Main Street
Main Street was where everything went down back in the olden days. Everyone that lived through the golden years of Main Street remembers when mom went downtown to do the groceries, or when dad went downtown to buy a new tie or maybe even a new suit. Every weekend people went down to Main Street to meet up with friends and family and watch a movie at one of Berlin’s many theaters. People still go down to Main Street for town events like Driving in the 50’s. During those events Main Street gets brought back to life but Main Street is nowhere near what it was like back in the real 50’s.
 The postcards above and below are of the early 1900’s sometime around 1902 a short distance north of where today’s vacant Rite Aid building is today   The postcard shown above is if one was looking south a short distance north of the Albert Theatre in the 1950’s  This photo shows the laying of the cornerstone of the City Hall taken on November 16, 1913 (Image from Poof Tardiff)  A postcard of City Hall in the 1950's  This postcard shows a clock in front of the Gershon Block, where the present- day Family Dollar store is located   The cameraman that took this photo in 1938 was looking south at the trolley passing in front of the City Hall (Image from Beyond Brown Paper archives)  This is a photo taken in 1953 of a Boy Scout camp in the parking lot of the old courthouse. (Image from Beyond Brown Paper archives)  This is a photo of the 1928 Armistice Day Parade taken from Green Square looking towards the Berlin City Bank (Northway) (Image from Beyond Brown Paper archives) |
  (Image from Beyond Brown Paper archives)   (Image from Beyond Brown Paper archives)    The Mt. Forest House was one of the first buildings built on Main Street. It stood were the vacant Rite Aid building is today. It was built by Merrill C. Forest for use as a hotel for the many travelers to the young town of Berlin (Image from Poof Tardiff)  This is a photo taken in 1959 in front of the City Hall looking towards where the vacant JC Penney’s building is today. (Image from Beyond Brown Paper archives)  This is a photo taken in 1897 looking up Main Street the building that is in back of the woman with the baby carriage is the Mason Building, where Ira Mason operated a store from 1868-1883 and it is also on the spot of today’s Northway Bank (Image from Poof Tardiff)  Both the City Savings Bank and the City National Bank operated from the Mason Block through the late 1890’s to the early 1900’s until moving to the building where the Holiday Center now operates. (Image from Poof Tardiff) |