Max and Hilda

Shopkeeper Nicole’s entrepreneurial grandparents Max and Hilda Mermelstein sold tires, glass, potato chips, and operated a gift shop, all before they built their Mermelstein’s store on Cottage Street in the 1950s, which originally offered sporting goods. They were both born here, and both kids of local grocery shopkeepers.

Soon, they added gifts and holiday treats to their goods. And Christmas time at Mermelstein’s became a vibrant local experience.

Then, an idea for a greenhouse.

Mermelstein’s New Botanical Haven

Steve

and

Fern

The 1980s included daughter Fern and son-in-law Steve focusing on a newly remodeled and expanded garden center. With Steve adding landscaping services, and Fern creating baked goods, fruit, and gift baskets in the back.

Steve and Fern’s three daughters joined in. And Mermelstein’s adapted and transformed once again.

The 90s prompted another evolution, into The Marketplace, which saw the business adding several hosted shops and services, all in one place.

Then, a late 2000s fire destroyed the original building. But that family entrepreneurial spirit, and desire to collaborate with and serve the local community, endured. And in 2021, the business was reborn.

Granddaughter of Max and Hilda, Nicole is an artist and teacher. Her husband Jack’s a builder, baker, and dream adventure collaborator. Both NEPA locals, they share a love of family, community, and making, and a desire to nurture tradition.

With their own unique spin…..

1974 UFO sighting in Carbondalien, PA? Check!

Here to celebrate and serve zip code 570 and all of its potential visitors,

THIS is a place they call home.

Jack and Nicole

These days, you’ll still find Fern’s baked goods in the case, Steve’s green arrangements on special occasions, gifts a la Hilda’s once upon a time shop, and that Max entrepreneurial drive. City Line is all this along with fresh weekly offerings, mercantile and communal, baked, brewed, cooked up, curated, and built with lots of love by current stewards Jack and Nicole.