When all the signs came down

Honky-tonk Burlington? Yes, by the mid-1960s, Burlington apparently had too many big, colorful signs. So in September of 1966, Town Meeting ordered all free-standing signs to come down — but allowed a five-year grace period to comply, making September 1971 the deadline to remove the signs or else. Or else what? A fee of $100 per day for any business that failed to comply. And so down they came, 50 years ago this month.

In other news from exactly 50 years ago:

• Value House was about to open in the former IGA building on Cambridge Street
• Francis Wyman Junior High had split sessions, with the first shift starting at 7:30 and the last dismissal at 5 p.m.
• People were murmuring about assassinating President Nixon:

• The new Town Meeting section of the Burlington Mall (a side corridor) held a grand opening.

• Burlington’s “skyscraper” was underway.

Here’s a picture taken from that bank building, looking out at the new Burlington Mall and unfinished New England Executive Park, now District Ave.

• And Sal Todaro was elected to the School Committee. The Burlington News sent a photographer to his house to get his wild reaction when the town called to say he’d won the election. And here’s that wild reaction:

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There’s Finland on the right. The Rentool building burned down and the rest of this complex (formerly Reed Ham Works) was razed a couple years ago.