On Tuesday, Keller opened an outlet store for her Ashville winery in the same spot as that old lunch counter occupied in the former McCrory’s building — which has been transformed by builder Christopher Cook into a mixed-use development, with his multi-tenant Center City Market at ground level and eight apartments on the upper floors.

Tuesday was the market’s grand opening.

Keller’s Woody Lodge Winery outlet is in the “exact spot” where the lunch counter stood, Keller said, an hour and a half after her store opened.

Doing business there satisfied her nostalgia for those old experiences, she said.

Mirror photo by William Kibler / Center City Market developer Christopher Cook (right) talks with patrons Tuesday during the grand opening of the market in downtown Altoona.

Her mother didn’t drive, but her father would drop them off, then return to his business, Kolak’s Garage on Route 36 in Ashville, she said.

When she was a kid, downtown was full of “hustle and bustle,” she said. “Like a big city.”

The recent and ongoing addition of businesses like the new market pleases her.

“I’d like to see the city come back to what it was,” she said. “If I could be a part of that, it would make me very happy.”

The market opened April 1, but Tuesday was the first day for four of the seven businesses, according to Chris Cook, co-owner of the building with fellow developer Jeff Long.

All the apartments are occupied — eight families and a total of approximately 25 people, Cook said.

The opening of the market triggered memories also for customer John Basciani.

Sitting at a table in the common area, eating lunch from a bowl, Basciani recalled buying his first Beatles album in a corner of the 5 & 10, the day after the group’s famous appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show” in February 1964.

“Right by the window,” said Basciani, 73.

It was about 10 feet away from where he sat Tuesday.

You could buy 45s then for less than a dollar, Basciani said.

There was also penny candy; his mother worked at Gables nearby.

Parents at that time didn’t worry so much about letting their kids roam around, he said.

Besides, “Mom knew where I was,” he said.

They lived on Sixth Street, near Fourth Avenue, near Furrer Beverage.

At Christmastime, he and his mother would watch the parade from Gables’ windows.

The memories are “nothing but” good, he said.

Customer Martina McGough of Saint Agustine stopped in Tuesday after a doctor’s appointment.

She likes the big common space, she said, as she ate at a long central table.

She expects to bring some of her friends to eat at the market, she said.

Tuesday’s experience reminded her of the 1970s, when she worked at Bell Telephone, she said.

“I’m a little girl from up the mountain,” she said.

Also from “up the mountain” was John Palko of Gallitzin, who is retired from Amtran.

Recently, he sent a picture of himself at a neighboring restaurant and asked his friends to guess where he was.

A friend knew exactly.

“Word is getting out” about downtown, Palko said.

At PJ’s Food Shack, things are “getting better every day,” since the restaurant opened April 7, said Jamey Jackson, whose mother is the owner.

His mother, meanwhile, was working at her other business in the market, PJ’s Subs and Salads, he said.

That restaurant opened Tuesday.

It’s “extremely positive,” Jackson said of the experience at the market.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.