Framingham Views

Based on the idea presented at the 1939 New York World’s Fair, here’s a photo of the Dancing Waters at Shoppers World, circa 1963. This photo is from a slide taken by a projectionist at the Cinema. His name was Dick Paris, and he was also an electrician at the Carousel, as well as the Summer Playhouse which was held at the Cinema during the summer season, 1952 and 1953.

You can see McCrorys in the background. It was like a Woolworths, two floors of stuff like you find at Walmart today.

Sometime in the early ’50s, Hopalong Cassidy made an appearance at the new Shoppers World. This picture shows him greeting thousands of fans. It was around Christmas time, because I can make out the Christmas trees along the roof edge. Glenn Davis was head of Security from day one, until the shopping center closed, and he’s in this photo, his back to the camera.

Sometimes it seemed like every week a famous person made an appearance, although I’m sure it wasn’t that often. I remember seeing the Lone Ranger, Rin Tin Tin and Rusty, Major Mudd, Frankie Guggenheim, Rex Trailer, Flipper, and every year, a circus trapeze act high above the stores. The fountain was new in the early sixties, and was advertised as the “Dancing Waters”. Hundreds lined the walkways to watch the fountain waters go up and down in tune to music, with colored lights illuminating the scene. We thought it was unique, and didn’t realize they did the same thing at the New York World’s Fair of 1939.

The big house at the top of the square was my parent’s home after World War II, until 1951 when we moved to Natick. We lived on the top floor. Here’s how that house looks today.

There’s an awful lot of cables and wires hanging over the intersection. Stepping back, for a long shot of the square, it looks like this.

I wish that someday, the wires and cables were put underground, and the long view would look more like this

When we were kids, as soon as we got to the ramps at Shoppers World, we’d ask our parents “can we run down?” They’d say “Go ahead, but be careful”, and we’d call out “see you at the bottom” as we ran at top speed.

Sometimes we were there to see an attraction, sometimes just to walk around. If there were a special event, we’d go up a ramp. If it were just a flower display, or Santa, or the reindeer, we’d go down. This ramp looks like the one where the Deli was up. I thought I’d remember forever what was down, but now I’m not sure. Back in the 1960’s it was McCrory. I’ve forgotten what took it’s place.

Whatever was there, we thought would always be there. No such luck. People thought the place was too old fashioned, and they wanted something new and modern, to compete with the Natick Mall. So they ruined what probably could have been even better. Shoppers World was unique once, and if it were still there, it would be unique again.

My Mother would bring us downtown Framingham to go shopping every Wednesday, back in the 1950’s, and one place we always went to, was Dietz Bakery on Concord St. This place was located across the street from Woolworths. If you’re looking at the new Fitz Brothers Market building, Dietz was a storefront just to the left.  The weekly excusion started in the Arcade parking lot. A walk through Woolworths was the best part of the day. Sometimes we stopped to buy a toy, more often just to look. Outside of Woolworths, there was a crosswalk, always manned by a policeman who would cross the shoppers. We would go into Bonds, then Dietz, (funny I never noticed the Vogue Doll  Card Store next door, shown in the photo. I’ll bet my Sister did though. I don’t remember ever going in there. ) down the street to Gorins, then across again, past the St. George, and into Gilchrist. After Gilchrist, across Concord St. again, to JJ Newberry’s. Then back up Concord, stopping in the Bank, across once again saying hello to the police officer, and back to the car. It was always alot of fun, downtown the biggest city we knew, at the time.

Looking at the picture of Jordan Marsh, from yesterday’s topic, I wanted to see more of that Bowler’s World sign. Almost like in the film Blow Up, I’ve zoomed in to the point where we can almost see the bowling sign across Rte 9. Imagine being able to walk into the picture, and round the corner, what Rte 9 in 1960 would have looked like.

I used to walk to the Bowler’s World every Saturday morning to bowl 3 strings in the Bantam League. After league bowling, there was a Channel 5 TV crew taping the adults. That was in the day when Natick had 3 bowling alleys and Framingham had 3. Framingham had the Bowlers World, and Bowlerama for tenpin, and Kemps downtown for candlepin. Natick had Kemps downtown, the Fairway on Rte 9, the Wonderbowl next to Bickfords (now a Brunswick Rec store in Sherwood Plaza East) and the East Natick Bowling Lanes which is now a Jo Ann Craft Store next to McDonalds. What happened to bowling in New England? According to Richard Smith who was the CEO for GCC and it’s bowling division called Holiday Lanes, bowling lost it’s popularity with the loss of the manufacturing industry in New England. (I asked him once why General Cinema wouldn’t consider reviving their bowling division.) He said bowling was a blue-collar sport, dependent on leagues. And white collar people don’t do sports at night.

There’s no anecdote to this photo, except that it’s rare to find a color photo of parts of Shoppers World, except in postcards. I found this Kodachrome slide, and thought the readers would enjoy it. Route 9 is in front, and to the right , if you look hard, you can barely make out the sign for the Bowler’s World, which was across the road, the site of Legal Seafoods today. On the top left of this scene, you can see the edge of the Jordan’s dome.

In the 1950’s when it got cold, they used to put up wooden panels with windows along the walkways, to shield shoppers from the wind. Kind of like enclosing the mall. Santa would arrive by helicopter, and the reindeer would be in a corral on the north end nearest the playground.

In the spring, Shoppers World planted extravagent flower beds, which were in full bloom and drew people from miles around. Someone thought these flowers were pretty special and took this picture, probably spring of 1960.

here’s a memorable sign from the Golden Mile. In the late ’60s, Stevie Wonder did a show at the Carousel Theatre in Framingham. After the show, he went to the Howard Johnsons on rte 9 for something to eat. A few of the crew from the Cinema also went to Howard Johnson’s after work.

This night, as we left, I spotted Stevie Wonder, and as we walked by his table, I said “hey stevie, nice show”. He slapped my hand and said, “thanks, man”. Meeting a celebrity at HoJos in Framingham doesn’t get much better than that.

Everytime I drive past this storefront in Framingham, I wonder who would trust the repair of their computer, to a place that can’t spell refurbished correctly. But then, the place never appears to be open, so I’ll guess they went out of business years ago. I wonder if anyone else has driven by and noticed. I wonder if they ever had a customer notice, and if so, why nobody ever told the owner. Has any reader here ever noticed this one? If so, fill everyone in on the location.

Located where the front parking of Cabot Furniture, previously known as the Chateau DeVille, was the Beacon Terrace Restaurant. It was owned by Anthony Tomango, whose brother opened the Monticello.  This was nearly at the top of the Rte 9 hill that looked eastward down on the “Golden Mile”.
Why was it called the Beacon Terrace? Because on the hill behind, which now has the Bayberry Apartments, there was a large airplane beacon light which used to light the way for flights into Boston. Imagine the furor a beacon light on a hill in some Framingham neighborhoods would cause today. Back in the 1950’s the beacon light was a magnet for kids to explore and find in those woods. Here’s a picture taken of the Beacon Terrace in 1964, taken from an old Sunday supplement of the newspaper.