Way Down Yonder in Pawtucket, Part I

From Dave Brigham:

I apologize in advance for this, but I often feel the need to explain my headline choices:

I'll admit that before posting that video, I couldn't recall what a paw paw is. I may have known when I was a kid and had occasion to sing the song. It's a fruit.

Anyway...let's dig into Pawtucket, Rhode Island, the fourth-largest city in the smallest state in the Union. This marks only the second time I've explored any municipality of Lil' Rhody. In September 2017, I wrote about a mini-vacation my family took in Newport (see September 28, 2017, "No Yachts, No Mansions").

I covered a lot of territory back in late June, so I'm splitting this review into two parts.

But first, a note about pronunciation. I've been saying "Paw-tucket" forever, but someone I met recently who lives on the South Coast of Massachusetts corrected me. "It's "Pah-tucket," he told me. Fair enough.

I like to park near town or city halls when I explore a place. Sometimes there's free parking, and usually such a building is located in the center of the action. So, after finding my spot in the lot on Roosevelt Avenue, I headed west for a short distance along Exchange Street. I was quite taken by the mural on the side of the Graham Building.

Built sometime between 1926 and 1929, the building was likely erected by the owner of H.L. Graham & Sons, a plumbing contractor, according to the National Register of Historic Places registration form for the Downtown Pawtucket Historic District.

As for the mural, it was completed by Rene Gomez for the Mental Health Stigma Campaign. "'I suffer from ADHD and I struggle with it every day. I also have an autistic son and it’s also something touching, meaningful to my heart,'" Gomez said in this NewsNation article. "'Being Hispanic, I had to put a Hispanic message up there,'" he continued. "'I grew up in a household where it wasn’t OK to cry and talk about my feelings, and that’s a stigma I would like to break.'”

"The murals also feature sign language and it’s LGBTQ-friendly because, to Gomez, it doesn’t matter who you are — mental health is mental health," the article continues. The mural program is in partnership with the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) of Rhode Island and Rhode Island Latino Arts.

Next, I cut down Montgomery Street, after getting a peek at a ghost sign.

The Times newspaper was founded in Pawtucket in 1885 as The Evening Times. "Five years later, David O. Black bought the paper, and became the first of four generations to keep it in his family," per Wikipedia. "Black commissioned a new building for the newspaper at 23 Exchange street (sic)." The building was completed in 1896, and was the home of the paper until 2019.

"In October 2023, [current owner] Triboro Massachusetts News Media announced that The Times would be merging with sister paper The Call of Woonsocket to become The Blackstone Valley Call & Times, a Monday–Saturday newspaper," Wikipedia continues.

The old newspaper headquarters, which was designed by architects William R. Walker & Son, has been vacant since 2023, I believe.

Facing the rear of the old Times building, at the corner of Summer and North Union streets, is the former Henry Arnold Livery Stable, which in more recent years was home to Feldman Furniture. Below is a ghost sign facing southeast along Summer Street (I will feature another ghost sign from this building in a follow-up post).

(Ghost sign for Sealy Mattress on side of old Feldman Furniture building.)

"Henry F. Arnold was the proprietor of the Broad Street stables in 1891, when he first appears in city directories; an advertisement boasts '37 fine livery horses, and almost every description of carriage,' available 24 hours a day," per the Art in Ruins web site, quoting from the National Register nomination for the Downtown Pawtucket Historic District. For this post, and the one to follow, I relied as heavily on Art in Ruins as I do on MACRIS when writing about Massachusetts towns and cities.

"In 1892 Arnold...moved the stables to this new building...with 176 horse stalls on the ground floor and two floors of carriage storage above. The stables were accessed from North Union Street, while the three storefronts on Summer Street were occupied by various small, mostly auto-related businesses. In 1921, H.M. Arnold & Son Co. converted this building to a vehicular garage, and maintained that business until 1940. In 1945 Feldman’s Furniture Co. moved in, with retail space on Summer Street and storage on North Union...."

Check out that web site for a photo of the great Feldman's sign that used to grace this building. When I was in the city, there appeared to be construction under way at this site, likely for condos.

Next I headed north-northwest on Summer Street, where I immediately spotted another great mural on the side of 28 Summer Street.

This work features Phillis Wheatley, an American writer who is considered the first African-American author of a published book of poetry. Enslaved as a child, Wheatley was emancipated by the Wheatley family of Boston shortly after her book was published in 1773. I have referred to Wheatley before, in a post about Boston's Chinatown neighborhood where a plaque honors her memory.

This mural was painted by Lee Adam Beard, an artist who goes by Soems. This mural and two that I will showcase below, as well as others in the downtown, all feature farmous Black people from history, per this article on the Valley Breeze web site. Developer Leslie Moore spearheaded the project on various buildings she owns.

Just up the street, at 3 Exchange Street, is a wildly colorful depiction of a peacock.

The mural on the side of the Beswick Building was created by local artist Charles Clear, according to this Valley Breeze article. As for the Beswick, it was completed in 1891 "for Frances Beswick, widow of a saloon keeper and brewer who lived on the opposite comer of Exchange and Summer Streets in the early 1890s," according to this Art In Ruins article.

The building has suffered two fires in its lifetime and has fallen into disrepair in recent years. Developers have announced plans to renovate the place. I'm not sure of the status of that project.

Next, I made my way southeast on Main Street, where I was pleasantly surprised by two more Soems works of art.

This mural features William Grant Still, a composer born in Mississippi and raised in Arkansas. He composed nearly two hundred works, including five symphonies, four ballets, nine operas, and more than thirty choral works, art songs, chamber music, and solo works, per Wikipedia. This work is located on the side of the Still on Main, a group of shops with the motto, "Eat. Shop. Vibe."

The building is known historically as the W.T. Grant Building. Grant's was a department store chain founded in Lynn, Mass., in 1906. The chain was in business until 1976. In more recent years, the building was home to the Mill River Arcade, Preachers on a Mission and The Grant, a live entertainment venue.

Just up the street is The Green on Main, an events and retail space that Leslie Moore opened in 2022.

"The Green on Main, located in the Artéé Fabrics & Home building at 230 Main St....is intended to resemble a downtown park, complete with tables for eating or playing board games such as chess, and comfortable hanging chairs," per this Valley Breeze article. There are vendors and food offerings in the space, which is intended as a place for businesses that can't maintain regular hours, while adding life to Main Street, the article continues.

I'm not sure how many tenants are located in what is known historically as the Toole Building, which rose in 1892. Two floors were added in 1922

The mural at the left side of the entrance, another one by Soems, pays tribute to Victor Green, a postal employee who, with assistance from his wife Alma, started the Green Book in Harlem in 1936. "[C]alled alternately The Negro Motorist Green Book, The Negro Travelers’ Green Book, and The Travelers’ Green Book over its 30-year existence," the guide was one of "the most successful and long-lived" methods of helping African-American travelers during the Jim Crow era know where they could safely eat, shop and lodge, according to the National Park Service.

The NPS web site quotes Dino Thompson, a native of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, about the importance of the Green Book: "...[it] didn’t tell you if a place had a good steak, or good seafood, or had a soft bed...it told you where you would be safe; it told you where you’d be welcome and not made to go around the kitchen and order something to go...The rest [of the guide books out there] are just fluff...To my mind, it’s still the only necessary travel guide that’s ever been printed."

Frankly, I'm surprised the Trump administration has allowed this information to remain on the NPS web site.

From there, I wound my way south on East Avenue, and then west on Church Street. There, I made a less than great image of the Slater Cotton Mill apartments (let's blame it on the sun angle dissuading me from getting a better shot).

Built between 1880 and 1889 for the Slater Cotton Company, this massive mill building by 1892 contained 1,475 looms and employed 600 workers, according to this Art in Ruins write-up. The company "apparently fared poorly in the first decade of the 20th century," that blog post continues. "By October 1908, it had fallen so deeply in debt that it was reorganized as a new corporation, the Slater Manufacturing Company. At this time, its functions were broadened to include manufacturing of silk cloth."

The company continued to struggle and by 1918 it had sold its various operations and become a real estate holding company, renting space to other manufacturers. In succeeding years, the building was used by ER Hutchinson Co., which made jewelry displays. I'm not sure whether other companies also occupied the old mill before 2007, when a developer acquired the property and converted it to apartments.

Across Church Street, at 450 Main Street, is another old mill building, which I assume was once part of the Slater complex.

This building, which dates to *ahem* 1900, is currently home to the city's Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, among other outfits.

From there I continued north on Pine Street, across Main, where I made a photo of Atlantic Furniture, which is located in yet another old mill building.

Known historically as the James S. Brown Machine Shop, this brick building runs for 400 feet along Pine Street between Main and Bayley streets. The mill dates to the 1840s and was built for Brown, who was a metal worker who toiled for a company called Pitcher and Gay, per Art in Ruins.

"Even before the construction of the 1848 factory, James Brown had a substantial and well-deserved reputation as a machinist and inventor," the Art in Ruins article continues. "In 1831 he invented a machine for cutting bevel gearing; in 1838 he patented a machine for boring the tubes of speeder flyers from solid iron; and in 1842, he patented a lathe for creating irregular metal forms. In the new shop on Church Hill, Brown built a variety of textile machinery, including mules and speeders, and cordage machinery; by the mid-nineteenth century, the factory employed three hundred hands."

A jewelry manufacturer occupied this building in more recent years before the furniture company took over a long time ago.

Across Pine Street running perpendicular is another mill building that's almost as large as Brown's machine shop. Built in the late 19th/early 20th century, 248 Pine Street is a 35,000 square-foot old factory that, on the day of my exploration over the summer, was on the market.

Originally home to H.A. Briggs & Co., this facility was used, among other things, to process cotton waste.

What is cotton waste? Well, the Old Structures Engineering blog, in discussing this very building, has an answer: it "apparently means scraps (left over from making various cotton products) that are being reused, with cleaning being a common use. In other words, rags, maybe fancy rags."

More recently, this place was home to Summit Manufacturing Corp.

On the corner of Pine and Bayley streets is Don Armando Meat Market.

Zoom in to see the little square cow near the door. The company has been in business for quite a few years, I believe.

At the corner of Bayley and Commerce streets I spied a sign for the Rhodium Room, operated by RI Spirits, a distillery that makes products using the Rhodium name.

Also located in this cluster of buildings is Isle Brewers Guild and The Guild, each of which offers contract beer brewing.

I continued north on Commerce Street, and snapped a photo of an old mill, a smokestack and a new development along Goff Avenue.

The complex is known as 125 Lofts, a community of studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments.

The development is located in the former Union Wadding Company complex (also seen in the image below).

"The Union Wadding complex used to be the site of nineteen one- to four-story brick buildings with a prominent round-section chimney sited next to a late 19th-century boiler house," per my new friend, Art in Ruins. Check out that link, as it features tons of great photos. Makes me wish I'd walked around this area a bit more before moving on.

Anyway, back to Union Wadding: "The cotton wadding and waste business was prone to fire; several fires between the earliest development of the site in 1847 and 1870 destroyed most of the original factory buildings. A major fire in October 2010 — unrelated to the manufacture of cotton wadding but under suspicious circumstances — claimed ten buildings at the west end of the complex. The surviving Union Wadding buildings represent building campaigns carried out between 1870 and ca. 1930."

The company went into receivership in 2004 and subsequently went out of business.

I headed east on Goff Avenue, then north on Broad Street, having no idea about the urbex fantasy world I was about to encounter.

Accessible via Broad Street, between Clay and Barton streets (the latter of which is blocked off), the Pawtucket-Central Falls railroad station was completed in 1916 for the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. The station, which straddles Pawtucket and neighboring Central Falls, was in use for barely 40 years. As regular readers of this blog know, I don't really do urbex. But obviously plenty of other people have explored this place.

"In 1959, the station building itself was in disrepair and was closed," according to Wikipedia. "Thereafter passengers accessed the platforms via stairways from Barton Street. The station was served by New Haven Railroad trains, then later by MBTA Commuter Rail, until Rhode Island stopped funding service past Attleboro on February 20, 1981. The station building was considered for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984, but this was deferred due to concerns about its structural integrity. During the Northeast Corridor Electrification Project in the 1990s, the station tracks were relocated to increase clearances for the Acela Express to tilt when going around the curve."

I've ridden Amtrak trains through here many times over the years, but never realized that I was riding underneath this old station. But when I traveled to New York City in early October, I paid attention, pointing it out to my son as we rolled on by.

In January 2023, a new station opened a short distance west from the old one, just past the 125 Lofts development I highlighted above.

Next I walked east on Clay Street until I hit Roosevelt Avenue. I was now fully in Central Falls. I think. Google Maps tells me I was; the web site for Mel-Co-Ed, Inc. says the company is located in Pawtucket. I believe that, like the train station, this building is split by the border.

In this very pleasant industrial building, Mel-Co-Ed produces pendants, pins, bracelets, necklaces, cufflinks, tie clips, hang tags, medallions, and more, per its web site. The operation was founded in 1948 in Warwick, Rhode Island, and moved to this location in 1964. A third generation of one of the founders now runs the company.

I ventured just one building north -- definitely in Central Falls now -- to make a photo of K&W Webbing Co.

"K & W Webbing is a family-owned U.S. manufacturer...with over 100 years of combined hands-on experience in textile manufacturing and engineering design," per the company's web site. The company's "facilty includes a complete dyeing and finishing plant and equipment for the application of special treatments. Our experience in the production of webbing and tapes assures you of the highest quality at the lowest price consistent with that quality."

I crossed back into Pawtucket, where in short order I stumbled across a statue that's stirred some controversy.

Known as Toleration or Tolerance, this metal sculpture was created by artist Peruko Ccopacatty and installed in August 2021. Located at the corner of Roosevelt Avenue and Exchange Street, overlooking the Blackstone River, the work depicts Rev. William Blackstone. He was an early settler of Boston who moved to what is now Rhode Island in 1635. He is considered the little state's first permanent English settler.

His surname adorns not only the river this statue abuts, but also the Blackstone Valley, the town of Blackstone in Massachusetts and the Blackstone Canal, among other places.

"The statue, as is the case with many public art projects is not without controversy and Blackstone’s past was called into question as inappropriate to be recognized due to historical issues with Native Americans at the time of the founding and development of Pawtucket," per this RI News Today post.

This, despite the fact that "[l]ittle is known about Blackstone’s direct interactions with Native Americans," according to this article from the Valley Breeze.

I don't know much about Blackstone, but I'll say this, the statue certainly stands out.

Make sure to check back in two weeks for the second part of my Pawtucket report, featuring old mill buildings, a beautiful armory, a lonely carriage house, a historic riverside mill, an amazing diner and much more!

Committing Myself to the City of Sin

From Dave Brigham:

Lynn, Lynn the city of sin

You never come out, the way you came in

You ask for water, but they give you gin

The girls say no, yet they always give in

If you're not bad, they won’t let you in

It’s the damndest city I’ve ever lived in

Lynn, Lynn the city of sin

You never come out, the way you came in.

Thanks to the blog of a guy named Jason Stadtlander, I learned the lyrics to this poem, of which I'd only ever known the first line. I don't recall at what point after moving to the Boston area in 1990 that I first heard the North Shore city of Lynn referred to as the City of Sin. As with so many former mill towns and cities, I've had the eighth-largest city in the Bay State on my mind for quite a while.

After stumbling across an Instagram reel mentioning Bobby from Boston, a vintage clothing store at 545 Washington Street, I finally made a plan to check out that part of the city. And when I learned that there's a cool old diner right around the corner from the store, I moved that plan up on my Backside agenda.

While this was my first trip to downtown Lynn, I'd been to the city once before (see October 21, 2016, "Rockin' in the Dungeon," for a description of a quick visit to Lynn Woods with my kids).

"Settled by Europeans in 1629, Lynn is the 5th oldest colonial settlement in the Commonwealth," according to Wikipedia. "An early industrial center, Lynn was long colloquially referred to as the 'City of Sin,' owing to its historical reputation for crime and vice."

I started my tour in front of Zimman's, a Lynn mainstay that's been selling fabrics, furniture and furnishings since 1909.

Morris Zimman founded a dry goods shop at 6 River Street in Lynn, about a mile and a half west of the store's current location. "Morris, who was always searching for GREAT BARGAINS, purchased the entire contents of a sunken ship, and [sold] slightly soggy muslin on the sidewalk for 15 cents a yard," according to the Zimman's web site. In 1948, Morris's son, Barry, opened a department store elsewhere on Market Street, moving it to the present location nine years later.

The store is located in the former Goddard Bros. Department Store.

"The firm of Goddard Brothers was founded in 1899 by Franklin L. and Wallace I. Goddard of Boston," according to MACRIS, "who purchased a business from T. E. Parker." I'm not sure of the fate of the Goddard Bros. store.

Around the corner on Andrew Street, I had to make a photo of #58. I figured it was "something."

Sure enough. This is the Grand Army of the Republic Hall and Museum, which "was erected in 1885 with funds raised by local Civil War veterans as a memorial to the Union Army veterans of the Civil War," per the organization's web site. "It soon became the largest G.A.R. post in the country with 1,847 members. Post 5 held a position of prominence in the City of Lynn, the Commonwealth and the Nation for many years.

"Its crowning glory is the enormous 56′ x 46′ main hall on the third floor, which retains the original furnishings and has walls filled with photos of Civil War veterans. Six more rooms have memorabilia from the Revolutionary War through the Korean War."

The hall is currently under renovation, as you can see in my photo. "The structure is in urgent need of repair, and the first phase of that reconstruction has begun with the installation of an elevator, handicapped accessible bathrooms, and updates to the first floor storefronts," per the web site. "These changes make the building compliant with the Americans with Disability Act (ADA), and will enable broader use of the building and access to funding for further efforts.

"In addition, the Trustees of the GAR Hall and Museum are working on finding new uses for space in the building, building on the wishes of the Civil War Union veterans, who gifted the building to the city in a Home Rule Petition in 1919. To that end a community engagement program is also being launched to discover needs of Lynn veterans and nonprofit community organizations."

From there I headed north, and then east on Central Avenue. Cal's News caught my eye.

Opened in 1937, Cal’s News is the city’s oldest family-owned news retailer and tobacconist, according to this Item Live article
.

Steps away, across an empty lot, is a work of stunning beauty.

Located on the side of The Oxford Lynn apartment building, this mural of a rhino and other animals was painted by Miami-based artist Ernesto Maranje. As with many old industrial cities I've visited, Lynn features loads of such work, some of which is featured below.

Nearby along Washington Street is a lovely pastel work by a Los Angeles-based artist who goes by Free Humanity.

Around the corner in Central Square, the teenage boy inside me demanded I make a photo of buildings labeled R.A.W. and GAS.

Raw Art Works is a creative youth development organization rooted in art therapy, per its web site. Great Art Studio "was born with one intent: to develop and support the relationships between local creatives, business owners and their communities," according to its Internet home page.

I continued under the commuter train tracks that cut across the southern portion of the city, headed southwest on Union Street and suddenly I was standing in front of a rare gem of a diner.

The Capitol Diner is one of a select group of early metal diners to survive intact on its original site, according to MACRIS. "The Capitol Diner is a [J.G.] Brill [Co.] from 1928. This is believed to be the last operating Brill diner in the country," according to this Roadside Architecture post (scroll down). "It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The diner was originally known as the 'Miss Lynn Diner.' When it changed hands in 1938, it was renamed to refer to the Capitol Theatre across the street which is now gone."

Around the corner, under the train bridge across Washington Street, is a cool mural painted by artist Anna Dugan, who goes by Annadidathing. A detail from the work of art is featured in the image below.

The Guardians | Mga Tagapagtanggol "represents her Filipino culture and serves as an image of power, femininity, and protection," according to this statement at the Beyond Walls web site.

Based in Lynn, Beyond Walls "introduce[s] public art, curated experiences and outdoor museums into the fabric of our communities by partnering with local community members and experts to design, produce and manage collaborative projects and programs," per the non-profit group's web site. "We serve cities and towns where there are changes due to the loss of industry, shifts in population, or where there is underutilized infrastructure."

The group brought its Retrolit program, in which it restored and installed vintage neon signs, to the Bobby from Boston building I mentioned at the top of this post. That building is located just steps from the above mural, on Washington Street.

For Retrolit, Beyond Walls partnered with Dave and Lynn Waller, well-known local collectors (and conservators) of neon signs (for coverage of the Wallers, see April 22, 2023, "Walking Around Belt-Bottom," August 9, 2018, "Backside, Out in the Open" and March 22, 2010, "Gettin' My Kicks").

I believe both of the above signs were once located on local businesses. Lynn was once known as the Shoe Capital of the World, "with dozens of factories producing millions of pairs of shoes each year," according to this blog post.

Bobby from Boston is located in the Frederick E. Abbott Building, a nicely restored Romanesque Revival building dated to 1890. In the late 1890s, the Munsey Shank Company occupied this building, manufacturing shanks, which are long, thin pieces of material between the insole and outsole intended to support the foot and provide structure, according to Wikipedia.

Munsey was in business here until 1938. In 1940, according to MACRIS, the Prime Company rented the building. Prime was "a shoe sole equipment manufacturer, remaining in operation through 2001 as the last shoe manufacturer in Lynn," MACRIS continues.

I'd like to return to this place when the vintage clothing store is open, which is only on Sundays.

I continued southwest on Union Street. In front of the parking garage for the commuter rail station is a statue that seems somewhat forgotten to the world.

The site is slightly overgrown, and there is no plaque providing passers-by with information about the statue's name, or who the artist is, or why it's on this spot. The man is bald and striated, and appears naked. He's sitting on a stack of books, staring into the middle distance. Perhaps he is attempting to absorb knowledge through his tuchus?

I've searched on Google and can't find anything about this work of art. Maybe this forlorn guy knows Worcester's Turtle Boy.

Anyway...moving on.

The statue of the nude bookworm stands across from one of the imposing Harbor Loft apartment buildings.

Known as the Vamp Building, this massive structure -- the south facade extends 400 feet along Broad Street -- rose in 1903 as part of a complex built by a syndicate of investors known as the Lynn Realty Company (the edifice is known alternately as Lynn Realty Building #4).

"Following a disastrous fire of 1887 when a 30-acre area employing over 7,000 employees burned to the ground, there was a short flurry of rebuilding activity," MACRIS indicates. "This slowed considerably by 1891 and the next decade saw little construction in downtown Lynn. By 1900, the shoe industry had re-emerged as a significant economic engine and Lynn was once again in a leadership position in that industry. The Lynn Realty Company, headed by one Edward Strout, financed major construction in the fire-zone by financing and constructing several large manufacturing structures."

I'm not sure when this old factory was converted to residential use.

From there, I headed northeast on Broad Street, as I saw something in the distance I wanted to check out.

This place turned out to be a two-fer. Located in what is known as Bank Square, the former Hotel Edison is an Art Deco building that looks pretty good. "The Hotel Edison...site had served as a prominent intersection with a previous hotel located after the Lynn Fire of 1889," per MACRIS. "The present Hotel Edison was constructed in 1931 by the Lincoln Reality Trust and served as a retail complex with street shops along Broad and Exchange Street. It was among the first buildings in Lynn to be air conditioned in 1937 and was...remodeled for commercial space in 1988."

This building is also the headquarters of The Daily Item newspaper, which was founded in 1877.

Next I cut west on Exchange Street, where I saw the fabulous sign below.

Unfortunately, Charlie's Junction Deli closed in the fall of 2019. This "classic old breakfast and lunch spot" was in business for more than 20 years, according to this Boston Restaurant Talk post.

I absolutely love the Charlie's sign. I'm surprised it's still there.

Around the corner, on Spring Street, is yet another of the many great murals of Lynn.

Painted on the side of the Breed Estate Building -- one of the few survivors of Spring Street's rebuilding between 1890 and 1908, according to MACRIS -- this work by Argentinean Mariela Ajras was completed in partnership with Beyond Walls. I've dubbed this one the UFO mural.

I wandered around and found myself at the Silsbee Street underpass, where I saw this dcool guitar painted on a pillar.

One of many paintings under and around the commuter train tracks, this one was done by that famous artist known as I Can't Find Information On the Internet.

Silsbee Street to the east, and Exchange Street to the west, are the end points of the old Eastern Railroad Station Viaduct. This structure, which runs along Mount Vernon Street, features more nice murals, but I'd like to know what's behind the facades.

When it was built in 1913, "it served as the passenger platform for the adjacent 1895 station (non-extant) located on the west side," according to MACRIS. "The station was left at grade, but the waiting room was extended under the viaduct and steps to the platform were provided." At that time, trains were operated by the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad.

"Exterior stairs located at either end of the viaduct also service the platform which is sheltered by a flat-roofed concrete awning," MACRIS continues. "Space under the viaduct was utilized for the baggage room and shops on both the Central Square and Silsbee Street ends. Although the 1895 station has been demolished and many of the original/early storefronts have been removed or altered, the viaduct itself survives basically unaltered and in its original context."

Old photos show some of the viaduct's archways, seen in my photos above, open. I'd love it if this place could be opened up for retail/restaurants businesses at some point. The only indication of a former business here is the sign on a door for the National Fire Escape Association.

At 305 Union Street I spied a ghost sign of sorts for the old McLellan's department store.

I haven't been able to find out any history of this retailer.

At the corner of Washington and Oxford streets is A&S Pawn and Used Jewelry, which has been around for at least a quarter-century, from what I've been able to figure out.

I headed back toward my car, which I'd parked at the Lynn Marketplace mall along State Street, but then I decided to wander just a little bit more. Along the Lynnway, in front of the parking lot for Lynn Motor Sales, I spied this nice old clock.

A quick online search turned up a Facebook post in which somebody who had taken a photo of this clock asked for any background information. This guy said the names on each of the faces are "F.L. Conte" and "Chery Conte." I haven't found any information about the clock, the maker or the Contes.

Coincidentally, on the opposite side of the busy four-lane roadway is an old factory building with a clocktower.

My first thought when I saw this place was, "It looks like the Schrafft's building in Boston." The candy company building pre-dates this one by about 15 years and may have inspired the architect, Harold Field Kellogg. Kellogg's other local buildings include the Batterymarch Building in Boston; the Pierce-Arrow auto showroom (now a Star Market) in Boston's Packard Corner; and the Longwood Towers in Brookline, for which he was a consulting architect.

Built in 1922 as a shoe factory for Albert Creighton, this structure was seen as "a landmark of modern reinforced industrial design after the First World War," per MACRIS. "The corner clock tower highlights the Gothic profile of the Creighton-Champion Buildings along the Lynnway with vertical piered windows in the upper story, capped by a stepped copper roof with flagpole."

When Creighton's company cratered in 1928, the building "was purchased by the Consolidated Electric Company as the Champion Lamp Works, for light bulb manufacturing from secondary General Electric patents," MACRIS continues. "The Champion Works continued to expand with radio assembly by 1937 with a substantial addition to the original Creighton Building in 1948-1951....In 1969 the Champion works was acquired by International Telephone and Telegraph (ITT) and again in 1975 by North American Philips Company (Norelco) with renovations of the original Creighton Building during 1987-1988."

It is now known as the Clocktower Business Center; tenants include a driving school and a law office.

Back across the Lynnway, at the corner of Blossom Street, there is an Enterprise car rental facility. It's located in a building that was previously home to Ron Costa's Auto World.

From what I've deduced online, Costa started that business in 1995. By 2011 this space was occupied by another business. I love that little reminder sign.

I next walked north-northwest on Blossom, then swung east on Alley Street. I had spotted a smokestack, and I needed to get closer.

I really love that image for Traditional Breads, which was established in 1999, a year after the founder, Fitzroy Alexander, sold his previous company, Signature Breads, to Hazelwood Farms, which is owned by Pillsbury.

Around the corner on Pleasant Street, I fought the sun to get a picture of Pudgy's Towing & Auto Repair.

I love the color combination, the slogan, the lettering - everything about this place. Unfortunately, Pudgy's closed down, evidently right around the time that I made this photo. The place was in business for 57 years.

The last shot I made was of a giant mural above the Jamaica's Flavor restaurant.

This work is by Wellington Naberezny, a Brazilian-born artist who goes by SIPROS. According to this Beyond Walls bio, the artist "started in the graffiti world in 1997 and was known for his character 'Big Ears' which makes an analogy of children as his source of inspiration and reflection."

I bid you adieu, City of Sin. Hope to return soon!