What's It Wednesday - Another trip down Memory Lane
Main St. Andover
Once upon a time, this was the place to be for breakfast or lunch. For 40 years, Ford’s Coffee Shop at #14 Main Street was a community gathering place.
John F. Kennedy, Jr when he was a Phillips Academy student, and his mother, Jackie Onassis; Senator Ed Kennedy, Jay Leno, and Robert Urich; all frequented Ford’s over the years. As well as local politicians, selectmen, and town officials, including Town Moderator for many years, James D. Doherty.
In his book, Andover, As I remember It, Doherty wrote of frequently seeing former U.S. Senator Paul Tsongas and “meeting Senator Ed Brooke…Tip O’Neill, Mike Dukakis, Jim Shannon, Ed King, virtually all of the candidates who have ever run for the state legislature…from the Andover district.”
But first, it was Ford’s -a Bakery and Candy Shop.
Starting in the 1932, Ford’s was a bakery run by Leslie Ford Powers. The bakery had a counter with stools for those who wanted to eat their pastries there. Powers ran the shop until 1942, when he sold the business to Harold Heseltine. Haseltine kept the name Ford’s but made some changes, including adding a modern kitchen. It became a family business with both his wife and daughters helping out.
Then, in 1954, Harold Heseltine sold his bakery shop to Tom and Stella Koravos.
It was a sale that left a mark on Andover’s history.
Thomas Koravos and Stella Martakos Koravos had grown up in Lowell. They lived in the same neighborhood and had attended the same schools and Greek Orthodox church. The couple married in 1946, after Tom returned from service as a Marine in WW II. Tom found a job working in a Lowell drugstore, managing the lunch counter. Stella worked in a dress shop. On his off time, Tom would drive around looking at surrounding towns where they might want to settle and start a business. Andover became their home.
Tom took over the operation of the Ford’s Bakery and decided to change the shop to a coffee shop serving breakfast and lunch 6 days a week.
Tom handled the cooking; Stella, greeted the customers, ran the register and was “known as the ambassador of Main Street and was admired for her fashion and style.”
Ford’s became a family restaurant for Andover. In a Boston Globe article from March 22, 2002, Jerry Silverman, a former Andover selectman was quoted as saying, “It was a place where everyone knew everyone,” and “The waitresses didn’t even have to take orders; they just gave you a look to make sure you wanted the usual.”
Tom Koravos renovated the coffee shop in 1957, creating a 4 x 15-foot blank wall above the counter. On one of Dorothy Piercy's visits to the coffee shop to visit her mother-in-law Florence Piercy, who worked at Ford’s, the conversation turned to the renovations and the blank wall. Tom said that he was looking for a picture for the wall. On Florence's suggestion, Tom asked if Dorothy could create a Main Street scene for the wall.
Dorothy, Mrs. George Piercy, was a self-taught artist and the mother of 5 young children. She worked on the mural over 3 and a half months, driving down Main St and stopping to make sketches. Then she painted the mural in 6 weeks, working mostly at night from 10pm -1am while the children were asleep and her husband was at work.
The people she portrayed in the mural are real Andover townspeople and Dorothy kept a record of each person’s name and where they are in the mural. The mural is a slice of Andover life in the 1950’s.
Times change and people age. In 1994, Stella and Tom Koravos, after 40 years of 6- days-a-week work, decided to retire and announced the closing of Ford’s for April 2, 1994. The March 31, 1994, Andover Townsman is filled with headlines and articles - “Andover fans lament shops’ exit,” “Town savors last Ford’s meal,” and 4 pages of “Writers share their memories of Ford’s Coffee shop, Tom and Stella.”
It was the end of an era.
History lives on in other ways, however. The two murals, the one done by Dorothy Piercy in 1957, and a smaller one done by her for the town’s 350th, were given to the Andover Historical Society and hang in the Andover Town Hall for the whole community to enjoy.
Olivia Sintros, the daughter of Stella and Tom Koravos, grew up at Ford’s and along with her brothers worked in the restaurant with her parents. The Andover Center of History and Culture is privileged to share a video of her reminiscences of Ford’s.
Do you remember Ford’s?
Everyone has a hometown favorite restaurant. What’s yours?
Thank you for reading What’s It Wednesdays and History Buzz.
I’d love to hear your stories!
Resources
Andover Center for History and Culture collection
Andover Center for History and Culture research library files
Andover Historic Preservation Commission website
Memorial Hall Library Historic Newspapers Collection
Andover Townsman
The Boston Globe
Andover As I Remember It by James D. Doherty
Andover, A Century of Change, 1896-1996 by Eleanor Motley Richardson
I remember visiting Ford's in my younger years. The cash register was ornate. And Stella had a spike next to it that she'd use to hold the paid checks. Great article!