Dreamland Expands its Horizons, Honors Legacy

Dreamland is, in the words of its new owner Maurice Lease, a Baltimore institution. Located at 845 West 36th Street in Hampden, it is a deeply beloved vintage clothing store, among one of the city’s longest running. It’s been around for more than 30 years in various incarnations, and was owned for a long time by Tim Potee, who passed away last fall. Lease took over the store and is beginning to revamp it, but still wants to keep its legacy intact.

Patch sat down with Lease and discussed the store’s history and his plans to transform Dreamland into something more than a vintage store; in his words, “an upscale boutique.”

Patch: When did you take over the store? Had you been friends with Tim Potee for a while?

Maurice Lease: I helped the family from November to December. I closed the store in December, did some remodeling and reopened March 19. I’d shopped at Dreamland since maybe 1995. In 2000, I worked with him for a while at the former Charles Street location.

Patch: How did it work out that you took over? You basically just stepped up to the job?

Lease: Dreamland is just such an institution in Baltimore. Everybody knows it. It’s even got a connection with John Waters: not only were Tim and John friends, but John’s production company is called Dreamland Productions. A lot of costuming for his movies came out of the store as well. I didn’t just want someone to come in, break it up and wholesale everything somewhere. Dreamland would be gone. I actually only recently learned the full history of Dreamland. The store was named after an amusement park at Coney Island that burned down 100 years ago this Labor Day. They were fixing a water ride, and the lights blew out and this ride called Hell's Gate caught on fire. The fire spread, and Dreamland burnt down. Dreamland was built to be high-class entertainment among all the other amusement parks. It was known for these grand, white columns. It kind of struggled, so they hired a guy who was later a part of Ringling Brothers to fix it up.  Part of what he did was painting the columns multiple colors. Just on that premise, I rebuilt this Dreamland to be an upscale boutique. There are white arches in this space, and a lot of the decoration is multicolored. So basically, I reopened Dreamland 100 years to its anniversary.

Patch: You said you reopened it as a boutique. How is that different from the previous store?

Lease: What Tim had was essentially a vintage store, and there was a thrift aspect to it as well. I totally remodeled, got rid of the drop ceiling, and just made it more shoppable. You used to really have to dig to find something. I did leave that element, but also added more organization. I’m also about to expand upstairs. We just started the construction and I hope to be opening it in the next month. I hope to bring a lot more into Dreamland than there used to be. I’m bringing in local artists, doing a monthly showing of their work, as well as bringing in artists’ jewelry.

Patch: What’s the art you have?

Lease: Currently it’s a local sketch artist, next month it’s going to be a photographer. I have two jewelers right now. One does kind of a steam-punk thing—she uses old broken vintage stuff to make new jewelry. The other girl does Shrinky-Dink jewelry.

Patch: How do you think this store is different from other vintage stores in Hampden, or Fells Point and other areas of the city?

Lease: That’s a hard one. When you have vintage and another store has it as well, you all end up being the same store. I do have a substantial men’s department, which many other stores don’t have. I’ve got history—the store’s well known. And I’ve got a lot of ideas for expanding the store, like getting non-vintage stuff. I’m also considering bringing in makeup and men’s accessories.

Patch: What’s the time range of what you have in the store? What other assorted things do you have besides jewelry?

Lease: There’s stuff dating back to 1800s, the Victorian era. Mostly up to the '80s, but there’s stuff from the present day. Other things we have? We’ve got a lot of fabrics and patterns I’m going to put out upstairs, as well as shoes and purses. I’ve got a ton of pop-culture lunchboxes. The store also won best cufflinks in the city by City Paper a couple years ago.

Patch: How do you perceive the Hampden business market? How are things changing?

Lease: Well, I’m only three months into this business, so I can’t really speak from experience with the store. But it’s a constantly growing neighborhood and becoming more and more popular. There are a few more vintage stores opening down the street. Hampden is becoming Baltimore’s premier shopping district downtown and I’m fortunate to have a store on this avenue.

Patch: How does your awareness of street fashion and magazine fashion affect your sales and what you put out?

Lease: I always wore whatever I wanted to wear, and never really cared what was in or out. I was never into shoes; I’m barefooted right now. I hate doing laundry. But here I am, I’m standing in my clothing store. I listen to customers and see what they want. I know a lot of stores out there start trends, and when I watch television, I try to pay attention, and think, like, I’ve got something like that in the store, so I’ll put it out.

Patch: What did you do before you took over?

Lease: Nothing, for four years. I worked for Aveda [a cosmetic products company] for a while. Aveda’s corporate, and after being in that environment I no longer wanted to work for anybody. There were very few jobs that I could do and I didn’t want to do any of them. This is what I wanted and it happened. Tim talked to me years ago about selling me the store, so it was always in the back of my mind. It’s really cool that I ended up with it.

Patch: What are your aspirations for the store?

Lease: I’m basing it around Patricia Fields, a fashion guru in New York City. She has a store that has a little bit of this and a little bit of that— it all kind of works and it’s all fun. I want you to be able to come in and get an outfit for the night. I want a boyfriend and girlfriend to be able to come in together and they can both get something. One-stop shopping.