01/30/2025
This week's Throwback Thursday photo in the Wakefield Daily Item.
ABOUT 75 USED CARS owned by the W.J. Walker Oldsmobile dealership were trapped when the flat roof of this single-story building on North Avenue collapsed at about 7 a.m. on the morning of Feb. 20, 1940 under the weight of tons of wet snow that had fallen overnight. The former Collamore Woodworking building, occupying the entire block of North Avenue between West Water and Armory streets, was being used by the car dealer for inside storage of used cars. Because most of the cars were parked along the inside walls of the building, few were seriously damaged when the roof collapsed in the middle, forming a "V" shape. Crews from the car dealership and other workers removed doors, partitions and debris to facilitate the removal of the cars. Sharp-eyed observers will notice the steeple of the old St. Joseph Church in the upper left background in this photo taken from Armory Street.
