date published:
January 30, 2006
In today's fast-paced world, It may feel as though little room is left for the simple pleasures of yesterday. Thankfully, Boston is home to a multitude of shops that appear unhindered by the advancements of the past few decades. Fiercely loyal to their original concepts, these quirky alcoves are hidden anywhere from the posh brownstones of Newbury Street to the renovated warehouses of Fort Point, waiting to sate visitors with a taste for nostalgia. Whether you have a weakness for old gadgets or a passion for classic poetry, you'll find your own talisman of days gone by in one of these secret pearls.
Machine
Age . 354 Congress St., 617-482-0048
Antique designer furniture, wall art,
household items
After the Art Deco movement and before the Modern Age, there was the Machine
Age-a time when design met mass production and became industrialized. The
plethora of bold, sleek furnishings that make up Normand Mainville's showroom
in Fort Point offer a stylish representation of this era. Overflowing with
pieces like Danish designer Hans Wagner's 1950s sofa, personally refurbished by
Mainville, the space is a haven for aficionados of visual design, and items
from Machine Age have been featured in films like There's Something About Mary.
"People come back very often, because it's like a gallery," says Mainville,
pictured below. "They not only buy the furniture, they buy the history behind
it. You have more soul in a vintage piece than a new piece of furniture,
because it comes from a name, a region, a period-a movement of modern."
Grolier
Poetry Book Shop .
6 Plympton St., Cambridge, 617-547-4648
Poetry books
Nestled in a quiet side street of Harvard Square and brimming with piles of
chapbooks, the Grolier has long served a fundamental niche of the literary world. Founded in
1927, it is prized for being one of just two for-profit poetry shops and the
oldest continuous bookshop in the country. Its owner, Louisa Solano (pictured
right), has reigned over this lyrical kingdom since 1974, and remembers
frequenting the shop since the tender age of 15. "The proprietors were a heavy
drinking set," she says, recalling the circle of bohemian intellectuals who
characterized the shop in the 1960s. "At that time, it was like a fantasy. The
floor creaked, the paint was chipping, the light was low. It was like being on
a ship in a storm." Over the years, Grolier's notable patrons have included the
likes of Jack Kerouac, Seamus Heaney and John Ashbery, and it is not unusual
for laureates to personally donate copies of their work. Yet perhaps Grolier's
brightest jewel is Solano herself, who, after a warm chat, will always
recommend just the right verses.
Nuggets
Records . 486 Commonwealth Ave., 617-536-0679
Vinyl, cassettes, music memorabilia
Kenmore Square has gotten an upscale facelift in the past year, but several
institutions still capture its former down-to-earth aura. Among them is
27-year-old Nuggets Records, which sells used
records of all genres-jazz, blues, punk, rock, soul and R&B-for as little
as 50 cents each. Named after a compilation by the Patti Smith Group, Nuggets
was started by a circle of friends who sold records out of cardboard boxes in
Harvard Square in the late 1970s. Over the years, the store has acquired "tens
of thousands of records" and been visited by many a famous musician. "We get
some autographed stuff from people that have come in here, like Billy Joel,"
says owner Stewart Freedman (pictured right). "Hothouse Flowers came in, Fred
Schneider from B-52s, Al Kooper, which is cool."
Bobby
from Boston . 19 Thayer St., 617-423-9299
Vintage clothing (Open by appointment only)
Stepping into Bobby Garnett's showroom in the South End's up-and-coming SOWA
Gallery is like teleporting into a hodge-podge of a dozen different movie sets.
Pungent with the aroma of leather and cigarette smoke, the store abounds with
whimsical apparel from all eras-from WWII leather flight bomber jackets
(complete with helmet and goggles) to 1950s two-tone jackets to embroidered
gabardine Western shirts. Though the showroom includes a women's collection of
must-haves like go-go boots and 1920s hats, Garnett (pictured
right), who's cultivated his love of clothing since 1971, originally wanted his
space to be a men's haberdashery. "You go to vintage stores and you never find
men's stuff," he says. "So I wanted to have the men's vintage clothing store."
Bobby's clients include designers Ralph Lauren, Louis Vuitton and Armani, and
his couture can be seen in star-studded films like the soon-to-be-released The
Good Shepherd.
Herb's
TV . 68 South St., Jamaica Plain, 617-522-6440
Antique radios and televisions
Repairman Herb Pratt has been dabbling with radios since before the age of
television. "When I was 14 or 15, I got interested in radios, so I worked at a
radio shop after school," he says. "During World War II, there were no new
radios made, so people had to get them repaired when they broke down. In fact,
many years later, I'm working on the same type of radios." Pratt (pictured
below), whose life passion was spawned in that radio shop in Malden, has
presided over his Jamaica Plain shop since 1968. His collection of antique
radios includes fully functional pieces that date back to the 1920s, and some
have been sold to collectors for as much as $2200. "Over the years, these
radios have become collectibles," says Pratt. "Many people just collect real
expensive radios and never use them. But I make sure that the ones we have are
rebuilt completely. Hopefully people will turn them on."
International
Poster Gallery . 205 Newbury St., 617-375-0076
Vintage posters / For Jim Lapides, collecting vintage posters has "been a labor
of love" ever since he became partial to Italian design while studying art
history in Florence. In his quest for graphic masterpieces, Lapides has
traveled to estate sales, attics and flea markets in remote corners of the
world. "I'm interested in modern art in all its guises-good design from all
eras," he says. In 1994, he opened the International Poster Gallery in a
spacious brownstone on Newbury Street. Adorned with striking, impeccably
restored posters by artists like Toulouse-Lautrec, Adolfo Hohenstein and Milton
Glaser, the IPG boasts one of the world's largest collections of antique
posters, distributing art to clients such as the Museum of Fine Art and the
Library of Congress. Unlike many other antique poster vendors, who tend to
gravitate towards the popular French designs, the IPG strives to be truly
international, and carries sizeable collections of Swiss, Soviet and American
designs, as well as the world's largest Italian collection. "Posters still
represent amazing value," says Lapides. "The whole world is interested in
posters now-it's become really global."
Cadia
Vintage . 148 Salem St., 617-742-1203
Retro housewares, clothing, accessories and
memorabilia
(Open Sat 11:30 a.m.-5 p.m. & Sun noon-5 p.m.)
Tucked away in an out-of-the-way corner of Salem Street, Cadia Vintage
is one of very few North End nooks that doesn't deal in food or potables. The
shop's tiny, quaintly decorated interior resembles a retro dollhouse. The
shelves are stacked with odds and ends like ceramic salt-and-pepper shakers,
engraved jewelry boxes and hand-painted toothcombs. A box on the floor holds a
set of 1950s Playboys; a pair of chrome plate-heeled
black suede pumps
protrudes from the corner. Carole Springhetti (pictured below), who co-owns the
shop with her mother, has a penchant for kitschy flea market finds. "[A friend
and I] had talked about how fun a shop would be. After getting encouragement
from my family, I went for it. The bonus-it's a great form of recycling."
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