It is with mixed feelings that I read about the proposed demolition of the Latham Circle Mall.
Few people recognize its earliest incarnation as the Latham Corners Shopping Center, the first strip retail center of its size north of Westchester. It was built by my uncle, Robert M. Cummings, of Montreal in 1956-1957.
Its opening was greeted with much fanfare, drew a crowd of hundreds, including a representative of Gov. Averell Harriman, and hosted a "Miss Tri-Cities" contest. Its construction was followed a few years later by the Westgate and Stuyvesant shopping centers, responding to the region's migration to the suburbs.
If you are of a certain age, who doesn't have a recollection of WT Grant's, sitting at the Woolworth lunch counter, or going to Mack Drug store for the Sunday paper? Many will remember shopping during the holidays at my parents' store, Barnet's Toys, or the Boston Store, one of the largest department stores in the region (with the first escalator). Small establishments included Fannie Farmer candies, a dry cleaner, beauty salon, barbershop, Lehrners, The Yarn Shop and M. Solomon (coats and furs).
In the 1960s, the shopping center's July 4th fireworks were a treat, in an age before we had the Empire State Plaza display. The merchants' fight in the 1970s against the state "blue law," which prohibited Sunday sales, was sensational at the time, but is now long forgotten.
Today, our retail character is not much different from anywhere else in the country. We should not forget how our region was transformed more than 50 years ago with this development.
DAVID BARNET
Delmar