Spring Shopping Trip In Retro Boston During March, 1941

Hello, My Fellow Retro Boston Lovers!


Today we stroll back to a spring shopping trip in Boston during the month of March, 1941.


War was raging across the Atlantic and Pearl Harbor was still some months away.
The Cocoanut Grove tragedy had not yet scared the city.
Boston went about her business in this pre-war calm.
Boston still had a West End teaming with life.
Scollay Square still had a reputation.
Boston had yet to be redeveloped by the experts.
Boston was rough, frayed on the edges, and very much alive!

The Boston of 1941 was packed with stores and shops… the choices seemed endless.
Vacant shop fronts were very rare…the 1940’s merchants still held downtown Boston as fertile ground.


The big department stores were thriving and beginning to look to the suburbs for further growth opportunities. Boston still even had the wonderful department store, C.F. Hovey’s in 1941. Although owned by the Jordan Marsh Company since 1925, Hovey’s was still a separate store with a very loyal customer base and a fine reputation for quality goods and services.
Hovey’s was located in a collection of well worn buildings where the three new buildings (begun in 1949 and finally completed in 1957) of the former Jordan Marsh Company are now located.














You will also note that the Boston branch of Bond's in 1941 was located on the corner of Washington Street and Essex...just beyond R.H. White's. They would later move to Summer Street just beyond Kennedy's.



For a bit of flavor, I have added a look at a few smaller stores as well as what Gilchrist’s had as lunch specials in both the Marble Spa and basement lunch counter. I just love the Gilchrist Company signature logo of the early 40’s...so stylish!


Also take a look at what was playing on the screens and stages of Boston’s many fabulous theatres during mid- March of 1941. In these early days of the 1940’s, all the live venues as well as the cinemas seemed to have bookings week after week. Nights out offered countless options.




































These were the days when my mother and father were young and found Boston to be a place so vibrant and colorful...it captured their imaginations and each loved to be taken round the many stores and shops as a Saturday treat!

Browsing more than buying...saving up for the occasional, special treat...cutting out the many newspaper adverts, wishing and planning how to spend your very tiny allowance.

Yes, 1941 was a simpler time...and downtown Boston was a playground to be explored with pleasures a plenty!

Enjoy...Charles:-)


charles65ofboston@yahoo.com

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Conrad & Chandler's: The Story of a 1958 Retro Boston Merger

Hello, Retro Boston Lovers!









As many of my readers fondly recall, Boylston, Tremont and Washington Streets plus many of the smaller connecting streets were blooming with a host of smaller specialty shops to cater to the whims and fancies of the retro Boston shopper.


The big department stores worked very hard to meet all the needs of the average shopper but many folks loved to be looked after in slightly less “busy” surroundings. I think anyone born in the last twenty years in Boston can not possibly understand or imagine the fact that one could start a shopping spree at 10 AM in Boston and be exhausted, bag laden and have visited countless shops by 4 PM.



The stores in Boston, like most cities, came in four sizes…small, average, large and very large.
The very large stores like Filene’s, Jordan Marsh, Gilchrist’s, Raymond’s and RH. White’s carried vast amounts of stock and had departments upon departments.

The large stores like C. Crawford Hollidge and Conrad & Chandler’s were shops that specialized in outfitting women of all ages plus had other departments thrown in for good measure.

Today we shall focus on Conrad & Chandler’s and how they came to be one united store in 1958.

Conrad’s on Winter Street and Chandler and Company on Tremont Street each had a strong client base and had long histories dating well back into the 1800’s. Both stores grew larger and added on departments such as infant and toddler goods, a small selection of men’s apparel, beauty salons, and some children’s toys and clothing. A woman could have her complete wardrobe provided by either shop and also do a great deal of her family Christmas shopping there as well with ease.

Conrad’s became known as… “That distinctive store on Winter Street.” A slogan that would be carried into the merger in 1958.














Both had impressive buildings. Chandler’s on the corner of Tremont and West Street was by far the larger of the two. It had eleven floors and its location facing Boston Common put it in the class of RH. Stearns and C. Crawford Hollidge’s. History and accessibility made both stores survivors of the Boston retail scene and by the 1950’s, Chandler’s had a branch store in Belmont proving financial viability.

The shocking closure of two of Boston’s well known stores, White’s and Slattery’s in the summer of 1957 gave Boston retailers a chance to look at some bleak facts.

Boston was not the magnet for shoppers that is used to be, keeping up with the times was crucial and investing in suburban branches was a race that needed to be won!





















The two store heads looked at the situation and decided on a course of action.
Merge and grow stronger…no more competing against one another…unite and go from strength to strength. They selected Winter Street as place to retain and merge their stores. The beautiful building on the corner of West and Tremont Streets was to be sold and converted to mainly offices. The branch in Belmont would carry on christened with the new name…Conrad & Chandler’s. The announcement of the merger came in late 1957 just as the Christmas shopping frenzy began. By January 1958, both stores were united on Winter Street with a sign above the doors proclaiming this new partnership.

Also in the works by this point was a new branch in the North Shore Shopping Plaza in Peabody. The merger was providing the much needed capital to back this suburban expansion that each on their own might not have been quite able to manage.
Boston had a new, stronger store and 1958 shoppers seemed to be pleased with the news.













The store would carry on and expand further into the suburbs over the next decade before things began to slide downward.

Today we are celebrating the merger…enjoy the look of the ads and articles before, during and after the merger. I also include a look at the former Chandler and Company building on the corner of Tremont and West Streets. The handsome building still stands today and is part of Suffolk University.


More information on Conrad & Chandler’s can be found at:

http://shoppingdaysinretroboston.blogspot.com/2010/08/look-at-some-smaller-shops-in-retro.html


Enjoy!!

Charles:-)



charles65ofboston@yahoo.com

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