Excerpt:
That block well represented the changes along Blue Hill Avenue. Building ownership changed from Yankees to Eastern European Jews in the 1920s. In 1973 the land and buildings were sold to a Black church — the Bethlehem Healing Temple.
The bike shops included the Park Bicycle Shop at #610, on the corner of Columbia Road, across from the main entrance to Franklin Park. Its founder, egg dealer Harry Siegel, took over from a clothing store (ubiquitous on Blue Hill Avenue) in the early 1940s and advertised reconditioned bikes and repairs — a way to avoid the war-time quotas on new bikes.
His wife Harriett expanded the store into an adjacent storefront and sold children’s toys too. They were able to survive both summer (bike rental) and winter (Christmas sales).
To survive the bicycling bust, dealers often coupled the bike business with something else, for example, auto tires, toys, radios, and lock-smithing.
Harry’s nephew Edward Segelman worked in the shop from a young age and bought it in 1952. In turn, Edward introduced his own young son Allyn to the work of fixing tires and truing wheels. Allyn remembers the character of the bike business — what made it so joyful and yet so difficult during those years:
… one of the biggest aspects of the business was the rental of bicycles to be used by people who chose to ride them either down Blue Hill Avenue or in the many roads and paths for picnicking in Franklin Park and visiting … the zoo; hence the name “Park Bicycle Shop.” There were two types of rentals available to the public. They could rent American (balloon tire) bicycles for $.25 per hour or English (narrow tire 3 speed) bicycles for $.50 per hour. There were many regular customers who came back to enjoy their rides through the Park over the course of spring, summer. and fall. The rental business was good because many of the patrons lived in apartment buildings and in unique Boston housing called “triple-deckers” in which they could not store or own personal bicycles. Also, this was the time in America when the consumer economy was just starting to rev up following World War II, when Suburbia was just starting to develop. The winter business was pretty much driven by toy sales for Christmas, but bicycle sales were good year ’round for children’s birthdays.
My father disposed of his business in 1956 because of competition and sagging sales due to the advent of the first of the large “big box” stores, most notably Reardon Sales which opened about a mile away on Columbia Road. This saga of Mom and Pop stores being driven out of business by larger corporate entities continues to this day.
… whenever I meet people around the country and we discuss where we came from, they all seem to remember the bicycle store at the corner of Columbia Road and Blue Hill Avenue and the good times they had riding in Franklin Park. I have very fond memories of doing it myself.
Bicycling History 