Social Security is leaving Davis Square

[ron_newman]

A sign on the front door of Social Security says that their last day in Davis Square will be Thursday, August 12. They will reopen on the first floor of 10 Fawcett Street in Cambridge on Tuesday, August 17.

The notice says that they look forward to being in a new modern office building, but the new location is surely much less convenient for their elderly customers, being quite a long walk from Alewife station.

This move will create a large vacancy at 240 Elm Street. Before Social Security arrived in 1987, I believe this space was a department store or a five-and-dime. (Anyone remember exactly what it was?)

Comments

[ifotismeni]

i've been wondering how much longer that office would stick around.

[zander05.livejournal.com]

Thanks for posting this. I would have probably never known otherwise!

[gruene.livejournal.com]

The yuppifaction of Davis Square continues apace...

[svilletheatre.livejournal.com]

I don't remember what was in there where the SS office is (though I do recall them uglifying the building with that horrible black siding when they moved in, blechh) but the Dunkin' Donuts corner was an awesome fruit stand called Apple-A-Day.

[svilletheatre.livejournal.com]

No, wait, i think the SS building was Grant's, which was like a Woolworth's but I don't recall it being open.

[ron_newman]

Was the store ever called Marks? I see a few web pages that call this the Marks building.

[svilletheatre.livejournal.com]

Yes! I think you are correct - I think it was Marks - but it had been a Grants for many years too so perhaps that is what my older relatives called the building. As I say, I don't recall ever going in.

[talonvaki.livejournal.com]

but the new location is surely much less convenient for their elderly customers

Wow, that's awesome. Way to totally ignore the people who most need to use your office. I doubt the people who have to schlep to the new location in the middle of winter really care how "modern" it is...

[nathanjw]

10 Fawcett St. is easily reachable by bus, the 74 and 78 from Harvard both go there, with a combined headway of about 15 minutes, and the stop is right in front of the building. It's maybe a little less convenient to get to, but it's not at all bad from a mobility perspective. Walking from Alewife is totally the wrong way to get there - don't be so subway-centric.

[chenoameg.livejournal.com]

That's good to know, thanks!

[ron_newman]

Thanks. However, I recall that the then-new Davis Square Red Line station was a major reason that Social Security came to Somerville back in 1987.

[ron_newman]

WT Grant was a national chain that went bankrupt in 1976, but they might have closed the Somerville store before that. The name survives in the William T. Grant Foundation that you sometimes hear mentioned as an NPR sponsor.

The downtown Boston Grant's became a Barnes & Noble (the first one outside NYC, I think), but that closed a few years ago and the building has been sadly vacant ever since.

[wallacestreet.livejournal.com]

Not to mention that the Boston office (O'Neill Federal Bldg. Room 148, 10 Causeway St. Boston) is right at North Station, for the bus-challenged. When the green line comes to town, it will be far more convenient for most of Somerville than the new Cambridge location).

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

Mid-days, the 74 only runs once per hour. The 78 runs every half hour. So the combined schedule has some 30 minute gaps -- not a 15 minute headway by any means.