Canton CenterAnother true "postcard" of Canton Center. While work in Canton's downtown is in full swing again this Summer, reflect back to a gentler time when parking was angled into the downtown business district. The best way to look at this image is to click on the photograph with your mouse and take a detailed look at the streetscape (you can do this with all my photos).
A few electrical poles dot the street and overall we see a more bucolic center, A drugstore and the "Five cent to a $1.00 Store" seems to say McLellan's in plain view on the right hand side, where Richard Lewis Formal Wear now operates. A few Coca-Cola signs dot the street. All of the trees that graced Canton Center at the turn of the 1900's are gone, fallen to Dutch Elm Disease. And hardly a turning lane at Bolivar Street in sight.
As you sit in the construction traffic, imagine the gentler time where folks would have had to actually wait for you to back out of the angled parking and into the travel lane. Take a look at how much advertising graces the street today as opposed to fifty years ago. Imagine the delight of getting an ice-cream cone or a malt at the neighborhood drugstore. And, assume that there was some sort of civility and a slower pace to the day.
This image most closely resembles my earliest remembrance of "downtown". My grandmother had a small hair salon just below the fall's near the Canton Cinema. And while I do not know the exact location, I do remember the wide sidewalks and the awning on the storefronts. I can still remember the A&P (where Walgreen's is now) and the large coffee grinder at the front of the store.
If you have a particularly strong memory of our downtown, please share it in the comments section of the blog.
A few electrical poles dot the street and overall we see a more bucolic center, A drugstore and the "Five cent to a $1.00 Store" seems to say McLellan's in plain view on the right hand side, where Richard Lewis Formal Wear now operates. A few Coca-Cola signs dot the street. All of the trees that graced Canton Center at the turn of the 1900's are gone, fallen to Dutch Elm Disease. And hardly a turning lane at Bolivar Street in sight.
As you sit in the construction traffic, imagine the gentler time where folks would have had to actually wait for you to back out of the angled parking and into the travel lane. Take a look at how much advertising graces the street today as opposed to fifty years ago. Imagine the delight of getting an ice-cream cone or a malt at the neighborhood drugstore. And, assume that there was some sort of civility and a slower pace to the day.
This image most closely resembles my earliest remembrance of "downtown". My grandmother had a small hair salon just below the fall's near the Canton Cinema. And while I do not know the exact location, I do remember the wide sidewalks and the awning on the storefronts. I can still remember the A&P (where Walgreen's is now) and the large coffee grinder at the front of the store.
If you have a particularly strong memory of our downtown, please share it in the comments section of the blog.
2 comments:
I remember the old Fire Station and can vividly remember the old open cab ladder truck pulling out....
Wasn't the A&P originally across the street from the Walgreen's above the Bowladrome? I think Allied Auto parts went in there when A&P moved across the street to the left of the fire house.
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