New Bedford Guide Your Guide to New Bedford and South Coast, MA
Musical businesses
Star Store was purchased in 1969 by Boston department store Gorin’s, who intended to keep it as it was. In 1976, a 300-year-old, archaic Blue Law stated that business had to be closed on Sunday. Star Store bucked the law as did Kresge’s further downtown Purchase Street and Golub’s Furniture.
In 1983, Almy bought the Star Store from Gorin’s and opened another Star Store in Fairhaven in the old King’s Department Store where Shaw’s Supermarket is/was now in Berdon Plaza. King’s Department store had a run as a Zaire’s and Ames as well.
Almy’s was purchased by Stop & Shop in 1985 who held a liquidation sale (at the New Bedford site) before closing the doors permanently on January 12, 1985. In November, it re-opened as Stuart’s employing 175 people. Continuing the theme of musical businesses Stuart’s closed its doors in 1987, and moved to the North End. The building was officially vacant and began to deteriorate to the point that the facade was falling onto the sidewalks and street and the city had to erect a covered walkway. Thieves began to strip the building of its copper flashing.
The building was supposed to be the Bristol Hotel, but never materialized. 1989 Hotel Properties paid a little more than $2 million for the building and planned on spending $8 million to turn it into a 117 room hotel. Didn’t happen. In 1990 it was to be turned into a Sheraton hotel that included 14,000 sq ft of retail space…didn’t happen. In 1992 Building was foreclosed on by New England Federal Savings Bank as the owners filed for bankruptcy.
In 1995 the city took over as $700,000 was owed in back taxes and handed control over to the New Bedford Redevelopment Authority. With the influence of Senator Mark Montigny, Governor Paul Cellucci granted the city $32 million in 1998 to renovate a three block area with $16.6 million dollars set aside for the Star Store building. A deal was struck between the city and Sakonnet Properties Inc. who would give the city the Coffin Building which was actually two buildings adjacent to the Star Store. The city in turn forgave $376,000 in back taxes and footed the $500,000 bill to repair the facade.
The rest as they say – is history.
Many memories from when I was a child, shoe shopping and back to school shopping.
My memories of Star Store … Getting my feet ex rayed in the shoe dept. In one of those machines that you would stick your feet into. …..watching the tube with the receipt fly through the tube up to the office…..going up the escalator was such a treat..the little metal Star Store charge plates my mom had to charge her purchases. She would the. Pay $5 a week on her credit at the office.
I worked at the Star Store in the early 70’s and met the woman who became my wife there in 1972. I started as a stock boy on the fourth floor in the toy and furniture department and worked my way up to associate in the Men’s Department on the first floor, then in the Men’s Clothing Annex which had it’s own entrance on Union Street across from Keystone’s. Dick Reilly was the store manager – great guy. They eventually promoted me to Assistant Store Manager and assigned me to their affiliated store, Edgar’s, at the Swansea Mall. The Star Store owned a lot of the properties on that block. I remember wandering through haphazard passageways to get to their pricing facilities in their building on the corner of Pleasant and Spring Streets, and their shoe repair shop which was actually located under Union Street. They also had a tailor shop above the annex I worked in. At Christmas they hired a guy to play Santa who’d sit in the toy department. On his breaks, he’d go into one of the stock rooms and drink whiskey from a flask he brought with him! And, yes, the carillon was still used to play Christmas songs when I worked there!
I worked at Star Store in the late 60s during the Christmas season while attending what later became UMass Dartmouth. I have been told, don’t know whether or not it is true, that their escalator was the first in the country. They used the suction tubes to send the money up to the office where a receipt was prepared and, along with any change due, was sent back to the sales clerk. I worked in stockrooms, put together toys, wrapped Christmas gifts and helped stock shelves. It was a fun place to work during the holidays as there were some very interesting people to hang out with during breaks. 🙂
I have no memories of the Star Store, but I do have a story. My Grandmother (who died in 1969) used to sew a lot and in fact she and my Grandfather had a textile business in the Fall River/Assonet area for some years. My Grandmother used to make some of my clothing when I was a child. I was teenager when she died in 1969, and in her will she left me her sewing machine and all her sewing supplies. I still have a lot of them (and the old Singer flyweight sewing machine), and this is where the Star Store comes in. I was sewing something for my Granddaughter the other day and needed some bias tape. I looked through my sewing supplies and found a brand new package of bias tape with a price sticker on it saying The Star Store, New Bedford, Massachusetts. The price of the package was 10 cents. I had never heard of the Star Store, so I of course googled it and found this article. Very interesting to read about the store and see how long it was in business. It is pretty cool to know that something purchased by my Grandmother is now in use for my Granddaughter! Five generations! And that bias tape traveled from Massachusetts to Delaware, then to North Carolina where I live now, and I just sent it back north to Virginia where my Granddaughter lives. Well traveled package of bias tape.
When I was a kid I would walk with my friend from my house which was near where the high school is now to star store. Correct me if I’m wrong…I believe it was there where I would go to the music department and they would have booths where you could play records to see if you wanted to buy them. We used to do it all the time
What is there now?
The University of Massachusetts has many of their art programs at the Star Store now. The building still needs repairs and when it rains the roof is full of holes and it rains into the building. I don’t understand why the city doesn’t fix it.
I grew up in New Bedford and my dad was the advertising manager of the Star Store from 1925 to 1965. A 40 year run just after graduation from Harvard. Many memories visiting him in his little office on 2nd floor that overlooked the old BPM (Brockton Public Market). I’ve been living in Delaware for last 65 years and still make
periodic trips to New Bedford to see the old sights the bring back some fun memories.