0-1960

Here’s a good Winnmere aerial. It’s the Given farm property in the late 1940s, with annotations. Photo sent by Ron Given and marked up with his help.

This is the corner of Cambridge St. (Route 3A) and Wilmington Road (Route 62), currently the home of a bustling Mobil station and Carli Convenience. The building in the background is the North School, which still stands today at the corner of Chestnut Ave. and Wilmington Road, painted red and purple at the moment. The first two pics are 1930. Second pair is late 1950s.

The Turkey Whist poster refers to St. Mary’s Mission on the corner of Winn and Center Streets. It later became St. Margaret Parish and moved to its current location. Full Saint Margaret’s story here.

That’s Kay Motors on the left, run by “Old Honest Dennis,” also known as Dennis Wager. It’s long gone. But the adjacent white house lives on!

Millie’s Variety was on the corner of Cambridge St. and Four Acre Drive, before the latter existed. Photo credit: Stan Anderson Jr., whose parents owned the place.

They also owned the gas station across the street, where Sister Thrift is now:

Frothingham mansion, built in 1853. Its current address is 3 Theresa Ave. That’s the high school on the right, in the color photo. Photo credit: Dayle Caterino.

Lantern Lane, 1954. Photo credit: Dianne Ballon. Story here.

Town Hall: 1915 to 1969

Town Hall, 1915 to 1969. This pic is from the mid 1950s.

Route 128 construction. This is looking north, just after the Middlesex Turnpike exit. That’s the big plunge and then uphill sweep to the Cambridge St. exits. Full story here.

This is Olson Farm, which became Veterans Playground at the corner of Wilmington Road and Westwood Street. Photo credit: Carl Olson. Full story here.

Mack’s Place, Cambridge St. at Bedford Street, 1930s. Run by Mack MacInnes, who lived in the store with his wife.

The Grange was an American agricultural advocacy and lobbying organization founded after the Civil War.

Lots to see here. That’s the “old” Memorial Elementary School when it was brand new, 1954. There’s no neighborhood behind it yet. Saint Margaret’s church is the little building on the fork of Winn Street and Center Street, on the extreme right. It hadn’t moved to its current location yet. Peach Orchard Road appears to cross Winn Street and keeping going into the hills, but you can see the hilly portion is overgrown from lack of use. It’s gone now. And across the street from the new Memorial School is Kerrigan Farm, before the town put a school there. Kerrigan Farm story here.

You’ll notice some strange phone numbers on this page. Before the area codes and exchanges of today, Burlington’s predominant phone prefix was “BU” in the 1950s and “BR,” or “Browning,” in the 1960s. When the phone companies dropped the letters and went strictly numeric, some users decried the loss of personality. An all-numeric phone number seemed cold, impersonal.

You’ll also notice some advertisements without street numbers. They were superfluous information. The town was so sparse that everyone knew where every store was located. Houses didn’t receive numbers in earnest until the late 1950s, when the population grew to the point where ambulances needed specifics. In 1957, the town started a new residential numbering process for freshly-built neighborhoods with plot plans. The first fully-numbered streets were Florence Road, Crawford Road, Sylvester Road, Frances Road, Foster Road, Bradford Road, Luther Road, Alma Road and Sunset Drive.

Burlington Diner, located where the Prime Energy station is now, on Cambridge St. The black and white photo is 1956. Color one looks to be earlier. This was part of the DuCett mini-empire. Story here.

Wildwood Elementary School. This is now Wildwood Park.

St. Margaret Parish, construction and grand opening, late 1950s.

Burlington Footwear

Mercury Cleaners, roughly where Papa Gino’s is now, at the corner of Cambridge St. and Terry Ave.

Donna Davy Hagen photo

Before WRKO

Looks like nobody was injured except the marquee.

Corner of Cambridge St and County Road, 1955. Oakridge Forest was the name for the Lantern Lane/County Rd/Ledgewood Dr area. The car in the background is passing LaCascia’s, before it existed. Photo credit: George Moore