After a December 18, 1943, fire destroyed the YMCA building at the northwest corner of High and Appleton Streets, leaving a spacious void in Holyoke's downtown shopping district for over 2 years. Today's installment tells the story of Carlisle's Hardware Co., better known as Carlisle's, which added to Holyoke's landscape with a new building constructed on this land.
The Carlisle's Hardware Store was formed around 1918 at 326 Main St. in Springfield, MA, as a successor to the Graves Hardware Company. Over the years, the store added several local branches all within 15 miles of its downtown Springfield flagship store.
In November 1945, the company announced that it would be constructing a building for its new Holyoke branch at 365 High Street with additional frontage for two tenant retailers. The plans were drawn by Maurice Maloney, a Springfield architect of Tessier & Maloney, and showed a two-story building with 80 feet of frontage on High Street. Carlisle's would use half the building for its shop and make space for two additional stores, each with 20 feet of frontage.
There were some delays in finalizing the plans and starting the project. Daniel O'Connell Sons was in charge of clearing the rubble from the YMCA's cellar, a necessary step in finalizing the new building's measurements.
In January 1946, bids were received from six area building contractors, including Holyoke's Casper Ranger Construction, Daniel O'Connell Sons and M. J. Walsh Construction. In the end, Carlisle's awarded the contract to E. J. Pinney & Co. of Springfield, the low bidder. The anticipated cost of construction was pegged at $150,000.
The new Carlisle's store on High Street opened on December 5, 1946, and was the 11th store in the chain. The store operated on three floors. The main floor featured hardware store items, major appliances, records and luggage. Housewares and gardening supplies were available in the basement. The second floor was stocked with sportswear, toys and electrical fixtures. Awnings, televisions and bicycles were later added over the years.
Simultaneously with the store's opening, the Joan Margo women's apparel shop opened at an adjacent storefront in the Carlisle building.
In late 1962, Hermann L. and Hollis L. Carlisle retired, selling the chain of stores to the O. W. Siebert Co. Inc., of New York. There were no plans to make changes to the 225-person workforce.
A little more than a year later, on February 29, 1964, the Siebert concern put the Holyoke, East Longmeadow and West Springfield stores up for sale as going concerns or together with the real estate. The Holyoke store was closed 5 days later, with inventory and 8 employees transferred to other stores.
The building has been used by several retailers over the years, and remains intact with exterior modifications made along the way.
Citations:
Newspapers.com (paid subscription): Citations: Holyoke (Massachusetts) Transcript & Transcript-Telegram; publication dates and pages are shown.
Ancestry.com (paid subscription): Price & Lee, Holyoke, Massachusetts, City Directories
