ABOUT

During those early years, many of the shop owners agreed to sell their properties to the Foundation and move into this new area of what was then considered "Uptown"; that end of the Duke of Gloucester Street near the College of William & Mary. The A & P grocery store, Frazier-Callis men's store, Person Motor Co., Sam Friedman's dry goods store, and others who recognized the importance of the work of the restoration found Merchants Square to be an even better location for their businesses.

Buildings of the new Merchants Square were set back farther from the street offering easy pedestrian access. Power and telephone lines were placed underground. Large trees were planted and modern elements such as air conditioning ducts and garage equipment were concealed behind plantings and shrubs. In later years, the street was closed to traffic, thus allowing for an expansive pedestrian mall connecting the stores.

Over the years, as the town has grown, most of those early shops such as the small grocery stores have moved nearer the expanding neighborhoods and become super markets. But Merchants Square, that idyllic shopping district envisioned by those early architects who were ahead of their time in this type of design, retains that friendly, quaint quality much copied today by other shopping districts springing up today throughout the country.