DCAD welcomes Spaceboy into College-owned Market Street retail site

Delaware College of Art and Design is delighted that its retail space at 706 N. Market St. is the new home for downtown staple Spaceboy Clothing.

The relocation of Spaceboy from its previous 711 N. Market St. address commenced in January and was completed in time for the store’s 10th anniversary celebration, which included a grand reopening concert on March 2. The “one-stop shop for locally made graphic tees, custom clothing, vintage goods and more” debuted at a site on Kirkwood Highway in 2009 before moving first to 617 N. Market St. and then to 711 as the business, owned by Noah Merenda and David Sanchez, grew and evolved.

“In addition to being located on Delaware College of Art and Design property, Spaceboy will be printing a range of College-logo merchandise that will be sold in their store and provide DCAD with more of a branded presence downtown,” noted DCAD President Jean Dahlgren. “We also look forward to collaborating with Spaceboy on curriculum-related and community-building activities, which could include internship opportunities and instructional workshops for our students along with events open to the public. DCAD and Spaceboy value highly the roles we play in the Market Street business community and Wilmington’s Creative District, and it’s exciting to be teaming up with such a likeminded partner.”

Merenda and Sanchez agreed.

“We are really excited to partner with DCAD and to kick off our 10-year anniversary in this awesome new space,” they noted. “Since moving downtown in 2011, we have always tried to play a role in the artistic community. We look forward to the new opportunities this larger space will bring us and the city.”

This isn’t the first time that 706 N. Market St. has been occupied by a clothing store. Braunstein’s sold women’s and children’s apparel and accessories there from 1922 to 1983 and was one of the first retailers to test-market DuPont’s newly developed nylon stockings in 1939.

The site’s Beaux Arts pressed metal and stained glass window display dates from the 1920s and is one of the most intact storefronts in the Downtown Wilmington Commercial Historic District. Like the main DCAD building at 600 N. Market St., which previously had been the headquarters for Delmarva Power and Light, the 706 N. Market St. building has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1985.

DCAD acquired 706 N. Market St. in 2011 as part of its purchase of the Brandywine Suites Hotel. The former hotel property sits atop the Spaceboy space and fronts at 707 N. King St. The hotel was converted into DCAD’s 707 Residence Hall in 2012.

In 2013, national art supply store Jerry’s Artarama began serving both DCAD students and the public from the Market Street retail space. Jerry’s moved to Newark last summer, and the space was temporarily home to the Cultura pop-up called The Living Room. It hosted installations, working artists, “Talk to Strangers” events and other activities meant to invite those in and around Wilmington to engage with one another and the bustling downtown scene.