1976 in Newton Center: Where’s the parking lot?
by Paul Levy | Jun 21, 2020 | Newton | 30 comments
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I think the photographer was standing just at the edge of the green so the parking lot would have been behind them?
Historic Aerials seems to show the finished parking lot in its 1969 view (but not its 1957 view) – https://www.historicaerials.com/viewer
What was the building that was in the parking lot’s place in 1957? Looks architecturally significant (Richardsonian?) from the air.
The Mason School seems to have been closed in 1959 –
https://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/search/commonwealth:gb19g2719
Allison Carter wrote an excellent article about Mason for Patch in 2010 – https://patch.com/massachusetts/newton/a-tale-of-two-schools-mason-rice-elementary
(Apologies for the stream-of-consciousness posts but this is a fascinating topic and I never knew that there was a beautiful school there – thanks for posting this Paul.)
Michael thanks for sharing both the interesting article and tge pictures. It looked like a lovely building.
Excellent picture. Thanks so much for sharing. I almost observed the Church’s crowd crossing the green. What a beautiful time!
That photo is looking toward the intersection of Centre St and Beacon St. Pretty much looks the same today.
You know, what’s funny about this is that I looked quickly at the picture and thought the view was from Beacon Street looking across the non-parking lot towards Langley Road. I was totally mistaken. However, I love the comments this provoked. It’s always fun to look back at our local surroundings and to try to remember (or imagine) the way things were.
I look forward to the day when the parking lot will host the Senior Center with a large adjacent green space
The land on which the parking lot existed been open space without any large structures.
Parking lot would be to the left of pic across Langley Road across from Walgreens.
Walgreens use to be a First National Grocery Store.
It does look like the parking lot would be behind.. still a neat picture. Thank you! The CVS used to be a Woolworths I think. I remember buying cheesy Ronco LPS there
Anyone remember the Academy movie theater and chandler levy hardware?
The photographer is standing on the edge of the grass with the lot behind. I know that lot like the back of my hand.
It was *SO* nice to have a local movie theater. Chandler Levy wasn’t a real hardware store, though. Mainly home furnishings.
Actually Chandler Levy was a hardware store. I worked there for 2 years after school, in Needham. I remember carrying cases of paint up the stairs from the basement. I also worked at the gas station next door where the bank is now, I believe it was a Mobil station.
The school was essentially behind where this photo was taken. A bank was built on or near where it stood. I also worked at Chandler-Levy. It was a hardware store with a home goods section named after the owners wife Barbara Jane.
Yes, it was a hardware store, but it was remarkably short on the kinds of nuts and bolts that you’d hope for from a “real” hardware store! Maybe the Needham branch was better on that front.
I remember around that time a Brigham’s at the corner of Centre St. and Beacon, where the camera is pointing, but I can’t make out enough detail to see if it’s there. As others have noted, the parking lot is behind the photographer. We moved to Newton Centre the year the picture was taken and have never known the area without the triangle parking lot.
The Brighams was on the corner where Liberty Travel is now.
I went to the Mason School. The “playground” was asphalt from the school to the v-shaped meeting of Langley Road and Beacon St. I think there was another hardware store. Shephard’s drugstore was on the opposite corner. On Centre St opposite school was a Dorothy Muriel’s bakery. Also a children’s clothing store. And of course Brigham’s. I don’t remember if there was a store prior to Mosher’s. Next blocl another drug store and last store was a candy shop. They made ribbon candy at Christmas. Also went to Mason School where there’s a bank. Lots of blanks I can’t fill in.
@Janet – wow, how did you feel when they demolished Mason? It’s hard to believe that they paved it over and put up a parking lot, of all things.
When I was a kid across the river in Needham the myopic townsfolk sold off and/or demolished about a half dozen beautiful schoolhouses, including this one, which at least was replaced with a playground.
Mason looks to have been even more beautiful, although the 2010 Patch article by Allison Carter has a typewritten list of parents’ complaints about Mason and Rice –
https://patch.com/img/cdn/users/76797/2010/11/raw/59cd0935f4a97e5d52eafe1ffa4bf4e0.jpg?width=695
…and the article says that:
Here’s a picture of Chandler Levy during the Blizzard of ’78. I can only remember the Pier 1 Imports.
https://fedora.digitalcommonwealth.org/fedora/objects/commonwealth:0k225x61t/datastreams/access800/content
Remember Blacker Brothers grocery store on Langley and a Cigar store and old time stationers (not Papyrus) on Centre St.?
That’s a great picture Michael. There was a Morse’s supermarket before there was a movie theatre. I don’t think it was as successful as the old Newton Center market on Center St. about where Panera is now. There was also an S.S. Pierce store where Brigham’s was. I only remember it because in cleaning out the house I found an old Christmas list of items I planned to buy there for my parents when I was a kid. The stationery store was Straley’s. I remember almost everything from the late ’50s on but draw a complete blank as to what was in the triangle parking lot.
Why not put together a Newton Center Village Green ?
Build a multilevel underground parking garage on this site and develop a higher density commercial / residential perimeter.
See Boston’s Post Office Square and “make no little plans”.
Michael, I think that’s me in that picture–tall guy with a checkered jacket–walking next to my friend Alan. Really!
@Paul – I believe it! I’d ask for royalties if I were you ;)
Any reminisce of old Newton Center has to include Garb Drug Co., my father’s pharmacy which he founded in early 1940’s and sold in the mid-1970’s. Located on the corner of Center and Pelham Streets, it was a local landmark, complete with soda fountain.
I remember all the 1950’s-60’s shops mentioned by others, plus Bob Ware’s “Yum Yum Shop”, the local bakery next to Strayleys. And Nettie Greene’s, the lingerie shop on the same block. The hardware store still had its original wooden floor, which greatly impressed me as a child.
On Pelham St. around the corner, there was Anthony’s Barber Shop, opposite the municipal parking lot.
I worked for Levy Hardware back in 1968-1969. I drove their delivery van. They also had a store in Boston. My time was split between the Boston & Newton locations.
My new husband and I rented an apartment in a multi-family home behind Garb’s. Pelham Street seems to ring a bell in my head. This would have been about 1963. My step father was William Sears “Bud” of the McClelland Family that lived at 20 Braeland Ave. His brother Elliott was a Lt with the Newton Fire Department. They had 2 sisters Muriel and Sue.
Elliott and his wife, Priscilla, 3 daughters and one son lived there, after Gram McClelland died. I haven’t been in Newton Centre in years. I doubt I would recognize it.
The parking lot is “behind” the photographer