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Sunday, August 02, 2015

Bon Aire Shopping Center Opening ~

May 17, 1950
Photo: Butler Historical Society

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

The beginning of the end for downtown retailers. They didn't realize it at the time and still fared well for some years. Urban flight had begun.

Anonymous said...

I think Winter's Drug used to be downtown on Main Street.

Anonymous said...

Isaly's was never the same here as it was downtown. You couldn't reproduce that place.

Anonymous said...

Remembering getting Skyscraper cones at Islay's, Friday night grocery trips to Thorofare and, later on in life, the occasional stop at the Belmont!

Anonymous said...

Find it interesting to see the cars allowed to park by the sidewalk directly in front of the stores. Don't know when that was changed, but it has been decades since local laws no longer permit curbside parking. Think it has something to do with emergency vehicles - - namely fire trucks - - having direct access to the stores. The times keep changing.

Also, Isaly's was a great place on Center Ave. Think it was open there from at least the 1930s through the 1960s. Many great memories of that place.

Anonymous said...

I used to walk up here from town on Saturday morning's with my late friend Denny Reeseman when we were in our mid-teens. We could bowl three games for $1.00 in the Bon Aire Bowling Lanes and then I would get a ham salad sandwich in Isaly's for lunch and walk home.

Conrad said...

Many a visit to that Isaly's during the early 60s. And the above comment is correct, this was the beginning of the end of downtown. My grandfather, and then my father, owned a hardware store on Main Street, just across from Cummings. My father sold it in 1962 in anticipation of sales dropping off. I believe my grandfather had first opened it in the 30s and later added a second location on North Main.

Al said...

My first job was at that Isaly's about 1959-1960 earning 85 cents an hour. The boss was Louie but I can't recall his last name. Had to wash lots of dishes and mop the entire floor every evening before closing. Those were the good old days. Spent all my life in Butler from age 15 until retirement.
Al Harmon, former Butlerite.