Got junk?
What's It Wednesdays
Many will recognize this as Krinsky’s Junk Yard – or rather H. Krinsky & Sons Salvage Company.
ACHC #2008.072.1
A local institution until 1996, Krinsky’s stretched along Park Street from the intersection of Bartlet Street and continued to Florence St. It included a couple of dilapidated buildings and a yard filled with weeds and furniture, appliances, steam radiators, window and door frames, and multiple cast-off bathtubs and toilets. Locally, it was referred to as “the porcelain recycling station.” You never knew what you could find! Some residents considered it a useful town novelty; others considered it an eyesore.
Hyman “Hymie” Krinsky and his wife, Rebecca, had immigrated from Russia and moved to Andover shortly before their son, Morris “Mo” was born in 1916. Hymie was a junk dealer. It is unclear exactly when he started his salvage yard, 1926 or 1928, but the Park Street property was purchased in 1949.
ACHC #2004.013.3
Mo Krinsky, was a 1934 graduate of Punchard High School. As a young man, Mo enjoyed wrestling, swimming, and diving at the YMCA. He was also fond of square dancing and sang in a barbershop quartet. After graduation, Mo worked for Tyer Rubber and then traveled to Colorado to work for his uncle for a time. On his return to Andover, he was dedicated to helping his father out and never left the family business.
After his father, Hymie, died in 1973, Mo continued the business. People would see him in his lawn chair “amidst the cast-off treasures of generations, greeting passers-by and offering pithy comments on the affairs of the town.”
ACHC #2005.033.1
However, there was another side to Mo. Most days, Mo had lunch at the Friendly’s Ice Cream restaurant that was on Main Street near Memorial Hall Library. While he ate his lunch, he would also draw portraits of the customers around him. We have many of his drawings in our collection, each done on a Friendly’s paper napkin!
ACHC #1995.002.22
ACHC #1995.002.13
In 1983, Mo had a stroke. However, he continued to sit outside his property every day from 10 to noon and again from 2 to 4 p.m. "I can't sell the place," he said once. "This here is therapy."
Mo died in 1996. The property that once was H. Krinsky & Sons Salvage Company was put on the market and sold, in 1999. However, the story of Krinsky’s Junk Yard and Mo Krinsky’s art lives on.
Do you remember Krinsky’s?