bad,” said Carr and others as they took a break from packing last week. “We had a lot of fun here.”