Wednesday Walk: What Was Spag's?
A new podcast worth hearing, a tribute to a shuttered discount store, and ghosts of roadside past
Welcome to Willoughby Hills!
Every Wednesday, I offer a few short ideas that I hope will inspire you to do some more reading, thinking, and exploring. Let’s take a little walk together and see where the path leads…
A Podcast Reco
To start this week, I wanted to share a new podcast that recently launched that I have been listening to on my recent drives.
, also known as the Black Urbanist, is a writer, speaker, and thinker who I have been following for a while (and who is a big booster of Willoughby Hills too!). Her new podcast Defying Gentrification launched a few weeks ago and is really worth a listen.
Kristen has shone the spotlight on some amazing current events from around the country, like the impact of the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse on the surrounding Black communities, attempts at downtown stadiums in Kansas City and DC, and transit harassment.
She also discusses gentrification in depth and talks about what it takes to build true community.
I have Defying Gentrification saved in my podcast app, and if you’re a fan of my newsletter and podcast, I think you would like it too! Go check it out!
Spag’s at the Supermarket
Over the last week, I found myself unexpectedly driving through Shrewsbury, MA, which is the town just east of Worcester. I had to pick up a few grocery items so decided to stop in the Whole Foods Market in Shrewsbury.
The store was a relatively new location, opened in 2018 soon after Amazon took ownership of the grocery chain. But one thing that struck me about it immediately was signage on both the exterior and throughout the store that made mention of “honoring Spag’s legacy.”
I didn’t know who or what a “Spag” is, but Whole Foods really wanted me to be sure that I understood that they were honoring his legacy (I guess Spag is a he?).
The Spag’s theming continued with a giant neon sign in the middle of the produce department, which claimed to be a restored version of an original sign.
As soon as I got to a computer, I had to look it up. What was Spag’s and why did this random Whole Foods really feel the need to let the public know that they were pro-Spag?
It turns out that Spag’s was a discount store that was started in Shrewsbury by Anthony “Spag” Borgatti in 1936 (supposedly, his nickname “Spag” came from his fondness for spaghetti).
Spag himself seems to have been a bit of a character, always wearing his signature ten gallon cowboy hat (as depicted on the store facade) and appearing in at least some of the TV commercials for the store, glorious thick New England accent and all.
According to Wikipedia, the store was famous for being cash only and not offering shopping bags. It also ran a yearly spring promotion where tomato seedlings were given away to customers (a tradition which Whole Foods seems to have kept up for at least the first year.)
Spag himself died in 1996, with the family eventually selling the business to a local discount chain in 2002, which operated at the location until 2007.
The original Spag’s store (and it’s array of outbuildings) were demolished in 2016 to make way for a mixed use plaza with retail and apartments (which aren’t actually mixed use in the truest sense, but are really just adjacent). Whole Foods is the anchor of that new plaza.
It’s a bit ironic to me that Whole Foods Market, a grocer owned by one of the world’s largest companies which sometimes is referred to derogatorily as “whole paycheck” sees itself as the logical caretaker of a quirky discount store’s legacy.
However, there’s also something nice to be said for preserving local character (and characters) regardless of who is footing the bill. Had the Shrewsbury Whole Foods looked like any other grocer, I would have had no reason to dig into the history of this quirky local retailer. It predates my time in Massachusetts and it’s history happened in a part of the state that I don’t know as well.
In that regard, I’m glad Whole Foods felt a need to retain some artifacts from retail past and that they did it in a way that sparked my own curiosity.
These object lessons are all around us if we open our eyes and pay attention.
Ghost Store Designs
Speaking of object lessons in roadside past, I came across two buildings this past week in Springfield, MA that were being repurposed yet still clearly looked like something else.
Here’s the first one, which is now serving as a local discount chain Ocean State Job Lot. Can you tell what it was in its past life?
Here’s a hint: the darker brown stucco surrounding the entrance was originally rainbow tiled and the crown molding is not original.
This location was once a Toys R Us store!
It’s worth noting that the photo I found on Flickr of the store has one entry door in the middle of the store, while the current store has two entry doors at either end of the rainbow arch. The yellow traffic stripe leads me to believe it’s the same store, although the landscaping is also quite different. At any rate, this store design was pretty standard for Toys R Us stores in the 1980s (I worked at 2 stores that looked like this), so the above photo can at least be an example if not the exact location.
Just down the road from this store was another rare find, something I didn’t even know was a thing until I saw
post about it on Instagram. Today, this is a kitchen cabinet and counter showroom, also in Springfield, MA, but see if you can tell what it was before.
My suspicion was that it was a Wendy’s, but with Rolando in my mind, I realized that it was one of the more rare gold roofed Wendy’s, which were built primarily in the 1970s and 1980s. Most of the gold roofs are long gone.
I honestly have no memories of golden-roofed Wendy’s. The ones I remember from my childhood are all the copper colored ones.
The kitchen store at this location not only retained the gold roof, but it even still has the drive-thru window, which seems to have been covered in plywood painted black.
Sometimes the history of a place is honored but requires some research (like Spag’s) and others, it’s thinly papered over and available for anyone to see.
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Other Wednesday Walks
If you’ve missed past issues of this newsletter, they are available to read here.