Fran Duskiewicz posted this shot that he identified as Merchant’s Row, Rutland, Vt., 1958? Looks about right; maybe 1957. It got me intrigued to find some other vintage shots of this location, and I came up with a pretty nice collection:
The oldest is this stereoscope from about 1880-1885.
This one’s from about 1904.
As is this one. If you want to see it in super high resolution, go here to Shorpy where it’s at. Amazing detail.
Here we are in the mid ’30s.
And 1939.
This looks to be from 1957 or so too.
What’s the newest car here? 1963? 1964?
And in more recent times.
Fussy detail: The American wagon wasn’t reintroduced until the ’59 model, so this would have to be at least Oct ’58, more likely sometime in ’59. I don’t see any other definite ’59s.
Looking at the trees not starting to turn yet, my guess would be at the earliest mid-September ’59 or if not then summer 1960.
How do we know the Rambler wagon isn’t from its earlier run, say, a ’55?
That shot marked 1939 has what looks an awful lot like a blue 41-42 Studebaker staring at us from the curb on the left.
I love sequential shots like these, of the same place down through the ages.
For the second picture from the bottom, I would say 1964. There’s a ‘64 Pontiac parked in front of the black ‘63 Chevy 2-door sedan.
I’m loving the Rambler wagon in the first pic, really illustrates the size difference between an American compact of the day with the more-everyday sight of a full-sizer. Makes you wonder how much the Rambler was a benchmark for Volvo when they were developing the Amazon; I had to take a closer look at the picture because I initially thought I was looking at an Amazon wagon
One of my favorite automotive stats is that the ’50-55 round Nash Rambler (and ’58-60 American) was 73″ wide, the same as a modern Accord while the 1961 reskin was 70″ (same as a modern Civic) around unchanged internal hard points.
That must be some sort of record for anything less than a clean-sheet new design, finally trimming away the fat that had been necessary for George Mason’s beloved skirted front wheels to turn (the turning circle had already been reduced a foot or so as soon as they opened the wheelwells in 1955).
Rutland is fortunate in still having most of its 19th Century business district intact and in current use. Many towns have lost their downtown identity with building losses and those that remain vacant when the big box stores moved in.
After some struggle in the ’90s Walmart, which had wanted to build on a greenfield at the edge of town, went into a 1950s/60s shopping center whose parking lot the 1958 pic appears to have been taken from.
https://www.google.com/maps/@43.6064523,-72.9798756,3a,60y,291.37h,85.37t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1swCIm5DtllxB0tQDh90gF7Q!2e0!7i16384!8i8192
What happened in the late ’30s that made awnings suddenly become unfashionable? Likewise, I’ve long wondered why vertical signs went out of style – they do an excellent job of making your store’s name visible from far down the road.
I only recently learned that Woolworth’s (U.S.) is still in business. They owned the Foot Locker athletic shoe chain, which is very much still around. They closed all the namesake 5&10 stores decades ago but the company behind them remains.
Is that a steam-powered car in the second 1904 shot with the big round thing in front? Have never seen one of those IRL.
Thanks for the expansion of my post in the cohort, Paul. I spent my summers in West Rutland when I was a kid and going into Rutland in my aunt’s 1958 DeSoto was always a treat. That photo of Merchant’s Row is exactly what I remember when I was five years old. And isn’t Merchant’s Row the best downtown name ever?
Oh, isn’t that a 1958 Buick in the foreground? Roadmaster?
the first picture (your picture) does have a 1958 Buick. It is a Century. The foliage is green so my guess is that the picture was taken summer of 1958 or very early fall 1957.
Love the Ford Anglia in the 1964 shot!
Neat images — Merchant’s Row seems like a photogenic place. Below is yet one more picture, with a phone booth too.
Incidentally, the MH Fishman store that appears in some of these images has an interesting history. It was founded by Meyer Fishman, who had come to the US, virtually penniless, as a teenager in 1909. He soon began working as a street peddler, and eventually turned that enterprise into a store… this Rutland store was his first, I believe, opened in the late 1910s — he hadn’t even been in the US for a decade by that point. Eventually his business expanded to dozens of stores under a bunch of different names.
“Made Expressly for Nelson’s Five Cent Store.”… at some point “five cent stores” became “five and dimes”, and still later, “dollar stores”. But much of what I see in “dollar stores” these days seems to cost two or three dollars. Pretty soon we’ll be able to go back to “5 and 10” stores, only now it will be dollars rather than cents…
Thank you, thank you, thank you for these pictures – a treasure of Americana.
No one mentioned the Ford Anglia with odd tyres in the 63,64 photo ?. Must have been an English Ford dealer in town..
The 1957 shot has a roadsign saying “keep right” Was this common? Was there pattern of indiscipline about left and right? Or maybe it had previously been one way?
None of the earlier photos indicate the street was ever one way. My guess for the “safety zone/keep right/no u-turn” sign is because of the great width of the street at this point.
Here’s Google Street View showing the island that’s in place now to break up the width and make it easier for pedestrians to cross.
I had to double check and make sure I wasn’t on the Hemmings website. Nice to see some historic VT photographs. LIfelong Vermonter here but I grew up north of Burlington.
You could catch a Checker A-9 cab in downtown Rutland in 1958 or 59. In two-tone no less. I guess that was more common across the country and not just in big cities back then. But the ’55 Dodge behind it is just plain white.
What a great series of buildings. Interesting to see how many changes those lots on the angle to the right went through. Since it stays 4 stories from its first appearance, I wonder if the current Beaux Arts facade was just a re-skin?
Been many years, but we used to live in Burlington in the mid 60’s…and moved back in the mid 70’s to Shelburne (lived in the development right behind the museum)….right off route 7, which travelling south goes through Rutland. Especially during our first stint, we often went to Lake Dunmore, pretty near Rutland.
For some reason, I also think of a 1978 AMC Pacer I picked up in Rutland that same year, working for Hertz. Probably because though we drove all over New England (was a transporter back then) and into Quebec province, I only remember one trip to Rutland in the 2 summers I worked for them.
I got a kick out of the local department store in the picture which was common back then…In Burlington I remember Gaynes (my sister was friends with the owner’s family’s daughter), and Jupiter, and Centers as well as Forest Hills in Winnoski. Of course we had Sears (and I think a grocery store associated with Sears across route 7 from the store) and JC Penny but more local than national chain deparment stores…forgetting “Abernathy’s” but they were more of a clothing store than department store. They’re all long gone, as well as the local department stores in the city in which I live now…the stragglers seemed to close by the late 80’s here.
Whoops, remembered one of the stores wrong…what I was thinking of was “Grand Way” department store which was associated with “Grand Union” supermarket (all now defunct). I also used to associate KMart with a Grocery chain “Sun Harvest” (defunct) since they seemed to reside next door to each other in several shopping centers back in the day, but looking it up I see that this was likely a coincidence, there were super KMarts that had groceries (maybe still have them? I live in a city where KMart moved out back in 2003 so I don’t know much about their stores in other towns).
Don’t know if there ever was a grocery store associated with Sears (my faulty memory associated 2 unrelated things located near each other in South Burlington)…unfortunately I’ve not been back to the area in almost 30 years (something I should remedy since my Niece now lives back up there…she and my (younger) Nephews were born in that area, as was my Brother-in-law).