65 East Broad Street in Hopewell was built in 1933 as a combination garage, store, and apartment – and as the new home of the Arena family and their Italian-American grocery business.
The building was shared by multiple businesses into the 1940s, and then was the home of several auto sales and repair businesses until Malek Chevrolet closed in 2010. The Brick Farm Market then operated there from 2013 to 2023.
== See the full brief on 65 East Broad – Markets and Autos (PDF)
for more information and full references on the story of this building ==
1933 – The Building and Property – Thomas Arena
The 65 East Broad property was purchased and the building was built in 1933 by Thomas and Antonina Arena.
Thomas Ponziano Arena had immigrated from Italy to the United States in 1904 at around age 7. He lived with family in Manhattan, married, and began a family, while working in a piano factory.
But by 1930, when Arena was around 43, the family had moved to Hopewell and opened an “American and Italian Groceries” store at 25 Railroad Place – “We cook spaghetti Italian style by order. Pure Olive Oil.” The store also offered quick delivery for small or large orders, at all times.
In 1933 the Arenas bought the 65 East Broad lot and constructed the still-existing building, which was designed as a combination garage, grocery store, and apartment. The Arenas then lived and worked at 65 East Broad into the 1950s.
The building contained two sections, running front to back. The left third was the grocery store, and the right two thirds was the garage. However, the store was only in the front part of the left side, with the building split into two levels behind.
As was more visible after the renovations opening up the Brick Farm Market, the front area of the left side extends only about a third of the way back into the building. The back two thirds then is split into two levels that continue to the back of the building, with stairs up a half story, and a half-deep basement work area below (visible in the photo through glass windows).
In the original design for the Arena building, the front left corner was their Italian-American Grocery store, the basement was for storage, and the half-level up was their apartment and residence, which they occupied for years. This design essentially provided a second floor apartment, but in a single-story building. When the Malak family took over the building in 1955, the building still had stairs from the front section up to the apartments and down to the basement. They converted the apartments into additional office and storage space.
There was a side entrance to the building, with a porch with stairs up to a door, which then opened into the front part of the apartment (as shown on the J & S photo below). This door later was bricked up, but the door on the back corner of the building that enters the raised level is still there.
The Property
The current 65 East Broad property extends along Broad from the building through the parking lot to the corner of Maple Street.
There is a smaller back building behind the main building at the edge of the property line, which has been used mainly as a multi-unit residence, and an adjacent garage / storage structure that was used a garage for the auto businesses.
There also is a cut-out section at the southeast corner of the property up Maple which had a house since before the 65 East Broad building was constructed. This lot, now 9 Maple Street, was spilt off in 1983 by the Malek family.
c1933 – 1943 – Groceries and Garage – Thomas Arena
This Arena family photograph shows the leftmost door of 65 East Broad Street with an awning and overhead signs reading “Italian-American Grocery.” The gas pump has Tydol gasoline, which was a brand of the Tide Water Oil Company, which also sold Veedo oil and evolved to using the Flying A brand for gasoline.
At the end of June 1933, a newspaper ad stated that the new Arena garage and repair shop would open on July 1 with a “first-class mechanic in charge,” and the “spaghetti house” would open soon thereafter.
In August 1933, the Arena Garage at 65 East Broad was under the new management of Edward A. Briggs, for repair and body work.
However, the Areas apparently continued to still operate the Railroad Place store. A holiday ad in 1934, a year after the new building, still promoted the Arena store at 25 Railroad Place for “Imported and Domestic Groceries.” In 1940, the Railroad Place store was under new management by Jose Carballal.
In 1943, during World War II, Thomas Arena closed the grocery store at 65 East Broad “for the duration,” and “entered government service.”
By the end of 1944 and through at least 1956, Thomas Arena worked as a real estate broker, running advertisements for rentals and house sales. He also worked as a patrolman in Hopewell starting in 1947.
1938 – 1943 – Central Garage – Chevrolet – Vansant & Vandermark
The Central Garage was operated by Russell H. Vansant and J. Augustus Vandermark at 65 East Broad from at least 1938 to 1943 – using the garage area while the Arenas were still operating their grocery store there.
There were actually two generations of Vansants and Vandermarks involved in the Central Garage – two pairs of fathers and sons, with the same names, Senior and Junior. The families also lived in adjacent houses on Golden Avenue from at least the 1920s into the 1950s. Both of the fathers also worked for many years for the Reading Railroad in equipment and signal maintenance. Vansant Sr. also was Mayor of Hopewell in the 1930s.
The Central Garage name in Hopewell goes back to at least 1918, when the business was operated by Augustus Vandemark and then John H. Titus.
In 1919, Russell Henry Vansant Sr. (1884-1963) and James Augustus Vandermark Sr. (1890-1976) rented the Central Garage business, and then ran it through 1943 at multiple sites in town. They business originally advertised Nash cars and trucks for sale, and then added Chevrolet and then Oldsmobile models. By 1927 they were also using the additional business names of Central Radio Shop and Central Garage and Radio Shop, offering Copeland electric refrigerators, the Speed Queen washing machine, and the “famous” Atwater Kent radio.
By 1938, the Central Garage auto sales and service business was relocated to the right side 65 East Broad, sharing the building with the Arena grocery store until the store was closed in 1943.
1943 – c1945 – J & S Auto Parts – John Boice & Sam Oliver
This Arena family photograph shows the 65 East Broad building when it was occupied by J & S Motor Builders / Auto Parts on the left side of the building, after the Arenas closed their grocery store. J & S was there only a brief time after the Arena store, c. 1943 – c. 1945.
J & S were John Wallace Boice Jr (1921-1971) and Samuel Salvatore (Sam) Oliver (1920-2003), trained mechanics who specialized in motor work. Both served during World War II, and Boice accidentally took part in D-Day – he was repairing pumps on a destroyer when it set out for France.
Their business was best remembered at 13 Seminary Avenue (behind the Hopewell Inn), where they operated at least from 1946 into at least the mid 1950s.
The photo provides the only known evidence directly connecting J & S to 65 East Broad, although the 1942 WW II Draft registration for Boice also lists his address as 65 West Broad.
A circa 1945 date for the photograph is supported by the sign by the driveway, which appears to read “Thos. P. Arena, Real Estate Broker.” Arena first started running real estate ads from 65 East Broad near the end of 1944.
1943 – 1946 – Titus Motor Sales – Used Cars – Walter Titus
Walter A. Titus (1897-1957) operated Titus Motor Sales at 65 East Broad from 1943 to 1946, overlapping with the period that J & S Auto Parts was operating in the left side of the building.
Earlier, Titus was operating in Lawrenceville by 1941, offering “Easy Terms” for new and used cars, with “Cash Paid For Used Cars.”
In 1943, Titus purchased the Central Garage business and moved his business to 65 East Broad, joining J & S Auto Parts. He offered general repairs (with a free car wash for every oil change and lubrication), sold Tydol gas, and bought and sold all makes of used cars.
Later he went into business as Titus Motors in Princeton in the 1950s.
1946 – 1949 – Ralph’s Motors – Kaiser-Frazer – Ralph Marotta
Ralph John Marotta (1917-1980) operated Ralph’s Motors at 65 East Broad from 1946 to 1949, where he sold Kaiser-Frazer automobiles.
Marotta enlisted in the U. S. Army in 1941 as a vehicle mechanic. In 1945, Ralph’s Motors & Ignition Service was operating at the rear of the Hopewell Bank (at 2 East Broad).
Marotta apparently took over the entire 65 East Broad building, with an auto and electronics store, auto showroom, and repair bays. A newspaper article in August 1946 extolled his modern garage, with “large show room, complete parts department, improved office facilities and capable employees.” He also carried a “complete line of radio, refrigeration, and electrical equipment.”
1949 – 1955 – Gartland Chevrolet – Jack Gartland
John E. (Jack) Gartland (1900-1987) operated Gartland Chevrolet at 65 East Broad from 1949 to 1955, replacing Ralph’s Motors.
A newspaper article in 1949 reported that a new Chevrolet agency was being established at “Arena’s garage.” Gartland ads for Chevrolet cars, trucks, and used automobiles then continued into 1954.
After closing the business, Gartland then ran Valley Memorials in Bethlehem, Pa. for 17 years before retiring.
1955 – 2010 – Malek Chevrolet – Michael & Daniel Malek
Michael J. Malek (1917-1996) took over the auto business at 65 East Broad in 1955 from Gartland Chevrolet, renaming it as Malek Chevrolet. He had previously lived in Hightstown and worked for Gilbert Chevrolet there, before moving to Pennington to take over the Hopewell business.
At the time, the property was still owned by the Arena family. Michael Malek later purchased it in 1976.
Michael’s son Daniel Malek started working at Malek Chevrolet while he was in high school, and worked there exclusively except for his service in the Navy. Daniel purchased the property from his father in 1990. He then took over the General Motors franchise in 1996 after his father’s death.
The bankruptcy of General Motors in 2009 brought the end to small town-based dealerships like Malek’s.
As described by Dan Malek, Malek Chevrolet typically sold in the range of 80 to 120 cars a year, plus half to two thirds of that number of used cars. They sold trade-ins; they did not run a full used car lot.
In 2009, there were about 17 vehicles for sale at the one-acre dealership, including 13 new cars. The most popular vehicles were the Malibu, Silverado and Impala, but sales were down 20 percent from the previous year.
Until the bankruptcy, small dealers like Malek’s were viable because the GM franchise agreements ensured that all dealers paid the same price for the cars, so larger dealers could not use volume discounts to cut prices. But the government-managed bankruptcy forced GM to get rid of these “underperforming” small dealerships, which meant the end of Malek’s in 2010.
2013 – 2022 – Brick Farm Market – Jon & Robin McConaughy
In 2013, Jon & Robin McConaughy opened the Brick Farm Market at 65 East Broad. The McConaughys purchased the property from Daniel Malek in 2010, and performed extensive renovations to open up the space and add the kitchen in back.
The McConaughys started in the Hopewell area by purchasing property and developing Double Brook Farm beginning in 2004, a “pasture-based, sustainable, livestock farm.” They then sought to “bring the farm-to-table concept of local, sustainable farming to our area” by opening the Brick Farm Market and the Brick Farm Tavern.
The Brick Farm Market, opened in 2013, featured “a full service butcher counter, an on-premises bakery, a juice / smoothie / coffee / tea bar, groceries, sundries, artisanal cheeses, pastries and an outstanding cafe.”
The Brick Farm Tavern, opened in 2015 in a renovated 1812 brick farmhouse, features “pasture-to-table fine dining.” The site also includes the Troon Brewing brewery and Sourland Mountain Spirits distillery.
2022 – 2023 – Brick Farm Market / Ottoburger – Otto and Maria Zizak
In 2022, the McConaughys sold the premises and operations of both the Brick Farm Market and the Brick Farm Tavern to Otto and Maria Zizak.
The Zizaks originally founded Ottoburger in 2020 at 21 East Broad Street, before it relocated to the Brick Farm Market in 2022. They offered burgers and meals made from local sources.
In December 2023, the Brick Farm Market was closed, and the operation relocated and downsized into a farm market on the site of the Brick Farm Tavern, with a smaller footprint and no cafe or prepared foods.
References
Thanks to the contributors who kindly provided information and materials for this research, including Dan Malek, Otto Zizak, Jon & Robin McConaughy, and American Legion Post 339 (Mark Marotta, Sal Torre, and Joe Vaccarino).
== See the full brief on 65 East Broad – Markets and Autos (PDF)
for more information and full references on the story of this building ==
We welcome more information and materials on the people and businesses at 65 East Broad – and around Hopewell.
