Boston Celebrates the Bicentennial and Boston Yellow Pages of Years Gone By

Hello, My Fellow Retro Boston Lovers!
I start another update with a big Thank You to Bruce!!
Bruce is a serious collector of information and other memorabilia from USA department stores and what a great collection it is!!
He was kind enough to share some scans from his copy of "Boston 200: Official Bicentennial Guide Book". This guide was published in 1975 and was available to the public for several years thereafter. Bruce was given his on a trip to Boston in 1978.
The ads for the last four BIG Boston department stores are classic!!
Each is proud to able to share in the festive Bicentennial celebration that is about to grip Boston and the nation as a whole.
The period from the spring of 1975 through the summer of 1976 was amazing for the City of Boston.
The tourists flocked in and the city seemed to be more crowded than I ever recalled seeing it so far in my young life.
The Freedom Trail was revamped and new signs all over Boston helped the many visitors get around the city with ease. Some MBTA buses and a few select Green Line trolley cars had Bicentennial themes painted all over their sides and the multimedia slide show, "Where's Boston?" began to be shown in various locations around the city.
The festive spirit was everywhere and for the remaining BIG stores of Downtown Boston, it was the last time they saw such crowds fill their street floors. By the time Bruce got his copy of the book in the summer of 1978, RH Stearn's and Gilchrist's were both sadly out of business...but their wonderful ads remained in place.
I love the way Gilchrist's calls itself the "first" Boston department store...it only beat Jordan Marsh by about nine years....but we all like to be the "first":-)


I also share with you a selection of Boston Yellow Pages ads from the 1950's to the 1970's. These ads are also classic because they contain store logos and slogans that each of the BIG stores was using at the time the ad was published.
Note the way RH White's goes from praising the "updated" flagship store in Boston in 1956 and then in 1957 it's... Goodbye Boston, Hello Suburbs!
RH White's did try to update the aging building on Washington Street in the 1950's, the ad proudly states they have fast escalators and bright lighting...but this attempt at dressing up did not stop them from closing shop in Boston and heading out to the suburbs. The historic building only had short term uses and sat empty most of the time until it was lost to the wrecker's ball in the mid- 1970's.


Thank you Bruce for the Bicentennial goodies!!
Now please enjoy this selection of Boston ads from the past!!

Charles:-)

Looking at Photos: Shots of Filene's in Boston from the 1940's to 2008

Hello again, My Fellow Boston Retro Lovers!
I have had the pleasure of being in touch with some super folks since this blog began a few years ago. I am so proud to present some photos today sent to me by another fellow department store lover, Michael. Michael has been collecting photos and other items from the great USA department stores of old for many years now and has even started writing books about his favorite stores. He has a great collection of Filene's photos that make my heart sing out...Yipppeee!!
I have added a few finds from my own collection of images of Filene's to his great selection to help us have a good look at this wonderful, old Boston institution that people from all over the world have shopped at during its long, busy life.

Let's begin by looking at the wonderful winter scenes. The 1960 view down Washington Street is so dear. You can see the older buildings of Filene's as you come to Franklin Street. These were torn down in the early 70's to make way for the block shaped low addition that has only just been torn down as the building is slowly redeveloped for other use. If you look at the photos from 2008, you will note the way the older buildings inner walls had to be altered due to the lower height of the 1970's addition compared to height of the ones it replaced.

Now let's look at the photo of one of the Gabor sisters being given the key to the store. Note the great lower-case letter "f" on the key. This lower-case spelling of the store name was in use for many years and even was used on signage around the store as well.

Now look at the 1950- 1951 photo of Filene's looking toward a Jordan Marsh Company that is all set to celebrate it's big 100th anniversary. The old Shuman building of Jordan Marsh located at the corner of Wahington and Summer Streets has been all done up and it looks very festive, I bet it lights up at night!
Anniversary celebrations were big for Boston department stores, RH White's would soon do it up in style in 1953 and hail their own 100th year in business.

Note the various shots of Filene's street floor over the years. I loved the "Art Deco" lights that used to hang above the central sales area of the main store building. Classic stuff really! The new fancy fixtures are really a bit much that you see in the later shots. Give me the simple "Art Deco" style any day!
A make-over in the 1970's removed many fine features and covered much of the balcony area with mirrors...or what Filene's called...the mezzanine:-)
Boston department stores prided themselves on having unique street floors. Each was different. Filene's had the height and grand pillars that gave a wonderful feeling of space.

Note the basement shot. Filene's had a uniform basement layout. Upper and lower levels and all rather open and rectangular in shape. The ceilings were low but it was air cooled for summer comfort, note all the duct work:-)
By the early 1970's, Filene's basement was a palace compared to Jordan Marsh's on the other side of the street. Jordan's lacked air cooling in most areas and due to the vast number of different buildings in use...it was a hodge-podge of a maze to walk around in! Jordan Marsh was fun to navigate if you had time....Filene's went for the simple and direct approach to bargain sales.
Back in the ealry days of the 20th century, when my nana worked in Jordan Marsh, it was so hot one summer day that all the fire sprinklers came on in one area of the basement. That's hot:-)

Thank you, Michael!!! Your photos are SUPER!!! Real treasures!!

Enjoy....Charles:-)

UNKLE EPH'S FOOD SHOP, BOSTON...where pennies make sense

Hello, Retro Boston Lovers!
I have a wonderful treat to share with you sent to me by Irene. Irene worked in Raymond's of Boston while she was still in high school. She began up in the attic of the old store sorting greeting cards. She wrote:

I worked my way up...that included wrapping, sales, even typing (copying) some of the newspaper ads, COD's and eventually I did the whole store sales report which involved subtracting refunds, adding the sales of that day to all of the subsequent days and then typing the report and giving it to the powers that be. Mind you, all the courses I took in school were geared to sales and typing was not my strong suit, forget numbers on the typewriter. I taught myself to use a comptometer, did a lot of praying each day, and managed to learn the job and did it quite well.


Sadly, Irene left the job and life moved on but she recently found this little treasure in her sewing basket one day. An original Raymond's token coin. I have never heard of or seen one until Irene shared her little find.
I am thrilled Irene got some help and was able to send photos of the back and front of the coin for me to share with all of you. I also added a small shot of the front of "Unkle Eph's Food Shop" located on the street floor along the Washington Street front.

Thanks so much Irene for sharing your memories and your little Raymond's treasure!

Keep writing to me....I love it!!

Charles:-)

The Gilchrist Company Department Store of Boston

Hello, My Fellow Retro Boston Lovers!
I am thrilled by the many emails I now get each month as a result of this blog.
So many folks fondly recall these wonderful stores of retro Boston and want to share their own memories with me and...you!!
Today I look back on The Gilchrist Company...Gilchrist's as we all called it.
This great competitor to Jordan Marsh and Filene's occupied the corner of Washington and Winter Streets from 1906 until it closed for good in late 1976. The name of Gilchrist was part of the Boston retail scene from the 1870's but the Gilchrist Company came into its own in 1901. The store had always been in the Winter Street area but taking the famous corner in 1906 really put it on the shopper's map.
The opening in 1912 of the new building on the corner of Washington and Winter Streets made headlines and showed the rivals on the other corners that it meant business. Jordan Marsh had just finished building part of their famous Annex and Filene's had just built a beauty of a new, modern department store...Gilchrist's had to make a splash as well. It did and it still stands today in all its 1912 glory.
One of the many features of the new building were glass plate windows on all floors that allowed natural light to be used to illuminate the vast floor space. In years to come, the upper windows in most older department stores would be blocked out using wooden wall partitions...these added some storage space for goods and hid the now grimy windows from public view...how times change!!
Most Bostonians remember Gilchrist's for their famous almond macaroons baked in the little bakery of the store located along the Winter Street side, it even had its own street door if I recall correctly. The smell of these treasures wafted round the street floor of the store and has found a home in my sensory memories forever!
If you have read my 1968 memories posted a few years back, then you know that I was treated to one macaroon on each trip "in town" until the store closed in December of 1976.
My last memory of this fine store was from the closing sale in late 1976. I was taken in and my mom and I wandered around the ground floor and looked on tables filled with goods going cheap. I think the upper floors were closed off by this time as I recall signs in front of the elevator doors saying "not in use".
It was depressing. I bought a sweater and I always thought of this sad day every time I wore it. This was the first of the big department store closings I was aware of...RH Stears would close around this time as well. Downtown Boston was changing.
My mother recalled RH White's and Raymond's closures of the past as being "bad enough" but losing Gilchrist's on this famous corner was tragic.
By 2006, they would all be gone...my mom did not live to see that...she would have been very shocked...the Boston she knew so well...history!
The Corner Mall soon took over the ground floor of the vacant building in 1977 and turned the famous Marble Spa into a food court...but it was not the same at all!
Now we are left with just sweet memories of this great store!


A wonderful new blog reader has written me several times and has really been fun to get to know. Maryellen and her Boston chums had a theme party and used photos from this blog as a way to enjoy a walk back in time to retro Boston and a day out shopping circa the 1950's. They loved recalling dressing up and going "in town" to see what was on offer in all the big stores. Lunching in Jordan Marsh, Filene's...maybe Gilchrist's Marble Spa was part of the day as well as a visit to
the counter at Neisner's 5 & 10 for a cold drink.
Maryellen also worked in one of Gilchrist's branch stores in Medford and wrote...

Gilchrist’s in Medford was on Riverside Avenue in Medford Square , now a health services center. I worked there for a few years while attending what was Boston State College, now UMassBoston and I loved it; it was a mini-department store with almost every department in the Boston store represented. They were open every night, if I remember correctly; the hours fit my school schedule. I was a “floater” and worked as a sales clerk (not called a “sales associate” in those days) in every department; the staff was like family and I enjoyed every minute I worked there. Eventually I was trusted to run the “switchboard”, yes, a real switchboard, answering with “Good Evening, Gilchrist’s, how may I help you?” in my most pleasant tone. Occasionally the store manager (I even remember his name! Mr. Archimbault - Ed Flynn was the Assistant Manager) would call in from home just to make sure all was well - one had to be on one‘s toes at that switchboard. I must have looked like Lily Tomlin with the headphones, pulling and pushing those old-fashioned toggle switches. This was in 1957 – 1960. We rang up sales on the old registers with the numbers printed on typewriter-like keys and wrote up charge slips. There was a basement in the Medford store and for some reason, Gilchrist’s basement always had shipments of the latest shoes coming in and I had first crack at these. The spike heels with the metal tips, the ones that damaged wood floors and caught in gratings, were my favorites. The price was about $3.99 a pair. I discovered I fit into the largest size in the Girls Department, where the prices were considerably lower than the Women’s Department, this allowed me to buy clothes inexpensively with my employees’ discount. In between sales we would fold, straighten, fold again; we were instructed to “look busy.” The small paycheck I received (in cash!) paid my tuition, bus fare, etc. Good memories of that store and the people I worked with.

Wow! I love it! Thanks, Maryellen! Sharing these memories of retro Boston helps to keep the past alive and also records the way it was for those who are too young to know the Boston we did when we were growing up.
Keep writing to me and I will add to this ever growing montage of Boston memories.
I treasure these memories and I am thrilled folks like Maryellen are able to share them with us so we can all enjoy a look back in time:-)

Now please enjoy this look back at dear old Gilchrist's!!!

Charles:-)