Cobblers / Shoes
Bob’s Shoe Repair (Cobbler) Located at 113 Merrimac St on this corner of Merrimac and Strong Streets was a cobbler, who in the late 70’s and early 90’s was still in business. Locate It
Hyman’s Shoes – Located at the Port Plaza. Locate It
About Shawn Gearin - ModeratorShawn is a former NBPTMA resident from 1967-1996. He lived at 5 Walnut St in a gray Greek revival home. He was a Whittier Tech 1986 graduate and a Northern Essex Community college graduate where he wrote and photographed for both school's newspapers. Finishing his education at Hesser College and North Shore Community College, he received a BA in Business Management and a FAA Private Pilot Certification. An aviation, photography enthusiast and telecommunications project manager, he enjoys writing history, personal memoirs, and asking lots of questions on his hosted websites. Now a resident of North Carolina, he lives with his family in a 1930 farmhouse on a gentleman's farm surrounded by cattle from other nearby farms. YEAT!
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Duncan Chase Old Hill Burying Ground 
Father Gerard Darcia French Church. Federal St.
Hand Tubs / Firemen Musters/
Built: 1878 Manufacture: Button Cylinders: 10 Reg #: 650 Fire Department: Newburyport, Ma Class: A Neptune 8 – is owned by the Neptune Veteran Firemen’s Association of Newburyport Ma. ————————————————————————————————————- Ould Newbury Protection #1 -This pump’s hometown is Newbury, Ma. Built: 1865 Manufacture: J Cylinders: 10 Reg #: ?? Fire Department: Newbury, Ma Class: A […]
Hymans was located for years on the Corner of Green and Merrimac Street…then there was another shoe store on State Street and for the Life of me cannot remember the name..well there were two one at the bottom Essex and State Street and the on the corner of Middle and State Street
The other shoe store was Thurlows it was on the corner of Essex and State
Cobbler on the corner of Strong st and Merrimac was Bobs shoe repair.
Was it Quality Shoe Store on State St .
Thurlow’s shoes was on State and Middle. Quality Shoe was on Essex and State. Hyman’s had a “rock” band and free cotton candy one afternoon each summer.
Not a cobbler or even a shoe store was the very narrow shoe shine parlor. I used to marvel at the pin-wheels and other novelties he displayed out in front of this long vanished establishment. He was located past Puritans on Pleasant St.. Though very narrow, the shine bench and seats, went far back into the block. I don’t think I ever saw anyone getting a shine there. I just recall him standing out on the sidewalk, hawking the toys when we went by…
Hey, speaking of Bob,s Shoe Repair, I’m pretty sure that business was Pete & Bob’s Shoe Repair in Market Square next door to the current “Thirsty Whale”. The shoe-shine bench was visible through the big plate glass window facing State Street. That was in the 1960’s… Later on the whole square was “altered” or as some like to say “restored”… Pete & Bob’s vanished from that location between Liberty and Middle Streets and was re-incarnated further up State Street between Thread-needle Alley and Pleasant Street. I think this was some time during the mid to late 1970’s. I may be wrong, but I believe the business was called “Bob’s Shoe Repair” after the move, ( don’t know what happened to the “Pete” part of the business???). I bought a pair of rubber boots there around 1977 or 1978. They came in handy for their intended purpose of poking around the mud flats, ( charmingly “over referred” to as Joppa flats). I dug up some nice old clay pipes, a gold watch chain, as well as dozens of intact bottles from long gone Newburyport companies. One bottle in particular was made of glazed clay with a cork stopper still pushed down inside with the name Comstock Gove & Co. and the year 1873 embossed on it. “Nice finds”, if I do say so. Everybody else was digging in the nasty sewage plant up-grade excavation that was “Jukey’s” junk yard. They got chased out of the site by the contractor on numerous occasions. As I had been digging for a few years out on the flats, I felt that I was home free. Who would bother some kid with a pitch-fork, harmlessly digging from old Company Wharf to Woodbridge Island? Strangely enough there existed an actual officer of the city whose dubious title was, ( this is not a joke!!!) the “Worm Warden”… My memory fails me in recalling said municipal official’s name. But just the fact that I would be accosted by him upon my return to firmer ground at the boat slip and told that I was suspected of taking “sea worms” illegally, was a surprise to me. I assured him that my purpose on the flats was strictly above board and that I wouldn’t dream of ever taking sea worms by any means other than that which was legal and in accordance with city law… Just as a precaution though, in case I may accidentally dig up a sea worm and incidentally put said worm to use as a fishing bait, I visited City Hall and laid my two dollars down for a ‘worm permit’… The permit is long gone and so is Bob’s. I still have all the treasures I pulled from the slimy mud out on the flats. And I can certainly vouch for the fine quality of those rubber boots I purchased at Bob’s. After more than three decades of use, they still look good and still serve their purpose…
Heard back from my good friend”Bubba”. He reminded me that it was Whitey Arsenault that held the title of “worm warden” back in the early to late 1970’s…
“D.A.KUSE on September 24th, 2008 at 9:46 pm
Hymans was located for years on the Corner of Green and Merrimac Street”
and before that at the corner of Essex & State where it was destroyed in the winter fire of 54 or 55?