Commercial Buildings Archives - Page 50 of 76

West on Merrimack Street, Lowell, Mass

July 29, 2015 by Derek Strahan

The view looking west on Merrimack Street from Kearney Square, around 1908. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

Merrimack Street in 2015:

These views show the same section of Merrimack Street as the ones in this post, just from the opposite direction. This area has long been the commercial center of the city, and it saw significant development in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Since then, however, there haven’t been many major changes, so this stretch of Merrimack Street is lined on both sides with a number of historic buildings, including three prominent ones that appear in both of these photos: the Colonial Building (1906) on the far left, the Wyman’s Exchange (c.1880) just beyond it, and the massive Hildreth Building (1882) on the opposite side of the street.

The Colonial Building is one of the newest buildings in this scene, and in the 1908 photo it looks like the finishing touches aren’t complete yet, because the storefront windows are still covered in paper. It was built on the site of Barristers’ Hall, a church-turned-lawyer’s office that had been built in 1843 and burned down in 1905. The owner, Joseph L. Chalifoux, was a clothing merchant who rebuilt the site and leased the new building to Nelson’s, a five and ten cent store that was probably in the process of opening when the first photo was taken. Since then, the building was expanded in 1929, and has continued to house retail space and commercial offices, enjoying a prominent location on the corner of Merrimack and Central Streets.

On the other side of Central Street is Wyman’s Exchange, which replaced an earlier building of the same name that was built in the 1830s. Over the years, a number of businesses have used the storefronts along the Central and Merrimack Street sides, with the upper floor being used for professional offices such as lawyers, doctors, and dentists. The one major change that has occurred since the first photo was taken was the addition of a fifth and sixth floor atop the original building. The upper floors match the rest of the building, and it was probably done soon aftert he first photo was taken. Today, aside from being taller by 50 percent, the building retains much of its historic appearance.

The Hildreth Building was built in several stages between 1882 and 1884, beginning with the part closest to the camera. One of the building’s first tenants was S & H Knox and Company, a five-and-dime store that was still operating out of the building on the left-hand side when the 1908 photo was taken. Within a few years, the owner of the company would merge with his cousins’ stores to form F.W. Woolworth. The storefront on the other side was the home of King’s, a clothing company that asks prospective customers “Why not give us a try?” in a sign over one of the windows. In 1908, the east side of the building featured a large advertisement for Uneeda Biscuit, made by the National Biscuit Company. The biscuits are no longer made today, but the company has since shortened their name to Nabisco, and they still use a variation of the logo seen on the sign.

East on Merrimack Street, Lowell, Mass

July 29, 2015 by Derek Strahan

Merrimack Street in Lowell, looking east from the corner of Kirk Street around 1908. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

Merrimack Street in 2015:

The city of Lowell was once one of the major manufacturing centers in the country, and for much of the 19th century it was the state’s second largest city. This section of Merrimack Street became the commercial center of the prosperous city, but by the mid 20th century most of the factories had closed, the population declined, and there wasn’t much economic development in the downtown area. From a historical preservation perspective, this actually worked out, because today’s Merrimack Street includes a number of historic late 19th century commercial buildings that may have otherwise been demolished and redeveloped. The city has since undergone a revitalization, thanks in part to the creation of the Lowell National Historical Park and the growth of UMass Lowell.

Among the many historic buildings that survive from the original photo, probably the most prominent is the Bon Marche Building, the large yellow brick building on the left. It actually consists of two 19th century buildings, with the section on the far right having been built around 1874. The much larger section was built in 1892, and was the home of the Bon Marche department store. In 1927, the department store expanded, with a matching addition on the left-hand side that gave the building a little more symmetry. The addition replaced the much smaller brick building that had the large “Bon Marche” sign on the front in the 1908 photo. The Bon Marche closed in 1976, and the space was used by the Jordan Marsh department store until it too closed in the 1990s. Today, the building is home to the UMass Lowell Bookstore and several other businesses, but there is at least one reminder left from its past – the faded paint of the white sign on the top of the 1927 addition, which reads “The Bon Marche.”

Other historic buildings include the 1846 Welles Block, visible on the far left. (The 2015 photo was taken from a little further back, so more of the building can be seen in it than in the 1908 photo.) In the distance at the center of the photo is the Runels Building, also known as the Fairburn Building. It was built around 1892 for retail and office space, and in 2004 the upper floors were renovated and converted into condominium units. On the right-hand side of the street, probably the most obvious surviving building is the 1893 Middlesex Safe Deposit and Trust Company Building, another one of many commercial buildings on Merrimack Street that was built in the 1890s. The building, with its distinctive oval window on the side, is at the corner of Merrimack and Palmer Streets, and over the years has been used as a bank and as a fur company. Today, the exterior of the building is well-preserved, and the retail space on the ground floor is a bakery.

Main Street, Laconia, NH

July 31, 2016July 28, 2015 by Derek Strahan

Looking north on Main Street in Laconia at the intersection of Pleasant Street, probably in 1907. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

Main Street in 2015:

As far as I can tell, only one building from the first scene survives today: the brick building on the left side of Main Street, just to the right of the center in both photos. As was the case in many other parts of the country during the 1960s, a number of Laconia’s historic downtown buildings were destroyed as part of an urban renewal project. However, the most prominent building in the first scene, the Eagle Hotel, was gone before then. It enjoyed a prominent location right at the intersection of Main and Pleasant Streets, and was just a block away from the railroad station. Around the time that the first photo was taken, it was one of Laconia’s most popular hotels (and, at $2.50 a day, one of its most expensive as well). By the 1950s, the former hotel had been demolished and replaced by Woolworth’s, as seen in some of the pre-urban renewal photos featured on this Weirs Beach website. Today, the site is occupied by a one story brick building with commercial storefronts. This might be the same building that Woolworth’s was once in, but if so it has been heavily modified over the years.

Part of the urban renewal projects involved changing some of the traffic patterns in downtown Laconia. Today, Main Street south of here (behind the photographer) is a narrow, single lane one way street that carries northbound traffic. The buildings on the left-hand side of the street in that section extend about 40 feet closer to the center of the road than the pre-renewal buildings did. In this scene, the road is as wide as it was a century ago, but it still has just one way northbound traffic, with angled on-street parking taking up what was once the southbound travel lane. Pleasant Street is now one way, southbound, and any traffic on the street must circle around the former Woolworth’s site and head back north on Main Street.

Although the first scene is mostly deserted, there are a few interesting things going on. The man on the far left appears to be a street sweeper; he is pushing what looks like a large, wheeled canvas bag while holding a broom and probably a pick. He is looking at the ground, and it seems like he is about to walk into the path of the oncoming trolley. The trolley has a handbill on the front, advertising for “Adrift in New York,” which would be showing at the Moulton Opera House on Tuesday, September 17. The Library of Congress estimates that the this photo was taken in 1908, but September 17 fell on a Tuesday in 1907, so the photo was probably taken in early to mid September of that year. Plays weren’t the only form of entertainment that was available at the Moulton Opera House, though; a sign on the sidewalk reads “Don’t Fail to See the Great Moving Pictures Tonight.” The “moving pictures” would have been early silent films, most of which were not preserved and have long since been lost to history. Likewise, the trolleys have been lost to history; the Laconia Street Railway shut down in 1925 amid growing competition from cars and buses.

Main Street, Plymouth, NH (1)

July 27, 2015 by Derek Strahan

The east side of Main Street in Plymouth, seen from the corner of Court Street around 1908. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

Main Street in 2015:

The first photo shows a town center in transition. On the far left is an old house, which probably dates to the early 1800s. This was likely one of many that once lined Main Street, but over time they were replaced with brick commercial blocks, like the 1898 Rollins Building that appears in the center of both photos. Eventually, the house would be demolished and replaced by more commercial storefronts, which today make up the bulk of the east side of Main Street in the downtown area. The days were also numbered for the Pemigewasset House, the hotel seen in the distance on the right side of the photo. It was built in 1863 and burned down in early 1909, probably less than a year after the photo was taken.

Aside from the transition from residential to commercial buildings on Main Street, we also see changes in transportation. The wood-framed commercial block just to the right of the Rollins Building has a sign out front that reads “Automobiles Stop Here for Gasolene,” and there is at least one car in the scene, on the far right. However, the photo also includes several horse-drawn carriages that would have had no use for the “gasolene,” and would have instead used the watering trough in the middle of the street in the center of the photo.

Today, all of the buildings are gone except for the Rollins Building. When the first photo was taken, the left storefront was the Fred W. Brown drugstore, which according to the sign on the left side of the building offered “Lowney’s Chocolate Bonbons.” The storefront to the right was a market, and tables of produce can be seen under the awning. More than a century later, the building is still used as a grocery store, the Chase Street Market.

Highland Street, Plymouth, NH

July 28, 2018July 23, 2015 by Derek Strahan

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

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)

July 23, 2015July 10, 2015 by Derek Strahan

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.

The location in 2015:

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.