3 thoughts on “New Rochelle Before and After : Main Street 1960’s”

  1. I miss Grants too. New
    I miss Grants too. New Rochelle had it all. Arnold Constable, Bloomingdales, Macys. Sears, Woolworths, Grants…………

    Now we have?????????

  2. i miss the 5+10……i loved
    i miss the 5+10……i loved the food counter there as a kid

    1. 5 & 10 in 1960’s – Death of Commerce on Main Street
      In the 60’s, at Woolworths one could still get a large glass of Coke for a nickle. I often did.

      I loved the food counters at Woolworths and Grants too. I recall the waitresses calling in orders, in slang, on heavy 1940’s microphones mounted on the counter.

      Grants eventually had two locations for food. One was a counter with seating, but a newer stand was built in the 1960’s near the front door, where one could buy tasty hotdogs grilled on rollers, and placed on a toasted bun.

      One of the main things that killed commerce on Main, was moving City Hall to its present location at the old ALJHS, from its original location at Main and Mechanic Street (Memorial Hwy). This was right after the opening of I-95, the other thing that killed Main St and downtown commerce.

      Without the previous automotive traffic of US Rt 1, and without the previous pedestrian traffic of the old City Hall, there was much less reason for people to be on Main Street, and therefore less reason for people to shop on Main Street.

      We can’t fault the US Government for building the Interstate Highways, as we needed and have continually benefitted from them. It was a great achievement of Ike, and he is underated because people tend to forget that Ike did it. It is one of many examples of how our taxes benefit our society, and how business in the USA has always been dependent on the government for creation and maintenance of infrastructure. But many businesses and residence were displaced by the New England Thruway.

      But we can cast much blame at the City Councils of the late 1950 thru early 1960’s, for harming downtown New Rochelle, by moving City Hall to its current location, tearing down two thirds of the old City Hall, and destroying most of Mechanic Street.

      Mechanic St had been a sister street to Division. Division St is one of the most commercially successful and upscale streets in downtown NR. If Mechanic St had been left alone, it would right now have similar businesses on both sides of its street, to what exists on Division. Currently there are only a few stores on Memorial Hwy, and the rest is residential or part of the Library. If it still existed, there would have been a lot more sales tax coming in from Mechanic than we can ever hope to see from Memorial Hwy.

      No one knows what Memorial Hwy is in memory of. I perceive it as being in memory of the commerce that had previously existed on Mechanic St. It is a reminder of why the New Rochelle government should get out of development shilling, and instead dedicate itself to promoting commerce in existing buildings.

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