Lucius Beebe Memorial Library, Wakefield, Mass.

Title

G.W. Eaton, Grocers :Main Street, 1896

Description

G.W. Eaton, Grocers was located at 394 Main Street from 1889 to 1917. Owned by George W. Eaton, a lifelong resident of Wakefield, the store sold a variety of items some of which were featured on advertisements on display at the store, including Quaker Oats; Bon Ami, a cleaner developed in 1886 by the J.T. Robertson Soap Company; products baked by the New York Pie Bakery, located in Massachusetts; chocolate and cocoa from the well-known chocolatier Walter Baker & Company of Dorchester; and smoking materials from J. G. Dill's Tobacco Company of Richmond, Virginia, a company which received four patents for chewing and smoking tobacco in 1878. The picture may have been taken in February 1896, as indicated by the 29 days on the calendar on the wall . It is interesting to note that the next leap year did not occur in 1900, rather it occurred in 1904. A leap year is every four years, but not every 100 years. Since 1752 in the United States, years exactly divisible by 100 are only leap years when they are also exactly divisible by 400. For example, 1800 and 1900 were not leap years, but 1700 and 2000 were. When Eaton retired in 1917 after 28 years in the grocery business, he disposed of his goods and closed the store, not selling the business to anyone else.

Image from the Wakefield Municipal Gas and Light Department annual calendar, 2019

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

1896

Format

image/jpeg

Language

eng

Publisher

Wakefield, Mass. : Wakefield Municipal Gas & Light Department

Subject

G.W. Eaton, Grocers

Type

still image

Photographs

Original Format

1 picture :black & white

Extent

32 x 18 cm.