I had the pleasure of interviewing Mrs. Dunton at her home in Worcester.  Throughout the interview we are looking at the photo albums she has put together with pictures of historic and picturesque Worcester.  Therefore if a seemingly random topic comes up for discussion it is most likely due to the fact that we are looking at a picture dealing with the subject.

It’s hard for me to write and listen to everything at the same time so.

That’s fine – that’s why I never became Secretary of the Civic Association.  (Laughter)

I am too interested in what everyone is saying and then I forget I should be writing it down.   (Mrs. Dunton is reading description of consent form).  If you agree to all that then you can just sign it and then I’ll show you a copy of what I write up and use from our discussion.

Like I say I don’t remember too much because I was kind of little I . . .

Right-

. . . just from what I have heard, but like I say if any of the pictures would be of any use to you I can try to get them duplicated . . .

Oh wow!

. . . or whatever, or borrow my book.

Oh really?!

I don’t know if that would help but like I say I have two books here of just pictures of Worcester and I have tried to date like when they were built and things like that.

Ok.  So you have lived in Worcester your whole life?

Yes, actually I have lived almost my entire life.  I bought my mother’s home thirty, thirty-one years ago.  But I never lived too far.  I lived on Hope Avenue and then down the other end of Hope Avenue and then back here.  So I never got too far.

That’s good the familiar.  Do you um, and I know that you were only about three years old, but do you remember anything about what you might have done like going to White City or different movie theaters?

Well White City wasn’t there.  It was an amusement park.  Yes I do remember going there.  I think my favorite ride was the airplanes that went out over the lake.  I would often wonder if they would take off.  (Laughter)  Um, there was a movie theater downtown.

I wish it was still there.

I know we used to go to the store and when I was about ten or eleven which would be right after the war and my mother would give me dollar and I could by a carton of cigarettes, loaf of bread, a quart of milk and a nickel for bubble gum.

Wow.  I was originally thinking of doing, focusing my aspect of the project on just the diners of Worcester.

Oh really?

I think it is so fascinating.

There’s not too many that are still open.

The Boulevard Diner is the one that I have been to a lot.  And I know the Miss Worcester, but it is only opened during the morning to the early afternoon now.

Right.

Where did your mother and father work?

My mother stayed at home, at first.  And my dad worked at the American Steel and Wire Company.  My mother didn’t go to work until later; she was a stay at home mom.

So she didn’t feel the, everyone always talks about Rosie the Riveter and how during the war everyone always felt this great call to go out and get a job?

Right. No she didn’t.

Yeah.  It’s interesting.  I have talked to about four or five people and most of them are like, “no we didn’t really feel the great push that everyone feels about it now or interprets in now.”  I love this building (Worcester Market Building – Main Street) – it’s beautiful.  I just love the detail of the building and the green.

Um, this was a big cow (referring to top of building)

And that was like a supermarket, right?

Yes; probably where everyone went.  There weren’t too many supermarkets as we know them today.  You’d take the bus downtown or you’d drive if you had a car but we didn’t.     

So you did a lot of walking?

A lot of walking.

I was talking to someone earlier this morning and um, she said that she used to walk from here to White City and that when they wanted to go to White City they just walked.

A lot of people did.

Yeah.

If you couldn’t afford a cab.  I mean it probably cost you a dollar from here to there but back then that was a lot of money.  

So your dad did not go during WWII.

No he was um, in the um, National Guards until 1943 – so he stayed home and protected the homefront.

Were there a lot in Worcester?

Yeah.  And if you go to Lincoln Square, the National Guard Amory, which is a home for Vietnam Veterans – they have quite an extensive history there.

Was that a paid position or was it volunteer?

Oh no, it was paid, it was just like Army Reserves or something.

These are great pictures.

Where are you from?

I am originally from Rhode Island.  Have you ever been to Coney Island hot dogs?

Oh yes.  They are not as good as they used to be.

Really!  (Laughter)

I prefer Hot Dog Annie’s.

Where is that?

Oh, you’ve never been.

I’ve never been.

Oh that is an experience in its self.  In Leicester . . .

Ok.
  
. . . if you go up Route 9 into Leicester Center, if you before you get to the lights – actually at the bottom of the hill, there is  road and Route 9 goes one way and there is another road that goes to the right.  Take that right and then you’ll get to the Town Hall and then take another right and Hot Dog Annie’s is down that road.  Don’t, it looks like this little blue dump but its not.  It’s really kind of neat, ya know and I think on Wednesdays they are four for a dollar and you can get BBQ, you can get sauerkraut.  But it’s been there since 1940 and it’s never changed.  They started out and, I mean it’s not even as big as my living room.

Wow.

I mean you walk in one door and order your hot dog and then walk out the other door.  I mean it’s not a restaurant in any way.  

I’m defiantly going to have to go there.  I’ll compare hot dogs.

I think you’ll like Hot Dog Annie’s.  

The pictures are amazing.

I am sure I have tons more to take.

Yeah – there is so much all over the city.

This all started with a post card.  

Really?

I was in a flea market and I found an old post card of Worcester and I was fascinated so I started looking for post cards and then as I was finding them I began to wonder what all the places looked like now.

So this is the old American Steel and Wire Company.

That’s part of it.  That’s on the corner of Millbury Street and Ballad.  This picture is on one side of the street and the other is one the opposite.

That’s going to be the future home of the Visitor’s Center.  

Yes.

I like to see the older buildings being used again.  Are they going to knock it down or renovate it?

I think they are going to renovate it.  This other one they have to knock down because it’s falling down.  There is no back to it.  Some of the pictures I have yet to identify yet.  

Do you know by any chance when the lions were taken off the old Union Station?

Um, um, I am trying to think of when it was built.  Around 19 . . . Because these were taken off the original, well not the original but the second station before the Union Station we know now.  Around the turn of the century.  And so instead of getting rid of the lions they moved them to the park.

So that park has been there for a long time.

Oh yes.  And on of the church’s on Belmont street (Lady of Fatima) was built from the bricks from that second station that was knocked down.

So that would be around the turn of the century?

Yes.  

Wow – very interesting.

And the lions come from the thing also but they put the lions there and used the stones there.

Very interesting.  Hmmm. . . .  Do you know – actually you might – know I have a question.  Shrewsbury Street – the East Side Improvement Center.

Ok.

Do you know what building that is?  It is kinda across from the Boulevard Diner . . .

And it’s just before the park?

Yes.

On, coming from here it would be on the left hand side.

Yes.  The reason I ask is because it used to be a theater they told me.

Yes.

Really?

I don’t remember it. . .

And then a Haberdashery.  And then the East Side Improvement Center.

Could be, could be – because I don’t remember them but I remember someone talking about the theaters because we used to have – oh my goodness how many theaters in the city?  (Counting theaters)  I think that we at one time had like nine theaters in the city and an opera house.  

Ok.

And the Opera House was on Pleasant Street.  

Yeah I saw that picture.

Yup.  

Just so, um, I’m sorry, if you don’t mind I have it on record, what year were you born in? 

’39.

‘39 – ok.

63. (Laughing)

I almost stopped there – that hardware store – that’s been there for a long time too, right?

That’s the oldest hardware store in the city and it was built in 1885.

1885? Ok.

Yeah I say that.  They have a lot of things in there; they could probably tell you a lot.

Oh really.  All these places, I think what my teacher is going to do is that the project will be continued every year and each class will do a little bit more . . . 

Oh. 

. . . because I mean just from the research that I have done in the Library and driving around and talking to people there is tons of history here.  Because there was so much industry during World War II alone.

Yes, yes.

That to begin to get a little bit on each –

Right.  There are several factories that have been torn down or changed so completely.  Right on the corner of Park and Chandler at that Dunkin Donuts that used to be a factory.  And Brown shoe was downtown where the main fire station is now, behind the Centrum.  That was a great big shoe factory.

Really?

In fact, I worked there one summer.  I hated it, I hated it – I can home with blisters, it was so hard pulling that leather, ya know because we used to have to lace the top of the shoe ya know how you would, you had to lace this to this . . .

Oh wow!

. . . and we had to do it by hand, ya know.  And you would have to pull it and I’d get home and my fingers would be all ripped and I’d have blisters and I’d say “I hate this job”.  (Laughter)  But they didn’t have McDonald’s and ya know places like that at this time so, you could go and get a cushy job . . . 

That’s true.

. . . flipping hamburger.  I mean we worked in factories, ya know. 

There used to be a lot of Hotels, huh?

Yes.  Main Street used to either be hotels or rooming houses or ya know things like that.  

Do you know by any chance either (can’t understand). . . what role maybe organizations like the Red Cross or the Salvation Army played in Worcester during the war, if any? Or the YWCA?

I don’t – I know they did, I know the Red Cross helped a lot of people during times of disasters, like they do now but what exactly they did I don’t know.

Is that still there?  (Indicating to a picture of an ice stand)

Yes, I just took that this year – Its still there so if the original owner was still there or something they could probably give you some information. 

Right.  Lots of people still needed to have ice delivered.

Yes, maybe they were the ones that came around with their little horses.  We used to have an ice man and a rag man.

Oh really?  

Yeah he’d come around with his horse yelling “rags”,  “rags”.  (Laughter)  and of course that must have been around the time of the war because I remember my mother saving rags and you could either buy them or sell them I guess, or something ya know.  You would give them to the rag man and he would recycle them.  In fact I guess the rag man that used to come around here used to do something, I think they made rugs or something because  um, right behind Miss Worcester Diner that great big building – the 

Yeah, it kinda looks, it resembles a church in a little of its structure and I don’t know if that’s just me but every time I drive by it I feel like it needs stained glass windows. . . (Laughter) 

Yeah, nope – that’s what it was.  They used to be down there and they would clean the rags and don’t know if they did anything with them there at the time or if they just washed them but that is where they used to go.

Yeah I always drive by that building.

I tried to take pictures of that building but I can’t get far enough any from it, ya know –the only decent picture I have of it was with the Miss Worcester Diner but I was taking the Diner so I didn’t get the whole building so I went back and got the building but not from a very good angle.  It’s hard because the railroad trestles go right there.

Exactly – right.  There is so much.  Did you have any brothers or sisters?

One brother.

One brother?  Was he older or younger?

He is younger than I am.  He spent some time in Vietnam.

Oh did he.  OHhhh. . . . 

Is that the one you’ve heard about??  (Laughter)

Um, no I don’t know someone must have said something to me today, Dean Peterson or Dean Goodwyn must have said something to me this morning -  about the Purple Diner - because I have never heard about it.
    
Well I had completely forgotten about it but it used to be when you came down College Hill – you know where the monument is?

Yes.

Directly across the street.

REALLY??

Yes and there was a pizza parlor, because this is Whitalls and we had the Purple Diner, and the cleaners, there was a hardware store and a pizza parlor and everything and that is where all the kids hung out.

Wow.  

Ya know.  That was kinda neat and I had completely forgotten about it until this women asked me she had a great big picture of it and asked me if I wanted to frame it for her.  And I said sure and then I saw it and I was like “oh god” I had forgotten all about it.  That was a big hang out for the kids.

So that would be before the highway going through.

Yes and actually it would be before that as well because we had a flood in Worcester in 1953 or was that a tornado and the flood in ’55 or vice versa.  I don’t remember which is which but at that time it wiped out a lot of the businesses and then the Expressway went in during 1959.

So this would have been around during World War II?

Yes – definitely.

Purple Diner – I will have to try to find something on that.

And that was right down at the end of the street.  And we used to have a milk – do you know where they put in the park in Holy Cross and took down that old hotel?

Yes.  

There used to be a milk factory there.  I am trying to think of the name of it.  I went to school with the girl whose parents owned it.  I have a terrible memory – I have an excuse now I call it a senior moment.

A man that I talked to – one of the owners of Coney Island was telling me about the sign and who made the sign and how they started off just in a corner with six little chairs and some hotdogs.  And actually the man that owned the carpet factory – Whitall actually bought the building when it went up for auction after –um – for the Greek family that owned the business because he so much faith in their business sense or whatever – so I thought was an interesting connection.

Oh!  Yes. . . another thing that would have been there during World War II would have been the Whitall Mansion.  Right at the corner of Cambridge Street and Southbridge Street right across from St. Matthews’s church that was a great big huge estate and he was the one that owned the carpet factory.

Do you have any pictures of that?

I have a postcard – 

Oh really?  There is so much to learn.  Oh my goodness – wow!  That’s really amazing!  My goodness.  Are there any dates on the backs of these?

I am not sure – let’s see.

(We look through a series of post cards featuring the city of Worcester.  Mrs. Dunton allows me to borrow a number of postcards for the project.)

(We begin talking about the Worcester Boy’s Club on Ionic Drive which overlooks George’s Coney Island)

It was – they’d go there for swimming lessons and basketball . . .

Swimming lessons, I guess they had basketball courts and that stuff in school and there was, like I said we used to dance and go dancing there and they’d just do all sorts of thing for the boys after school.

Interesting, wonderful, thank you very much.

This is the new Kenmore Diner.

Right, yes I saw it and I saw that you had a picture of the old one as well.

Right yes, you never know – It’s so funny because you think I’ve got factories and I’ve got homes and then you think – I’ve never done these and then I am out taking pictures.

Thank you very much – I appreciate it.

Oh you’re welcome and like I said if there is any other or if I can suggest anything.  Or as far as World War II my husband might be able to help.

Mainly my section is on Community Life and what Worcester was like so during so. . . 

Would you like a photocopy of that?

Yes, could I.  Thank you very much.