Milford History Online

In virtually every American town and city, strip malls have become so ubiquitous as to simply blend into the scenery along retail tracks like Milford’s Elm Street. Indeed, driving along 101A these days, the small shopping center that currently includes an Auto Zone, nail and beauty shop, Sake House, shuttered butcher shop, and the inevitable Subway eatery, is just one of a number of shopping outlets between the Oval and downtown Wilton. When it opened as the Milford Shopping Center in 1957, however, it was actually the first of its kind in these parts.

The retail scene was shifting fast in the 1950s as the post-war auto boom led to new freedoms for shoppers who could now venture farther than their nearest downtown center. More than 50 shopping centers opened up in New Hampshire during the decade, offering modern “self-service” stores and plenty of parking.

On May 8, 1957, the LaRoche Brothers of Peterborough staged the grand opening of their modest six-store Elm Street center on the site of the old Proctor Farm. As the opening of the first local shopping center, it was big news, headlining area papers and prompting a visit from the television cameras of three-year-old WMUR Channel 9. The Milford Cabinet celebrated all of the “cars, people, and fanfare” including the 8,500 square-foot First National supermarket which, rather symbolically, had just moved down the street from the Oval. Although the grocery was tiny by today’s standards, shoppers were eager to browse the “pre-packaged meats in refrigerated display cases” – still a novelty in those days. In fact, there were so many shoppers at the grand opening that the supermarket had to rush in extra truckloads of food by late afternoon. Meanwhile, the Godin Five & Dime handed out free nylons to its first 100 shoppers and Gene’s Shoe Store gave away a free Hi-Fi to one lucky patron. Roy’s Radio and TV Service, in the most westerly unit, offered not only repairs for all those new television sets in town but also newfangled Whirlpool microwave ovens that amazed locals by cooking eggs in 20 seconds. Mrs. Clifford Isaacson’s Mother Daughter Shop and Esquire Laundry and Cleaners rounded out the new shopping center lineup.

The significant changes taking place in the shopping scene were not lost on mid-century retail observers. The day of the Milford opening, the Cabinet ran an article from New Englander magazine describing the appeal of the new shopping centers with their “low-sweeping architecture, gleaming chrome, shimmering glass, acres of free parking, and multi-colored neon signs that create rainbowish hues in the night skies.” Today the convenience of such centers remain, even while the attraction of chrome and neon has largely faded to strip mall monotony.