The Commonwealth Project LLC
We open small markets and stock them from nearby.
The Commonwealth Project is a two-person Pennsylvania company. We find a main street with farms and makers around it, open a market the town will actually use, and fill it from inside about an hour's drive. New Cumberland General Store is the first one.
Why bother
Why a market and not a shop.
A market can take a grower's whole crate on a Thursday and pay them the week it sells. It can give a soapmaker four feet of shelf without asking her to commit to a year of it. That is a much shorter distance between the person who made a thing and the person who takes it home, and it is most of the reason we bothered.
How it works
How each location works.
01
Vendors first, lease second
We do not sign for a storefront until enough growers and makers have committed to filling it. Day one should look like month twelve.
02
Leave room to change
Shelf space held open for new makers and a calendar of events. The store should change with the seasons and with the people who fill it.
03
Fair splits, said out loud
Our vendors know their terms before they bring anything in, and most of each sale goes back to the person who made it.
The two of us
Who runs it.
Daniel Crawford of Run-a-Muck Farms and William Padilla-Brown of MycoSymbiotics. Two Pennsylvania growers who wanted a permanent home for local makers, and formed the company in 2026 to build one.
Meet the vendors →Next
Looking for the next street.
New Cumberland is the first. If your Pennsylvania town has a main street and makers nearby, we would like to hear about it.