Photos of Borders DTX, interior & exterior

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JohnAKeith

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Even more (just as shaky and out of focus): http://s369.photobucket.com/albums/oo139/JohnAKeith/Borders Boston/
 
Thanks for the memories. :(

I haven't lived in Boston since June of '10, so it pains me not to be able to go back and stroll through there one last time. I doubt the space will be that open and inviting again for quite a while.
 
I took the SAME photo essay today! The store was PACKED when I was there though and the sale hasn't even started! Maybe Borders could just reduce itself to a local 1-store chain, haha!
 
datadyne007 said:
I took the SAME photo essay today! The store was PACKED when I was there though and the sale hasn't even started! Maybe Borders could just reduce itself to a local 1-store chain, haha!
Click to expand...

Weird... I went there on my lunch break today also. The place was a ZOO! I even bought a "Boston: Then & Now" book from the Massachusetts section of the store.

I know on another thread I suggested the turn this into a museum or a 4D movie theater or something else, but honestly I think this particular location works best as a book store. I'm not on team "Replace-it-with-Barnes-&-Nobles"... it would be kind of wonderful if they could turn this Borders into a 1-store chain.

And BTW, I asked the cashier when the close date is--apparently they don't have one yet.
 
dshoost88 said:
I even bought a "Boston: Then & Now" book
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I love that book! I bought it about 6 months ago at the Borders in Atrium Mall.

But yeah, I was there from 11:30 to 12:30 and the place was hoppin'.
 
Unless the bankruptcy judge tomorrow does something totally unexpected, this and all other Borders (and Waldenbooks) stores will begin liquidating on Friday, and will close no later than September 30.

I was surprised to learn that this is now the largest Borders bookstore in the US (by square footage) -- even bigger than Store #1 in Ann Arbor. There used to be a bigger Borders in Chicago, but it has already closed. The biggest Borders store of all is in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and I think it will stay around because it's now a separate chain from the US one.
 
In six months it will be a bank.
 
Which would bring it full circle ... but I'd hate to see that.
 
I'd love to see this turned into a supermarket. This area needs one more than anything. The absence of a supermarket within walking distance is one thing that has really kept Downtown from becoming a desirable neighborhood to live in.

I think the Five Cents has the size to be a pretty good mid-sized supermarket, but the multi-level layout could be tricky. With a little creativity, though, I can see this becoming a very distinctive and memorable place to shop for groceries.
 
Perfect. Though I wonder if supermarkets have high enough margins to operate in that location.
 
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I also like the idea of a small urban supermarket.

Historical image after construction:

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Trader Joes - scale, location, and format are perfect
 
What is that thing in the lower left-hand corner of the old photo? Is that what computers used to look like? Where's the monitor?
 
JohnAKeith said:
What is that thing in the lower left-hand corner of the old photo? Is that what computers used to look like? Where's the monitor?
Click to expand...

Looks like an electric typewriter. My family has a couple. We used one on occasion for our business, right up until probably last year. Still works great, but we finally used up all the old forms that were designed for filling in with it and just do everything on the computer now [finally].
 
JohnAKeith said:
What is that thing in the lower left-hand corner of the old photo? Is that what computers used to look like? Where's the monitor?
Click to expand...

Hehehe, it's certainly a photo embedded in time. No bulletproof glass around the desks and that groovy Frank Stella hanging on the wall too!

(For anyone interested, the MFA has a Stella hanging in the center of the gallery on Level 3 of the Art of the Americas Wing)

^Lol, I think he was joking. I'm sure he knows what a typewriter is.
 
datadyne007 said:
^Lol, I think he was joking. I'm sure he knows what a typewriter is.
Click to expand...

Ah... Wasn't sure. I mean, it's not the stereotypical noisy, black, clicky mechanical typewriter that usually comes to mind when you think of a typewriter, so I wasn't sure... who knows... lol.
 
All that glorius height wasted on a grocery store even a trader joe's

No that 2 story atrium as you enter is one of the best modern entrries in Boston -- it has to be associated with some use which benefis from a lot of light coming in -- not a supermarket or a theatre -- perhaps some kind of theme restaurant or the entrance to a museum

I certainly would hate to see it revert to a bank -- actually I hate to see it change from what it is -- but -- it looks like that option is soon to evaporate

i've got an idea -- suppose we had a big room i a building where people could come and read and perhaps even borrow books from a collection -- ah yes a Library -- perhaps with a room for video and another one for audio and some place to buy some coffee and croissants, or perhaps tea and scones
 
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