Going In Town: An October 1959 Boston Shopping Spree

Hello, My Fellow Retro Boston Lovers!

Today we are going back to 1959!
It is a wonderful Saturday morning...mid-October...Let's go "in town" and hit the stores!
Our list of things to do is SO big!
Boston is the place to shop...yes, we could go to the "new" malls....BUT Boston still has it all! We need to look for Halloween goodies as well. May have to stop in at Sears on Park Drive, they do have a great selection of costumes. But then it's back on the trolley to Park Street and all those stores!!!
After we are done today we could catch a movie or....if you want to really splash out we could see a live stage show, but The Sound of Music is sold out...fancy that....it's only a pre-Broadway musical tryout:-)

Enjoy this selection of places to shop and things to do from October 1959 in Boston!!!


More soon....Charles:-)

A Look At Some Smaller Shops In Retro Boston

Hello, Retro Boston Lovers!

Ron read J's memories and said:

Thanks. I don't recognize these store names; can you tell us more about them?

Peck and Peck, Chandler's, Coleman's, Conrad’s, Jay's??



Ron...You know I LOVE to tell more about the Boston stores of yesteryear and so I shall.


Both Conrad's and Chandler's were separate stores and had been in Boston for many years in and around what we now call Downtown Crossing. Both sold women’s apparel and had loyal customers. During those changing times for retail in Boston from the 1950’s onward, the owners of both stores felt a merger would strengthen their staying power. This was the same year Boston had lost R.H. White’s and Slattery’s (1957) and so Chandler’s sold their location on the corner of Tremont and West Streets and moved into Conrad’s store on Winter Street. The new store was now known as Conrad & Chandler’s and lasted until the late 70’s. The store was very much like R.H. Stearns and felt rather old style Boston. Long glass counters with hats and gloves attended by many older sales ladies hovering about wearing their eye glasses on chains around their necks. I recall the old inter-store phones hanging on the walls by each cash register with little brass bells on top that jingled when they rang. I think the building which was new in the mid-1920’s is still on Winter Street today with various businesses still using it.

Peck and Peck was chain of upper end women’s apparel and men’s neckwear stores and Boston got a branch in the 1920’s. It began in Boston on Arlington Street and moved over to Boylston Street near Copley Square by the mid- 1940’s. It last until the 1960’s or early 70’s. It was close to Best and Company...another New York based store with a branch in both Boston and Brookline.


Jay’s was on Temple Place right next to the rear of the C. Crawford Hollidge store.
It opened in 1918 and was an upper end women’s clothing shop more or less. It sold all kinds of goods for women on the various floors of the building. It lasted until the mid- 1960’s and had branches in several places in New England. The Boston location was the main store of this small Boston based company. The building still stands today on Temple Place and has been renovated greatly.


Coleman’s remains a mystery so far. I shall keep looking and hope to be able to tell you more soon!


Keep writing…keep asking…It is great to learn more about our retro Boston retail history!!


Charles................


My thanks to The Bostonian Society and the wonderful images on file in their archives.

J Shares Her Memories of Boston Shopping Pre- 1958

Hello, My Retro Boston Fans!

J wrote and shared some wonderful memories from pre-1958 Boston and the shopping scene she recalled. I asked a few questions and she answered with some great little surprises...I never knew there was a milk bar for children in Jordan Marsh....neat!!


Here are some of her memories for you to enjoy:

I've been away from Boston since 1958.....and much has probably changed.
Anyway - sister and I were reminiscing about the old stores we remembered. Here's
our list, of course headed by Filenes and Jordan Marsh Company.
And in no special order:
Raymond's, Bonwit Teller, Peck and Peck, Chandler's
Gilchrist’s, Coleman's, Conrad’s, Crawford Hollidge,
Jay's, IJ Fox, R.H. Stearn's, Best & Co. (that was in Brookline near S.S. Pierce).

There was a children’s milk bar in Jordan Marsh(I think it was) on one of the upper levels. My mother would occasionally treat me to a milk shake (no ice cream in it).
I recall that the bar was low – child height- and the round-seat swivel bar stools were also low. I think the bar had a painted cowhide motif done in black and white, and a mural on the back wall.
It showed a cow jumping over the moon. I could not tell you if the dish running away with the spoon was part of the scene:-)

I recall a tearoom on a perimeter wall on the first floor. The tearoom entrance had a wall about waist high and when you peered into the interior, it was kind of dark. The outside of the tearoom was lit with orange glowing lights.

I don't remember where they sold the baked goods or if my mother ever bought any - but I do own the "Jordan Marsh Blueberry Muffin" recipe, which I have made. I don't know if it's the best around, but it's good. Speaking of food… S.S. Pierce had the best hermits. Dorothy Muriel's (on Tremont St) weren't bad either.
If you ever get hold of the Thompson's Spa (Temple Place-West Street) recipe for Rice Pudding, I'd love to have it.

I don’t recall the main floor of RH White's (Charles asked me if I did) although I did work there part of one summer. They had a paint department and I think I mixed pigments into the paint for custom shades. I know I put
the gallon cans onto the shaker.

I think it was either Jordan's or Filene's (Jordan’s Annex) that had balcony around the sides…I think it was called a mezzanine.
Jordan's also had metal gated elevators, with a swing-out-from-the-wall little round seat that the elevator operator could use.
Each spring (I assume) Filene's would have the main floor hung with birdcages from which canaries chirped.



Thanks so much to J!!!!!!! Please keep the memories coming my way. I love to be able to share these wonderful, clear memories with our blog readers!!

A Place Called....Avon Street

Hello, Retro Boston Lovers!!

Hello, Ron!! You asked me to locate where Avon Street used to be and I shall try to do that so you can find the exact spot the next time you walk in Boston.

Many people who live and work in Boston today have no idea just how the streets have changed in the last forty or so years in and around the downtown area.

Avon Street ran between the two blocks that contained the vast Jordan Marsh Company store and connected with Chauncy Street at one end and Washington Street at the other.
It was almost directly across from Temple Place on Washington Street but just a bit askew...as so many streets where in old Boston:-)

Avon Street's demise was part of the redevelopment project of the mid 70's and early 80's that saw the fall of the Annex Building complex of Jordan Marsh Company and the rise of the ill fated... Lafayette Place. Bedford Street used to run all the way to Washington Street and almost meeting up with West Street, but this section of Bedford Street was also swallowed up in the large project. The old RH. White's building that had sat on this corner since the 1870's was sadly lost in the early stages of the project in 1975.

My last memory of Avon Street would be from about 1980 or 1981 after the Annex Building complex was gone and just a large, gaping hole in the ground. You could still enter or leave Jordan Marsh using the Avon Street doors(of the new 1977 addition that replaced the old Main Store) and walk along the long wooden wall that protected you from the big drop into the construction site on the other side. I think that auto traffic was now blocked from using the street and it was not long after that it was consumed by the vast hole as the foundation for the new shopping center was being built.

The Bostonian Society image from 1975 shows the corner of Avon Street as it connects to Washington Street(just opposite Temple Place) with the old Main Store of Jordan Marsh on one side with the blank clock face atop and part of the Annex Building complex of the large store on the other.
The shopper's map from 2010 has a red X to mark the spot today.

Hope that helps!

Now have look the next time you walk down Washington Street and see if you can locate the ghost of little, old Avon Street:-)

Charles:-)

More Ads from 1975 and... Boston Shopping Memories from the 70's sent by Henry

Hello, My Retro Boston Lovers!!
Thanks to Ron I present more ads from the Boston Bicentennial guide published in 1975.
These ads focus on Copley Square and the New York based stores that were clustered there for many years in and around the Prudential Center.
I tossed in the Boston Half Shell as just a great place to eat at on Boylston Street at that time and was very much part of the landscape of the Prudential Center area.


I was very excited to read some very vivid and warm memories sent to me by Henry of Vancouver. Henry grew up in Boston and shared his very fond memories of shopping in downtown in the 1970's before his family moved away when he was 10 years old. These memories are extra special because this was a routine he shared with his grandad...and he will always treasure those days out with him!

He wrote:

I remember going into Kresge’s with my grandpa. As you walk upstairs, to the second floor, you would see all the various knitting yarns on the right side with women's pattern designs and of course...the big toy section. It was 1977 or 1978 and this was where I got my first Luke Skywalker toy. As we head down onto the main floor, you could see the dining area on the right side of the store, I still remember looking at the yummy honey glazed ham! Grandpa bought some and that was the best ham I ever had to this day!!!
Across the street or near it was Jordan Marsh. My favorite was Jordan Marsh because of the bakery inside that sold blueberry muffins on the street floor of the old annex building. The best blueberry muffins!! These muffins had a big top, they were fresh, moist and delicious. If I remember correctly, there was a toy department(upstairs) and in that toy department they would have a section featuring toy trains. It was a fun time with my grandpa.
On the same side as Jordan Marsh on Washington St. we would head further down and we would shop at Woolworth’s for more Star Wars toys and Micronauts. After that we would head onto Tremont St. for a bite to eat at McDonald’s and later buy peanuts to feed the pigeons on Boston Common.
Then we would go to Brigham’s Ice cream for vanilla ice cream and head back home.
I saw the picture of the Paramount Theater that was near the stores…not my favorite part of town down there but that was the theatre I saw the movie, Jaws when I was 7 or 8. I can't believe to this day they allowed the kids in!
We moved from Boston in 1979 to Nova Scotia, Canada. When I came back to visit Boston in the early 90s, Jordan Marsh had changed and got a "new" modern look and Washington Street was free from cars.

Thanks so much to Henry!!!

Henry recalls so many things that I also have such clear visions of in my own memories.
The Kresge's ham did look and smell amazing and you really could not help but enjoy it as you came down from upstairs on the escalator.
I include a Nick Dewolf shot of Kresge's and Jordan Marsh for Henry to enjoy from 1969. He can see from this shot that the Annex Building(a whole city block of buildings) on Avon Street was right on the other side of Washington Street just before you came to the old Main Store of Jordan Marsh. Jordan Marsh confused many of us in our childhood because it had so many buildings and had so many ways to get inside....doors and more doors...floors and more floors. Just plain HUGE!! But wonderful....oh, YES!!!!!

Thanks to all and please keep sharing your memories!!!!

Enjoy.....Charles:-)

charles65ofboston@yahoo.com

More from the 1975...."Boston 200: Official Bicentennial Guide Book"

Hello, Retro Boston Lovers!
Thanks to Ron!! He has sent more scans from the Boston Bicentennial guide published in 1975 to add to the ones Bruce just sent to me for my previous update. I am adding a variety of scans here...so this update is a bit different. They are not all department stores in Downtown Boston but a patchwork of places around Boston to shop and eat.
These scans give a feel of what Boston was like in the mid-70's and it brings back so many memories to just consider all the choices we had in this city once upon a time.
There has been some talk on this blog and on others about the New York influence in Boston.
We must recall that the Boston based original BIG stores were all located in the Tremont or Washington Street areas of Downtown Boston.
The New York stores with Boston branches such as Best&Company, Lord and Taylor, Saks and Bonwit Teller were all located in the Copley Square area more or less.
This clear distinction remained in place for many years and these ads remind us of this retail divide.
Boston stores looked and felt different....a bit more old-fashioned and a little cluttered...but very charming in that New England way. Slow to change was Boston...for better or worse....but Boston had a unique identity of its own!
I love the Woolworth's ad!! The store was the pride of the Woolworth's fleet and in the 70's was a super place to shop. It was always very busy and it had everything you might want. Plus it smelled wonderful! The large, open street floor with its deli and coffee shop/lunch counter created some tasty smells.
And Brigham's Ice Cream locations were all over Boston, too!
I recall one at the top of the steps at Park Street, two near Government Center,one in the theater district and another large one in the Prudential Center. I know there were even more such as the one in Kenmore Square and several along Beacon Street in Brookline.
If Ron sends more ads from this guide, I shall post them here as well.
Thanks, Ron!! And now enjoy the ads!!

Charles:-)

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:-)