Posts
JP Centre Street sure has been changing over the years. The first time I really saw it was in 1980. I thought it was one of the ugliest neighborhoods I'd seen. Not much on Centre street for me... Woolworths was the best store I could see... there were grates and trash and lots of hard surfaces, seemed like no trees and just concrete. My first thoughts were, "gee, I hope I never have to live here". I was in High School living in a lovely suberb of Boston after leaving Miami, Florida where I grew up as a child. I thought Boston was beautiful, with red brick buildings, maple trees, cobble stone streets and acorn lights and stores with awnings and big glass windows with delightful displays... Centre Street had some brick, beat up empty trash cans, again...big metal grate fronts on the stores, no real shops that I could see... there were some drug stores, convient stores, a men's clothing store... a couple of fast food type places. Not much to speak of that stands out now. There was grid lock in the street, not many people walking around. It seemed like a place to drive through.
In 1985 I left western Massachusetts to relocate in my first apartment ($550 a month including heat) with my boyfriend, Greg. We had another friend from high school that was willing to go in on an apartment. Greg was an art student at Mass Art, working as a guard at the MFA. Chris, was taking time off from Columbia University to find himself and was working at an ice cream shop in Cambridge. I was taking time off from college as well and was 19 in April when I moved to JP. The trolleys were still running down Centre and I lived on St John Street. No car. Small salery working 4 days a week at the MFA. The grocery store that I could easily access was Flanagan's the now CVS across from the location of the 1st JP Licks on Centre where South Huntington Splits.
More to come on this blog entry but to see what the thoughts are on redesigning Centre and South Streets... check out the link....above.
No comments:
Post a Comment