Lucius Beebe Memorial Library, Wakefield, Mass.

Title

McMasters store, 424 Main Street

Description

"McMasters Store was owned by Lauren L. McMaster, whose occupation was listed as newsdealer and stationer in the 1918 street and telephone directory.. He and his wife, Helen, lived at 36 Yale Avenue. According to an ad in the same directory, the store was a subscription agency which did developing, printing and enlarging, in addition to selling newspapers, periodicals, stationery, souvenir postcards and Dennison's goods. The ad also listed the availability of electric lamps, Columbia Grafonolas and records. Lauren McMaster was born in Wakefield on July 4, 1881, and died on October 10, 1943, as the result of an automobile accident. Following his graduation from Brown University in 1904, he was employed in the wholesale dry goods business and lived in Chelsea until the loss of his home in the great conflagration of 1908. He returned to Wakefield and became associated with the leading news and periodical store, becoming the owner in 1915 where he remained until 1933. He became the manager of the local office of the Western Union Telegraph Company until April 1943, when he became associated with the Malden and Melrose Gas Light Company. McMaster was active in the community, serving on the Board of Selectmen as Chairman in 1921, as an organizer and first president of the Wakefield Chamber of Commerce, and for many years was active in the Rotary Club where he served as President in 1926-1927, and with the Baptist Church and Y.M.C.A. He was active in the Masons and served as Master of the Golden Rule Lodge in 1929, and as District Deputy Grand Master of the Melrose 7th District in 1931 and 1932."

Image from the Wakefield Municipal Gas and Light Department annual calendar, 2017

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

424 Main Street (Wakefield, Mass.)

Format

image/jpeg

Publisher

Wakefield, Mass. : Wakefield Municipal Gas & Light Department

Subject

Storefronts

McMaster's Store (Wakefield, Mass.)

Type

still image

Photographs

Original Format

1 picture: b & w

Extent

26 x 21 cm.