Lucius Beebe Memorial Library, Wakefield, Mass.

Title

Boothby's Specialty Shop :432-434 Main Street, circa 1920s

Description

Boothby's Specialty Shop began as Boothby's Beehive when Asa and Mabel Boothby purchased The Emerson, a dry goods store owned by Bernice Emerson across the street in the Traders' Block, in 1907. Daily operations were handled by Mabel while Asa worked as a salesman, and later as sales manager, for Wadsworth-Howland Co. The store moved across the street into the Butler Block, then numbered 432-434 Main Street, in 1919 in a store previously occupied by Butler's variety store and, with the addition of more merchandise, became a women's specialty store. The couple purchased the building from the estate of Aaron Butler in 1923 and remodeled it in 1936 by adding a 75' one-story addition in the rear, removing the yarn shop on the second floor and adding four kitchenette apartments. Both Asa and Mabel Boothby were active in the community; he as a Selectman, Chairman of the Salvage Committee during World War II, and as an officer of several professional, civic and religious organizations; and she as Noble Grand of Goodwill Rebekah Lodge, No.22, I.O.O.F, and as an officer of other civic and religious organizations. The business was sold to W.T. Grant Company Manager Leslie Gaquin in 1944, who also purchased in the building in 1946.

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

1920-1929

Format

image/jpeg

Language

eng

Publisher

Wakefield, Mass. : Wakefield Municipal Gas & Light Department

Subject

Boothby's Specialty Shop

Type

still image

Photographs

Original Format

1 picture :black & white

Extent

31 x 17 cm.