ITEM PHOTO BY SPENSER HASAK
Alan Ferguson and his wife Eileen of Peabody sit with their cars, a 1928 Ford Model A Huckster and a 1929 Shay Roadster, respectively, at the annual COA Antique Car Show on Tuesday.
Old cars, and the mostly-old men who love them, rolled into the Lynnfield Senior Center parking lot Tuesday for a few hours of sharing memories, laughs and a celebration of bygone America.
Lynnfield’s Council on Aging hosted its annual antique car show this week as demolition equipment began razing the Perley Burrill service station on Salem Street and consigning the trademark sign and the old-fashioned gas pumps to memory.
“Good riddance” is probably the epitaph residents living around the Perley Burrill site assigned to the demolition. Their pleasant neighborhood can only be improved by building homes on the station land and the town process for determining the site’s future use is underway.
Perley Burrill spent its last years of existence as a Lynnfield eyesore. But it resided in the collective memories of older town residents as a reminder of a time when “gassing up” meant exchanging a few words with a station owner or employee who filled the tank, checked the oil and washed the windshield.
Some of the old Fords, Chevys and other cars that rolled into the Senior Center lot on Tuesday probably refueled at Perley Burrill’s pumps. They rolled up and down Route 1 decades ago when the road included clubs and restaurants as well as places to shop.
The same pace of modern life that consigned Perley Burrill to history is reshaping Route 1. Within a few years, the highway will be a mixed residential and commercial byway. Old landmarks such as Hilltop Steakhouse have already gone the way of Perley Burrill and online commerce is likely to drive additional changes.
These transformations are occurring under the banner of progress but it may be worthwhile to ask if progress is unfolding too fast. Mapping out a residential development or similar project to replace the Perley Burrill site seems like a simple, straight forward task. But reshaping a major commercial way like Route 1 is more complicated.
Market forces driven by online commerce will dictate the changes along Route 1. But will communities bordering Route 1 be able to dictate the pace at which these changes unfold? What are the implications for residents living off Salem Street in Lynnfield, or off Lowell Street in Peabody or off Walnut and Main streets in Saugus if Route 1 becomes a mix of residential developments, big-box stores and marijuana zones?
Summer’s start with its reminder to take life easier and enjoy pleasant days and pleasant pursuits provides a good opportunity talk about developments, large and small.
Ultimately, these discussions boil down to analyzing how much opportunity residents in these communities and others bordering Route 1 have to weigh in and offer viewpoints on projects planned for sites as small as the Perley Burrill lot or as large as the Hilltop site.
Time, as the saying goes, is money. But the author of that adage might have had in mind the cost associated with money foolishly spent when not enough time is taken to review and consider the merits or demerits of a particular investment.
