BY JOSEPH D. PRONESTI
Like many others in the service, my father was a firefighter for the same department for which I now proudly work. The one thing I still enjoy to this day is hearing the stories not only of fires past but how the city we both love used to have a huge downtown shopping district where you could buy anything you needed. Saghi's Nut and Candy Shop, W.T. Grant, and The Men's Shop are names that bring smiles and great shopping memories to the faces of countless older residents in my town. They were among the many businesses that graced the main street, called Broad Street.
These stores were housed in continuously attached ordinary construction Type III buildings designed for a mixed use: business on the ground floor and residential apartments on the upper floors. Many were built before the 20th century. The one thing that has changed is that the stores are now long gone. However, the buildings are still standing, and the occupied apartments are still above them.
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