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A rock concert is the latest event to land at Four Seasons Total Landscaping. A year ago that sentence might’ve seemed unlikely, but nothing is out of the question anymore when it comes to Northeast Philly’s most famous gardening center.
Featuring Florida punk rocker Laura Jane Grace with an opener by Chicago vocalist Brendan Kelly, the concert sold out in 17 minutes.
Set to go down Saturday, Aug. 21, at the nondescript strip mall on State Road that also houses an adult bookstore and a crematorium, the show announcement was covered by publications around the world: Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, Huff Post, Variety. Grace credited Kelly with the idea, calling it “brilliant.” (Update: The concert happened, and it was indeed brilliant.)
A second Laura Jane Grace show later the same night at Kung Fu Necktie under the El sold out in just 11 minutes.
Even if you didn’t get tickets, you can snag a commemorative t-shirt — which will also likely be popular.
Total Landscape’s star has risen steadily since Rudy Guiliani booked the spot for a bizarre campaign press conference the day the 2020 election was finally called. The location was launched to immediate fame after Donald Trump briefly mistook it for the swank Four Seasons hotel in Center City, and never looked back.
The family-owned business, started by Marie Siravo back in 1992, has brought a whole new world to its nondescript block down the road from the city prison complex, which is also home to auto repair shops, an adult bookstore and a crematorium.
Here’s a look at the many roles Total Landscaping’s low-slung warehouse has played over the past eight months.
Charity race finish line
A few days after the ill-fated press conference, a Philadelphia runner came up with the idea to host a charity race involving the celebrity horticulture biz.
Calling it the Fraud Street Run, in a nod to Guiliani’s never-proven claims of fraudulent votes and the city’s annual Broad Street Run, Jeff Lyons of Wynnewood launched the event with the goal of “turning something negative into something positive.”
He created a scenic route with one end at Total Landscaping in the Northeast, and the other in Center City at the Four Seasons Hotel.
Participants were asked to kick in at least $10 to participate, and combined with merch sales, the event raised more than $50,000 for anti-hunger nonprofit Philabundance.
International sculpture inspiration
Within two weeks of the Trump legal team’s parking lot presser, an artist in Berlin had sculpted a high-end piece of art memorializing the event.
Composed of wood, plaster, paint, metal and LEDs, the diorama by Tracey Snelling features a petite chain-link fence, a concrete wall, a rollup garage door, and lit-up signage for Fantasy Island Adult Book Store and the Delaware Valley Cremation
“Once I saw both the landscaping location and the adult books building, I knew I wanted to build it,” Snelling said. The work was on display for more than a month at the beginning of 2021, with a several-thousand-dollar price tag.
Portrait backdrop and (potential) wedding venue
Jokes about hosting a wedding at Total Landscaping flooded social media within hours of the original Guiliani fiasco, and continue to roll in.
But several people did ask about booking their special day at the alt-Four Seasons, Siravo told The Inquirer. It’s unclear if that ever actually happened — but a steady stream of people came by for other occasions.
Sisters met there for a Thanksgiving dinner picnic, a family reportedly came by with a hired photographer to snap their holiday card portrait, and innumerable people stopped for selfies outside.
Super Bowl ad setting
The gardening center’s biggest splash was arguably when gig platform Fiverr chose Four Seasons Total Landscaping as the setting for its Super Bowl LV commercial.
With the tagline “Small biz goes big,” the SB55 spot features co-owner Marie Siravo. “Success,” she says, “It’s often, right place, right time. What opportunity knocks at your corrugated garage door, you roll that puppy up!”
The ad also stars other family members, many of whom work at the business, and ends with a traveler walking in to ask, “Is this the lobby?”
“This is not a hotel!” Siravo shouts back.
T-shirt powerhouse
The Fiverr ad wasn’t making things up: The Siravo family did take advantage of the opportunity thrown their way by their unexpected notoriety.
After scrambling to quickly revamp the page so it could keep up with all the web traffice, the FSTL merch store sold more than $1 million across more than 35,000 orders in just three weeks after the press conference went down.
The online merch store is still very much active, asking visitors “Do you want to make America rake again?”
Available options include subdued forest green logo hats, American flag apparel, shirts in classic Phillies colors, a Wawa-inspired design, a “Rudy Moved Out” cartoon, and the newest addition, the Laura Jane Grace commemorative tees.
Historical marker no, documentary yes
U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle, whose congressional district includes the illustrious business, teased he was considering a historical marker for the site.
Despite more than 5,000 people signing a petition to make it happen, 7347 State Rd. didn’t actually get placed on the National Register.
But it will be commemorated for future generations.
Director Christopher Stoudt is making a film about the whole escapade. It will be “a firsthand account of the roller-coaster journey that one well-meaning small business in Philadelphia went through when they agreed to host a political press conference in the midst of the most hard-fought American election in recent history,” per an announcement from the filmmakers.
Produced by Glen Zipper of Oscar-winner “Undefeated,” the movie will be called “Four Seasons Total Documentary.”
Update: The documentary airs on MSNBC Nov. 7, exactly one year after the infamous press conference.
