It's time for one more roundup of former grocers in northeastern Worcester! This is where my coverage starts to become much more spotty, so we're only going to see about a dozen stores along Lincoln Street between Lincoln Square and the 290 overpass to the south, and Brittan Square and the other 290 overpass to the north.
A note on historical sources: To get past stores in each location, I've consulted Worcester city directories going back to the 1910s. Here in the city, I'm drawing from 1916, 1922, 1927, 1931, 1937, 1943, 1959, 1952, 1957, 1962, 1969, 1973, 1979, 1985, 1991, 2000, 2009, and 2017. Also of note: this is far from an exhaustive listing of all grocery stores that have been in this area, although I'll probably eventually post the full thing, this is just what I've been able to photograph.
Reading the captions: A caption such as the following...
| John Smith (1926-1937) > Joe Jones (1955-1982)
...means that John Smith appears in the directories in 1926 and 1937, and Joe Jones appears in all directories I consulted between 1955 and 1982. That doesn't mean that John Smith opened up shop in 1926 and closed in 1937, he might have started in 1920 and closed in 1941 but since I don't have those records, I don't know for sure. Any questions (or corrections), feel free to drop a note in the comments and I'll look into it!
Brittan Square
6 Henchman St | Brittan Square
Lillian Williams (1916) > Joseph Williams (1922-1931) > Cash & Carry Food Co (1937-1949)
8 Henchman St | Brittan Square
Joseph Jacobs (1922) > John Troupes (1927-1931) > Anton Troupes (1937) > Ritz Market (1943-1957)
I'm not totally sure how this building would've been set up, but it appears both 6 Henchman and 8 Henchman were on the ground floor of this house. My guess -- and this is a total guess -- is that the area with the wooden vertical paneling was one storefront; the area with the diagonal corner on the far left side was the other.
25 Henchman St | Brittan Square
Pasquale Iacovelli (1922) > Catherine Powers (1927) > Gertrude Ritz (1931-1937)
You can actually see the original step/door frame entrance for the storefront between the two windows in the foundation. It looks like Ritz moved across the street to 8 Henchman around 1940. Notice the interstate on the left -- obviously, that wasn't here when the grocery stores were, and Henchman Street was a through street.
8 1/2 Perkins St | Brittan Square
Agnes Gazoorian (1922-1931)
Again, total guess, but I wouldn't be surprised if that basement space on the first floor was originally the storefront. The door has of course been changed, but the house dates to 1906 so it was definitely here.
171 Lincoln St | Brittan Square
David Pekolok (1916) > Hyman Joseph (1922) > A&P (1927-1931) > First National Stores (1937) > Colonial Market (1957)
Note that this building was constructed in 1925, so A&P was likely the first tenant in this actual space.
62 Green Hill Pkwy | Brittan Square
John Curtin (1916) > Johnson & Wennberg (1922) > First National Stores (1931) > Dante Soloperto (1949) > James Moles (1952)
An amazing storefront now turned into what appears to be mostly a garage for the large house at 179 Lincoln Street. The buildings are actually connected, which you can see here.
67 Paine St | Brittan Square
Katharine Noonan (1916)
The building seems to date to 1890, so it was likely somewhere here -- possibly the right side of the first floor -- where Noonan owned her grocery store in the 1910s. It's also possible that another outbuilding was on the left side where the parking spaces now are.
237 Lincoln St | Brittan Square
Central Market (2000)
This may also be where 235 Lincoln was (the house to the right is 233), which was home to an A&P (1922-1927) > Community Stores Co (1931-1937).
243a Lincoln St | Brittan Square
Community Stores Co (1927)
Community Stores moved around 1930 to the former A&P at 235 Lincoln. 241 Lincoln, which for some reason I don't have a picture of, was Verner Grocery Co (1943-1949) > Brittan Square Market (1952-1957).
247 Lincoln St | Brittan Square
First National Stores (1931-1937) > General Food Stores (1943-1952)
Both First National and General occupied the supermarket at 267 Lincoln later. It looks like Finast moved there from here around 1940; General has a gap in the city directories but it's possible there wasn't a gap really.
261 Lincoln St | Brittan Square
A&P (1931-1937)
A&P later moved across the street to 258 Lincoln, which then became a CVS. Not sure what was there between A&P and CVS, which has since closed.
2 Gilman St | Brittan Square
Community Stores Co (1922-1931)
Totally missed this in person, but it looks like the grocery store here at 2 Gilman (right around the corner from Lincoln St) is actually to the far left of the blue section.
16 Duxbury St | Brittan Square
Curtin Bros (1916) > Bertrand Curtin (1922-1952)
Note that someone named Curtin also owned 62 Green Hill in 1916, just a couple blocks away. I'm not sure where the grocery store was in this building, to be honest -- my assumption is on the ground floor/basement level, but I don't know where. I see outlines of something bricked over to the left and right of the entrance door, but given the way the property is set up, that's probably more likely to be bricked-over windows than former doors.
Here's a look at today's other posts:
That first one makes sense - in fact, the way the bricks look on the part that is likely 6 makes it look like one of them would have been a doorway, maybe another had a larger show type window as stores often did/do.
ReplyDeleteWith 237, given that it has two doorways it makes sense that the right side (where it is now green) was 235 and the left (with the pictures of women) was 237 then at some point the spots were combined and they simply opted to keep the 237 number for all of it.
Not sure with 2 gilman if that middle (large garage type) doorway is original or not, but it might be an early version of a loading dock for a store (or might have been added later for deliveries to the restaurant, since they are obviously using some of that grey part for cooking, given the vent on it near the window).
Agreed on all of those. Good observations.
DeleteJust FYI - the link to the Wegmans post on here doesn't work, but it is accessible from the main page :)
ReplyDeleteThanks, fixed! I think -- and if not on today's posts, then definitely for tomorrow's (many) posts.
Delete