Then and Now: Orpheum Theater and Ryan Block in Gardner
Two entrepreneurial brothers and a iconic local movie house left their mark on downtown
Mike Richard
Special for The Gardner News
The three-sided marquee was easily one of downtown Gardner’s most familiar landmarks, promoting the double-feature films at the beloved Orpheum Theater.
How many Saturdays around noontime did you get into the line that would snake down Parker Street, around the bend at Liggett’s Drug Store, to the corner of Pleasant Street and beyond for the afternoon matinee?
Originally known as the Murray Block, the Orpheum Theater first opened in the building at 32-40 Parker St. on May 29, 1913, by the Trimount Theatre Co. and was called “the last word on model construction of a motion picture house.”
First National Stores usher in age of the supermarket in Gardner
First store of its kind in city attracts 10,000 people to its grand opening
Mike Richard
Special for The Gardner News
The decade of the 1950s opened up a wide world of newness and novelty for society in America. World War II had ended and a new prosperity gave way to a baby boom explosion of automobiles, television and rock n roll music.
Another of these unique innovations – the supermarket – made its debut on the local scene 70 years ago last spring with the opening of Gardner’s first shopping headquarters, the First National Stores at 57 City Hall Ave., on April 27, 1950.