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Old McDonald's to be replaced, EIEIO
By adamg on Tue, 02/26/2019 - 9:35am
The McDonald's at 1750 Soldiers Field Rd. in Brighton is old. How old? It's so old the franchise owner had to file a formal declaration with the city Landmarks Commission to determine whether it was of any historic interest and possibly worth saving. A city ordinance requires the commission to at least consider the issue with requests for a pemit to demolish a building at least 50 years old.
The deadline for filing concerns was yesterday, so barring a sudden wave of nostalgia for late-1960s McDonald's construction, the owner will be allowed to replace it with a more modern McDonald's.
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Comments
LOL
OMG LOL.
Well its true, the law applies. This is where those laws are almost out dated. What's next? a former Bradlees or Stop & Shop historical site?
Back when I was a teen, I drove around in a 1981 AMC Spirit. Thing was MINT condition. At the time, NH said "classic" plates could be purchased for cars older than 15 years old. My Senior year, just for shits.. I got classic plates. LOL
I had a Ford Falcon that was
I had a Ford Falcon that was eligible for "Antique" plates when I was in high school.
If this Mickey D's is really 50 years old, it must have been one of the first ones with the mansard roof. According to corporate, that design wasn't introduced until 1969: https://corporate.mcdonalds.com/corpmcd/about-us/history.html
I recall them switching over on the north shore in the early 70s.
I still find it really weird
I still find it really weird every time I see cars from the early 90s driving around with "antique vehicle" plates...
When was the law written?
It seems like it might be time to revamp it to include pre-WWII buildings, rather than anything >50 years old.
(Also, the historical significance law looks at whether things are the last or one of the last examples of a type of architecture. Which makes sense, but also means there's not part of the law that directly applies when someone buys one of a row of identical 1800s rowhouses or close-together freestanding houses and wants to demolish one of them and build something else, as has happened several times in Roxbury.)
It certainly has its charms
That whole little strip of land between Soldiers Field Rd and North Beacon St is a weird little vestige of 1960s sprawl. Which is mostly a bad thing and the whole thing should be reengineered to be friendlier to non-automobiles, but it's certainly an aesthetic. But the McDonalds on its own is pretty generic.
Change is coming even there
A bunch of apartments and condos have been approved, as has a luxury car dealership (and hey, let's not forget Sammy White's).
22
"Let's not forget Sammy White's..."
Because he was a pretty good catcher, or because a bunch of people got gunned down in the eponymous bowling alley?
Was thinking of the bowling alley, so ....
Yeah, I guess the same way I can't think of the Charlestown 99 without remembering what happened there once.
There was a cool ditch next
There was a cool ditch next to Martignetti's that they didn't care if people skated. Something tells me the luxury car dealership won't be as cool about it.
Only one way to find out
Only one way to find out
Not that it is worth preserving, but ...
The world's first Staples store is in this area.
That area is particularly annoying
because it's ALMOST bike/ped friendly, but it's not. I commute to a western suburb on that path. I've gone to that Starbucks, and there's really no good way to get there from the path. If you're headed outbound, you have to plan way ahead and get off at the overpass, then use roads with no good shoulder and on which people drive 45+ regardless of the speed limit. I've also gone to the IHOP on the way to work with a kid with me. We ended up riding past it to the Watertown/Newton splitoff, where you can get 3/4 of the way across at signalled crosswalks, but then have to run across the two unsignalled streets that come from Brighton. It desperately needs to be redone. The DC area has a number of good examples of similar street design from the '60s-'80s that's been recently redone to be bike/ped friendly. There are plenty of places where you can tell it used to be strip malls along a highway, but has been made walkable. We need to get on this.
Wow, good point. You can get
Wow, good point. You can get across the first leg with the parallel green despite the lack of crosswalk, but the last hop has no traffic light at all. https://goo.gl/maps/xdwaCzwh3kn
And does this count as a wheelchair ramp? https://goo.gl/maps/GB4eHnwNE612
Here a Mac. There a Mac.
Everywhere a Big Mac.
That was the first McDonald's I ever went to...
My parents loved that particular location. My father, who passed away several years ago, always made the car trip to buy a cup of coffee from them before heading for work. Though I have not been to that McDonald's since 1989, I'm sure it was renovated extensively over the years since my last visit. But I do understand the need for it to restart anew.
One of those post-1969
One of those post-1969 mansard roof models? Meh. Find an original Googie design McDonald's and it might be worth something:
http://personanondata.blogspot.com/2011/08/ithaca-mcdonalds-1968.html
I believe there's only one of those left standing.
Drive thru
I hope they keep the terrifying Ronald McDonald poster-thing in the drive thru window that terrifies you the moment you come around the corner from ordering.
It still haunts me.
Better fries
Before Staples, etc. that area was the arbitoire that turned the river red and great grandpa reports that area stunk to high heaven. No wonder the gardening was good! RIP Mickey D’s, I’m sure you’ll find a home in the bottom floor of some ugly apt. complex.
I really hope they don’t do a shit design job over there. My biggest gripe in that area was access to the river without being mowed down. It would be nice to see it renewed thoughtfully. Maybe even a cow pasture thrown in for good charm.
If anything, the IHOP is
If anything, the IHOP is historic. I went there quite a bit when I was an MIT undergrad in the late 80's.
Are they tearing it down
and putting in a new McD's? or something else?
Kudos, Adam
That's a great headline