Framingham Online News

Nobscot Landmark Disappears

September 9, 2011 (7:16 pm EST)
Filed under: Business by Randy Harris

FRAMINGHAM, MA - On Saturday, September 3rd, (2011), I was shooting photos of the Classic Car Cruise-in at CJ's Northside Grill, and decided to take some photos of a few other things near Nobscot's Water Street / Edgell Road / Edmands Road intersection.

After shooting photos of the boarded up gas station, the old meeting hall, the vacant Jiffy Lube building, I was driving through the Nobscot Shopping Center parking lot, and decided to get out of the car and shoot a few photos of the shopping center.

The last few I took were of the big sign in the middle of the parking lot.  I even went as far as lining up the shots to block out the light poles and other obstructions and get "just the sign".

FRAMINGHAM, MA - Nobscot Shopping Center Sign, September 3, 2011 (last photo ever taken of sign)

This photo, shot on September 3, 2011 may be the last photo ever taken of the landmark Nobscot Shopping Center sign in Framingham, MA.

They may be the last photos anyone ever took of that sign.

This afternoon at 4:00p.m., (Friday, September 9th, 2011), after I dropped my daughter off at work, I was headed back down Water Street and noticed "something missing" -- the sign was gone. All that remains is the white concrete base and the shrubbery planted in it -- and even that had been hacked up.

Nobscot Shopping Center sign base only, September 9, 2011.

At 4:00pm, on Friday, September 9, 2011 all that remained of the former Nobscot Shopping Center sign was the concrete base.

Strange, that amid all the controversy about the run-down strip mall in the past week that the owners would decide to remove a sign which has stood as a landmark in Nobscot for more than half a century.

I've left a voice mail message for Mark Klaman of Centercorp Retail Properties, (his company owns the shopping center), and also left a message for Framingham Selectman Dennis Giombetti -- but it was late, and a Friday, so I have not heard back from either of them (yet)...

Updates to this "mystery" will be posted in the comment section below.

###


  1. According to an eyewitness, workers cut back the bushes, cut the poles and let the sign fall to the ground into a crumpled heap. Then, using a gas powered cut-off saw and blowtorch they cut the poles and sign into manageable size pieces and carted it off… Well most of it anyway — I have a credible report that the face of at least one side of top oval section with the lettering that says “Nobscot” was salvaged, (the lettering was bent up a bit but can likely be restored).

    Comment by Randy Harris — September 10, 2011 @ 11:09 pm

  2. Anyone know how old the sign and plaza were?

    Comment by Kim — September 11, 2011 @ 4:54 pm

  3. Maybe they are making way for a newer, brighter sign that will invite businesses into the plaza and lighten up the area….marry up with the new library

    Comment by Kevin989 — September 12, 2011 @ 2:09 pm

  4. It’s been there since at the 1960’s when I was a kid. I will try to find out the exact year it was put up.

    Comment by News Staff — September 12, 2011 @ 5:05 pm

  5. It would be great to set up a press conference (on-site?) late afternoon on the first of October. Have selectman Giombetti, Chris Walsh, Nobscot Neighbors’ Brett Peruzzi and others commenting on the “announcement” by Ccorp — with Framingham.com, MWDN and other media outlets in attendance. Then again . . . anyone notice that October 1st is on a Saturday? What credible businesses make major announcements on Saturdays? Hmmmmmmmm.

    Comment by Rick McKenna — September 14, 2011 @ 1:23 pm

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.