Gifts from a new fan of the blog…

Hello Retro Boston Department Store Lovers!
An update finally!
Thanks to a new fan of the blog who contacted me recently, I have a few treats to post!
Michael is a Boston based man with many fond memories of the once “delightful and exciting” day out in Downtown Boston.
He sent two images for us to enjoy.
One is a small shot of the former RH Stearn’s building as it is today. It still stands out as elegant and proper as ever as it looks down on Tremont Street.

The other image shows a wonderful collection of what most Bostonians had in their wallets or purses for decades…some of the famous Boston charge plates.
I adore the Jordan Marsh Company plate most of all for the lovely little drawing of the main entrance to the large new “super” building addition of 1949-50. This charge plate style was issued in metal for years and I can recall both my mom and grandmother having them.
I remember when my mom’s finally developed a sharp crack in the edge and had to be retired in the mid-1980’s. The sales person was really impressed that she still had one of the “old” plates still in use.

That was true...my mom was a loyal Jordan Marsh customer if there ever was one!
The new plastic cards were just not the same. I had one in issued to me in 1983...it was my first real credit card...ever! It had to be from Jordan Marsh and I had a credit limit of $200.00...at 18 that was cool!
The modern logo and style of these cards seemed to lack that Jordan Marsh character that was so much part of the Boston shopping experience…but Jordan Marsh by then was really far from what it used to be anyway.
Thanks again to Michael and I hope that at some point he will share more of his Boston shopping memories with us!

More Soon...Charles:-)

ps...Please visit this wonderful link on Youtube to see a great video of Boston's signs of yesteryear. It includes some great old store logos as well.
The man behind the video and the other great creations you can see there gave me the go ahead to post this link. Enjoy!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irFPMvq4_VE&feature=channel_page

pps...Thank you Andrew!! The cleaned up plates are perfect!!
What a star!!