Like Lord’s Square, the South Green also had a grocery store for many years. The building at 66 County Road, across from the South Green, was probably constructed by Asa Wade in 1836. He sold the store to Ebenezer Cogswell, and Cogswell’s heir, Theodore F. Cogswell, sold it to Frank T. Goodhue, who ran a successful grocery here in the 19th Century.
A wing was added in 1856, and in the 20th century, it was called the South Side Store. It was later owned by the Reiley family, David “Dyna” Player, and finally by Harold Greenhalge. The South Side Store was a popular stop for neighborhood kids for candy, pop-cycles, and ice cream, or to do a quick bread and milk run. Harold would count back change with his English accent, “twenty, thirty, forty, thank you, love.” The store closed in 1980 and has recently been converted into condominiums.
The Calvin Locke House next door at 68 County Road was built in 1836. The size of the house and the tall Greek columns on the front exceeded his resources, and the house came to be called “Locke’s Folly.” Locke was an overseer in Augustine Heard’s lace factory, the Ipswich Manufacturing Company. The building is currently known as “The Columns” condominium.
The late Robert Cronin wrote about the photo above:
“This is about sixty-five years ago. My father had this store for quite a while. A portion of the store was an ice cream parlor, complete with a marble top and stools, wire chairs, and tables. One thing I remember is the twelve o’clock fire whistle sounding on a warm day. The gate on the walkway over the dam at the mill would swing open, and the people would spill out, and many would head up the street for my father’s ice cream shop.
“I wish I could remember the year of the Dodge truck in which my father delivered groceries. On Memorial Day, that truck became a thing of beauty, covered with flowers and loaded with geranium plants for the graves. That was the time when the whole town put their heart and soul into honoring the veterans of WWI and previous wars. I remember there were a few Civil War and Spanish American vets alive and well. We had a pair of Shepherd dogs; the older one had attached his loyalty to my grandfather, who worked at the store. Sometime during the day, Grampa would wrap the daily paper around a can of dog food at a certain time, and always on time, the dog “Bob” would pick up the bundle and start for home. Grandpa had to hurry–it was quitting time. The neighbors could set their clocks. First, they’d see Bob, then Grampa, trying to catch up, heading for the corner of Labor in Vain.
“Things don’t last. The landlord had a son who felt my father had a good thing going, and he wanted to be a store owner. So, every month, the rent was increased to the point it wasn’t worth it. My father was lucky to find a place to move into (the River View Cash Market by the wharf).”
Sources:
- MACRIS inventory
- Thomas Franklin Waters, Ipswich in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Vol. 1, p. 470
- Thomas Franklin Waters, Ipswich in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Vol. II, p. 585
Historic Ipswich 
Who was running the store then?
My family lived in the house attached to the store when the tree in the last photo came down in a hurricane in the mid 50’s.