Lucius Beebe Memorial Library, Wakefield, Mass.

Title

Water Street, looking toward Main Street, circa 1901

Description

"This picture, taken sometime around 1901, shows the L.B. Evans Son shoe factory (at left), Ira Atkinson's grocery store, the Cutler Bros.' grocery and grain store (at the center of the picture) and the Miller Piano Factory (at right). The street railway tracks are also visible. L.B. Evans Son shoe-making business moved from Salem Street to Water Street in 1894, requiring the relocation of the Episcopal Church building. In its place, Harvey B. Evans built a three-story building near the Center Depot which employed approximately 100 men and women. There were many additions and renovations made to the building over the years, the last one being in 1968. Business eventually slowed in the 1890s , leading to its closing in 1987. The Henry F. Miller & Sons Piano Company moved to Wakefield from Washington Street in Boston in 1884 into a building behind the old Town Hall. The factory building was built by Cyrus Wakefield in the early 1870s. The company manufactured its pianos in Wakefield from 1884 to 1932 the pianos were sold in 'warerooms' in Boston, Philadelphia and Cincinnati. The impressive brick building was razed in 1960 to make way for the Surety Bank and Trust Company. Ira Atkinson's Grocery Store was located at 470 Main Street in 1894, according to the Business History of Wakefield. It was founded in 1874 and supplied 'groceries of all kinds, flour and grain, choice teas, coffee and spices, etc.' The Cutler Bros.' grocery and grain store was established by Nathaniel and David Cutler in the Wakefield Block on Main Street in 1876. It was called 'one of the finest and best equipped modern grocery stores in this part of Massachusetts.' Business was so good that the brothers purchased a lot of land on the southwest corner of Main and Water Street in 1891 where they built a three-story building with a floor area of 28,000 sq. ft. The building was destroyed by fire in 1911." - Text from calendar by Jayne M. D'Donofrio.

Image from the Wakefield Municipal Gas and Light Department annual calendar, 2009

Photo courtesy of the Wakefield Historical Society.

Contributor

Institution: Lucius Beebe Memorial Library

Wakefield Municipal Gas & Light Department (Wakefield, Mass.)

D'Onofrio, Jayne M.

Coverage

Massachusetts--Middlesex (county)--Wakefield

Date

ca. 1901

Format

image/jpeg

Publisher

[Wakefield, Mass.] : Wakefield Municipal Gas & Light Department

Subject

Miller Piano Company (Wakefield, Mass.)

L.B. Evans' Son Company (Wakefield, Mass.)

Streets

Commercial buildings

Type

still image

Photographs

Original Format

1 picture : b&w

Extent

17 x 30 cm.