Temporary Vendor Shed Might Be Done by July

Wells Applauds Unity Behind Effort

A temporary home for merchants displaced by the fire nearly three weeks ago at Eastern Market will be ready to open for business in July, District officials announced yesterday.

A construction team has begun preparing the ground for the headquarters on the playground at Lemon G. Hine Junior High School, across from the market.

The structure, 230 feet by 50 feet, will be large enough to house the 14 businesses whose stalls were destroyed when flames tore through the South Hall on April 30. It will have air conditioning and electrical and plumbing hookups.

"It's a very exciting day," Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) said at yesterday's groundbreaking for the building. "This is a resilient city."

The "market shed," as the structure is known, will cost nearly $1.5 million to build. The city will also spend $1 million on refrigerators and other appliances for the merchants, equipment that will be moved to the main market when it is repaired and renovated.

Fenty said it will take between 18 and 24 months for the District to reconstruct the building, which was built in 1873 and is the last of the city's 19th-century markets.

Over the past three weeks, District leaders and community groups have been working to find new quarters for the merchants and reconfigure the sprawling market, a neighborhood pillar for generations.

A number of organizations are involved in managing Eastern Market, an arrangement that in the past has made it difficult to hatch plans for running the facility.

Since the fire, however, community leaders say they have been surprised at how united the varying factions have been.

"If we were bored, it would be a pastime to argue over Eastern Market," D.C. Council member Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6) joked during the groundbreaking. "But when challenged with a crisis, we came together."

He predicted that the temporary structure "will be interesting and part of our journey together."

Bill Glasgow, an owner of Union Meat Co., which has been at Eastern Market for 46 years, said he is eager to reopen.

Since the fire, he said, he has had difficulty sleeping as he thinks about the details of restarting his business. "You've got to start all over," he said. "I'll never stop worrying until it's all said and done."

At the same time, he said, the District has been responsive to the problems. On Thursday, a city official returned his call at 9:30 p.m.

"I said to him, 'You still working?' " Glasgow said. "How can you get a better response than that?"