Fifty-five years ago sounds like a long time ago until we compare the similarities and contrasts to Lynn in 2020 and in 1965. Thanks to a detailed city directory published by R.L. Polk & Company, we can browse through the past and learn that the 1962 city census placed Lynn’s population at 94,624 residents. Compare that to an official 2019 population count of 90,329 residents that city officials say underestimates Lynn’s population by 10,000 people.
The Polk informs us that the “normal temperature in July” in the city in 1965 was 70.3 degrees and lists the city’s “Predominating Nationalities” as “American, Canadian, Irish, Italian, United Kingdom and (ed. Note: interestingly enough) Russian.”
More than 44 percent of local families owned their homes in 1965. The city had, to quote the Polk list, “two finely equipped major hospitals” and more than 62 churches. It also had a library system “being the largest and most fully equipped north of Boston” with three branch libraries, two deposit stations and a bookmobile.
The city also had a 216-employee Police Department and a 301-employee Fire Department with 13 engine trucks and four ladder trucks. Interestingly enough, the Fire Department’s prominent role today as an emergency medical response service appeared almost non-existent in 1965 with the department running “1 rescue wagon (and) 2 combination wagons.”
Of course, the city was served by ambulance services in 1965 with Morgan’s and Nordstrom’s boasting “oxygen equipped” vehicles and “trained and certified staff.”
Statistics aside, it was the people and their pursuits that defined Lynn in 1965 and continue to define the city today.
Does anyone remember Citrus Fruit Juices — a business once located at 212 Chestnut St. and offering home delivery?
For those residents who did not own a home in Lynn 1965, there was a vast stock of apartment buildings with regal names like The Bancroft on Lewis Street; The Austin on Shepard Street; Ocean Street’s The Bayside; Biltmore Apartments at 135 Ocean; Chatsworth Hall at 252 Ocean St. and the Chesterfield Apartments on West Baltimore Street.
There was the Commodore Apartments on Washington Street; Coolidge Arms on Chase Street; The Copley at 200 Lewis St.; Earlham Apartments on Broad Street; Elliott Hall on Newhall Street; Fenmore Apartments on West Baltimore; Harvard Apartments on Green Street (still there); Kensington Park Apartments on the side street off Nahant Street of the same name and don’t forget the Lewistania, Lincoln Hall, The Palmer and The Whittier.
Lynn also had a bevy of barbers and beauticians 55 years ago. Their names conjure up smoke-filled crowded shops with newspapers and magazines strewn across the chairs and bawdy banter between customers and cutters.
Anyone remember Carmine’s on Union Street? How about Dorene’s Beauty Salon on North Common? Continental Coiffures did business on Ocean Street and Agganis Beautyrama was on Market Street. Zarbo’s Barber Shop was at 63 Essex St. and Ski’s on Boston Street. Armand Cormier, Donato Faccinto, Louis Bruno and don’t forget Bob Gallucci who cut my wife’s dad’s hair and my buddy, Jim’s. He also played a mean game of chess on Washington Street.
How about Beachway Beauty Shoppe on Lewis Street and salonists including Delia Breault, Marie Fallen, Eleanor Baribeau and Liane Lombard?
You could still buy a barrel from Maribito’s on Washington Street in 1965 and H.B. Hunt and Holder still sold coal with Pickering-Sprague, Breed Inc. touting their “blue” coal.
Corsetieres sold their wares locally in 1965 with no fewer than five corset stores in Lynn, including Clark’s on Union Street and Elizabeth Corset Shop in City Hall Square. The city also had its share of dance schools and I remember the sign for Gordon Ballroom Dance overlooking Central Avenue well into the 1990s.
You could even take elocution classes in 1965 with Janice Sloan more than happy to make an orator out of you.
Social clubs seemed to have had a tighter hold on the city 55 years ago with Forester’s Hall on Boston Street, the Lithuanian Naturalization Club on Camden Street, the Paul Revere Hall on Maple Street, and Scandia Hall on Washington Street.
You could find a blacksmith locally in 1965 with Hector Leal shodding on Western Avenue and MacKenzie and Callahan doing business on Oakville Street.
The lists are long but the memories are longer in a city where people still spend a dollar to make sure a friend or neighbor’s business prospers.
Happy belated 100th birthday to Dorothy Macaione and here’s wishing the great Larry Godbout a speedy recovery, from his friends at the Y.
