Commercial Buildings

Highland Street, Plymouth, NH

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Looking up Highland Street from Main Street in Plymouth, around 1900-1910. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

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Highland Street in 2018:

It’s hard to tell, but I don’t know if any of the buildings from the first scene survive today.  Many of the buildings in both photos are partially hidden by trees, but the most prominent building in the 1900s photo is the Tufts Building, on the far left.  It was built in 1880 by John S. Tufts, a local businessman who opened a dry goods store in 1861 just around the corner from here, and later opened a drugstore.  He died in 1888, but over a decade later his name still appears on the sign above the door.  There are at least four horse-drawn carriages outside the building in the first photo, and one of them is filled with milk cans, so these were probably local farmers making deliveries to the stores in the building.

I don’t know what happened to the Tufts Building, but it is possible that, like many other 19th century wood-framed commercial buildings, it may have burned down.  The building on the site today is Northway Bank, formerly the Pemigewasset National Bank.  This building opened in 1955, with President Eisenhower cutting the ribbon at the opening ceremonies.  The only building that might be the same from the first photo is the white building to the right.  There is a similar-looking building in the first photo, which appears to have been used as a workshop.  There are several carriages in front of it, so perhaps this was a carriage repair shop.  If it is the same building, today it is used as off-campus housing for students at Plymouth State University.

New Hotel Weirs, Weirs Beach, NH (2)

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Another view of the New Hotel Weirs on Lakeside Avenue in Weirs Beach, around 1906-1910. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

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The location in 2015:

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The first photo was taken sometime after 1906, when the New Hotel Weirs, as explained in this post, had another addition put on, this time to the left of the left tower.  The addition also included the Hotel Weirs Bazaar, which according to the sign over the right window offered “Souvenirs and post cards, novelties, cigars, cigarettes & tobacco, fine confectionery and Moxie, fishing tackle, rods, reels, hooks etc.” Other signs offer Indian baskets, “aluminum & Japanese goods,” Coca Cola, orangeade, phonographs, and post cards.  Visitors from New York could even keep up to date with a copy of the New York Herald.  As mentioned in the previous post, however, a disastrous fire on November 9, 1924 left much of Weirs Beach in ruins, including the hotel.  The site was later rebuilt as a motel and arcade, which is still there today.

Main Street, Monson Mass (2)

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Looking south on Main Street in Monson, toward the Methodist Church at the corner of Main and Cushman, around 1892. Image from Picturesque Hampden (1892).

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Main Street in 2015:

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In many ways, Monson’s town center of the 1890s was like many other New England towns of the time: a Main Street lined with elm trees and hitching posts, small stores, and a white church with a tall steeple.  Today, Monson still has many elements of a typical small New England town, but not much has survived from the 1890s scene.  Many of the stately elm trees were destroyed in the 1938 hurricane, and most of those that survived ended up succumbing to Dutch Elm Disease.  The hitching posts have been replaced by parallel parking spaces, and most of the buildings have been replaced with newer, larger commercial developments.  However, at least one building survives from the first scene: the United Methodist Church.  Built in 1850, it is the oldest of the four active church buildings in town (the original Methodist church building is older, but it is now a private residence), but in the past 120+ years it has lost and regained its steeple.  It was damaged in the 1938 hurricane and taken down in 1952, and was not replaced until 2010.

Flynt Store, Monson Mass

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The company store for Flynt Granite Company on Main Street in Monson, around 1892. Photo from Picturesque Hampden (1892).

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The scene in 2015:

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This location in Monson has been used for a variety of commercial purposes over the years, beginning in the 1860s when E.E. Towne opened a general store in the building in the first photo, which was known for some time as Towne’s Block.  By the time the first photo was taken, though, the store had changed hands, and was owned by Flynt Granite Company.  It was the company store for the quarry, which was located a little north of the center of town and was one of the town’s largest employers, with nearly 500 workers in 1900.  The original building burned in 1914, and the following year the store reopened in the present-day building.  It was owned by the granite company until 1935, when the quarry closed.  Since then, the building has been used as a tavern, bowling alley, and currently as an antique store.

The one thing that has remained the same since the first photo was taken is the Flynt Memorial Fountain, which was given to the town in 1882 by quarry owner William N. Flynt, as a watering trough for horses.  Today, it is still in the same location, at the intersection of Main and Fountain Streets, although it is now used for decoration rather than as a place for horses to drink water.

Main Street, Wilbraham Mass

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Looking north on Main Street from Springfield Street, probably around 1900. Image courtesy of the Wilbraham Public Library.

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Main Street in 2015:

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This scene along Main Street in the center of Wilbraham hasn’t changed much in the past century or so.  At least one of the buildings from the first photo is gone, and Main Street is now paved, but overall the center of Wilbraham retains much of its 19th and early 20th century character.  The first photo shows several historic buildings that survive today.  On the far left is the steeple of the Memorial Chapel, built in 1870 and now part of the Wilbraham & Monson Academy campus.  In front of it is the 1793 Old Methodist Meeting House, and in the left-center of both photos is the 1836 Rev. John W. Hardy House.  The house in the right-center of the first photo is no longer there, and the store on the far right looks like the one in the present-day scene, but there are some differences.  Either it is a completely different building today, or it has been expanded, because it appears to be much close to the Hardy house than in the first view.

Merchants Row, Rutland Vermont

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Looking north on Merchants Row from Center Street in Rutland, around 1904. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company collection.

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Merchants Row in 2015:

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Aside from a conspicuous lack of horse-drawn carriages in the 2015 scene, this view of Merchants Row hasn’t changed a whole lot in the past 111 years.  The only prominent building from 1904 that doesn’t survive today is the one on the far right, which was destroyed along with several other buildings in the 1906 fire.  Following the fire, the current building was built on the site.  Otherwise, all of the other buildings are still around today, although some have been altered.  The left side of the street is particularly well-preserved, with many of the buildings dating to the 1860s.  The oldest of these is probably the Ripley Bank Building, which was built before 1864.  Just beyond it is the ornate facade of the Rutland Opera House, which was built in 1881 after the original burned in 1875.  Today the entire area here is part of the Rutland Downtown Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places.