Boston Department Store Blog

I wonder if this project was announced, but never built? From a pdf guide to Hayden Woods, which is right there at 2 and 128:

This was also the original intended site of the Burlington Mall. Fortunately, in the 1960s and 1970s the Lexington Conservation Commission was able to purchase various lots that make up the property that exists today.
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OK, I just sent you some more ads -- a few restaurants, some NYC department stores with branches in Back Bay, the Ritz-Carlton on Arlington Street, and ... the brand new John Hancock Observatory.

Let me know if you want the bank ads. I don't know why so many banks advertised in a publication for tourists.
 
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Ron Newman said:
Bonwit Teller was in the former Natural History Museum building, later replaced by Louis.
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Funny family anecdote: My dad was Governor Peabody's SPO and driver. The Governor's wife Toni (politely described by my old man as a "spoiled witch") once instructed him to take the Governor's town car over to Bonwit's to pick up her hat. Let's just say someone else had to pick up that hat...
 
CDubs said:
Not sure in the street view which is the Locatelli Block - Starbucks?
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Yep -- the words LOCATELLI BUILDING are etched over the door just to the left of Starbucks on Main Street in Winchester Center. This doesn't look much like a department store building to me, but apparently it was.
 
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Thanks. I'm trying to figure out where that photo with Kresge's was taken. Avon Street doesn't exist anymore -- where was it?
 
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
 
The live theatre listings refer to the "Little Opera House", a name I was unfamiliar with. After a bit of Googling I see that it was on Mass. Ave. between Boylston and Huntington, only had this name for a couple of years, and was better known for most of its history as the Fine Arts Theatre. The Church Park Apartments abomination occupies this site today.

By the time I moved to Boston in 1975, the Sears on Park Drive was not a full-line department store anymore, but just a warehouse closeout outlet. Do you know when this change occurred?

As for the movie theatre ads... [edited to move these to a separate post below]
 
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Well Done, Ron!
You should see the things I have found about the Back Bay Theater(the old Loews State) and all the protesting that happened once they said it would be torn down in mid-1968.
I will continue to do these Shopping day from 19?? style of updates and will try to feature all the stores and theater notices I can dig up:)

Enjoy....Charles:rolleyes:

http://shoppingdaysinretroboston.blogspot.com/

ps...The Sears on Park Drive was a full store(more or less) on the lower level until the early 70's. I recall being taken there to do back to school shopping in 1971 or 1972 and soon after that I noticed the stock became very thin and hardly anything to look at. It was not "fun" for a child to go there anymore....and the toy section vanished!!!!
 
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As for the movie theatre ads, most are long gone but a few survive, some with different names:

Metropolitan is now the Wang Theatre

Paramount just reopened this year as part of Emerson College

RKO Keith's Memorial is now the Opera House

Loew's Orpheum is still around but is no longer Loew's

Mayflower is about to reopen as Modern Theatre (its original name), part of Suffolk University

Capitol Theatre in Arlington is still going strong, though now with 6 screens

Newton is now West Newton Cinema, also subdivided into 6 screens

Strand in Dorchester is still open but struggles to attract live shows

Embassy in Waltham is not the same place as today's Embassy Cinema, but the new one was built a block or two from the old one

I can't read the name of the live-music venue advertised at the lower right corner; can you?
 
Is the Loew's of Loew's Orpheum the same company of the modern movie theater chain?
 
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