Time Traveling: The Echo Park Time Travel Mart

We've traveled quite a bit this month at Apartment Therapy. Staycationing, vacationing, sightseeing--it's all been amazing but we noticed no one had mentioned time traveling. At long last, we have found just the storefront to pull it off with the Echo Park Time Travel Mart.

From the outside, it's a really neat store selling everything from mammoth chunks to dead languages in a bottle. While the Time Travel Mart is kitschy and fun it's what's hidden from the public eye that is really the cat's meow.

At the rear of the space, the store does double duty serving as a non-profit tutoring center. It's real name is 826LA dedicated to supporting students ages 6 to 18 with their creative writing skills.

So why the Time Travel Storefront? Apparently the zoning of the first center in San Francisco required there to be a retail space as the storefront. So instead of the usual book store or art gallery, the amusing storefront was born. What's best is when you buy your next six-pack of bottled time, the proceeds go directly back to the center for funding.

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[Images from The Daily Monster]

Comments (7)

This post hardly did the 826 program justice. Seattle's got a Space Travel Supply Store, San Francisco = Pirates, Brooklyn=Superhero, and there's a bunch of others. A fantastic organization, doing some seriously amazing work with kids. Here's a link for more info...

http://www.826national.org/stores/

posted by camneric on August 18th 2008 at 2:38pm
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ATLA did a post a few weeks back about their poster series, I just bought the whole series and they are gorgeous. What a great organization!

posted by valleyval on August 18th 2008 at 2:44pm
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I love love love the SF Pirate Store! I knew the program extended elsewhere, but i hadn't realized there were so many of these...I feel a themed road trip coming on!

posted by cranberrybobbie on August 18th 2008 at 3:06pm
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This was started by Dave Eggers, who is also the founder and force behind McSweeney's and, once upon a time, had a funny/bizarre comic column in SF Gate, I believe. He seems like an incredible person with tons of creative, positive energy that he's been putting to good use.

posted by visualingual on August 18th 2008 at 4:14pm
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Ahh ... it's making sense now ... I like a few blocks from The Boring Store in Chicago's Wicker Park ...

http://www.826chi.org/

Add this to the list above. I knew they did tutoring / writing programs there but really had no idea what the deal was!

posted by rubyred on August 18th 2008 at 4:18pm
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the boston 826 is called the greater boston bigfoot research institue... awesome!

posted by closertotheocean on August 18th 2008 at 5:13pm
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That's great! I almost like it more than our pirate store. Almost.

posted by jennifer in sf on August 19th 2008 at 9:22am
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