Bi-Weekly Newsletter

Update on 'Corner Store': Thank you to EHS member and former Easton resident Ed Leonard for this photo of Mrs. Pomeroy's store. Before the Corner Store, Mrs. Pomeroy had a store near the bottom of Columbus Ave. (east end of the street, north side) not far from the present store 'The Peach', which sold bread, milk, candy and some canned vegetables. This was in the 1940's, perhaps into the 1950's. Her house was second below the intersection with Hayward Street with an uphill driveway that she had to walk up to get to her store. It was/is 13 Columbus Ave. Ed grew up at 17 Columbus Ave in the 40's and 50's and remembers it well. Thank you, Ed.

​The photo shows Mrs. Pomeroy's store in winter with snow on the roof. It juts out beyond the houses and is at the bottom of the street. The dog is Ed's dog Teddy. If anyone remembers Mrs. Pomeroy's store we would be interested to know. This photo was taken in 1947.The trees planted along the street were gifts of the Ames family.
 
Union Villa


The Union Villa Restaurant is a landmark in the Unionville section of Easton. I remember sitting in a booth and eating steamer clams when I was in college, and in later years picking up delicious bar pizza for the family. My father liked pepper and onion.

​Buddy’s Union-Villa, 190 Washington Street.

  
The Villa has a long history; as far back as the 1920’s food has been served at the location. First, John Dyer of Union Street built a permanent ice cream and sandwich shop next door to the Easton Grange Hall on Washington Street, known as Dyer's Homemade Ice Cream and Sandwich Shop. Prior to that Dyer had peddled food door to door in his horse drawn wagon. By 1936 John Spillane and William Flynn opened a restaurant on the same location known as the Union Villa restaurant and Dance Hall.

In 1931 John Dyer had a food booth at the Brockton Fair. He was known for his long beard and creative advertising. Washington Street was also known as State Road.
In 1949 the building was known as "Spillane's Union Villa Restaurant, Washington Street, No. Easton, Mass." In 1952, Dyer’s estate sold the entire property to John J. and Elizabeth F. Spillane. After her husband died Elizabeth Spillane, with her son, John J. Spillane, Jr., continued the tradition of the Union Villa Restaurant and Dance Hall. Elizabeth Spillane commuted by bus from Brockton to run the restaurant. In the late 1940's and early 1950's the restaurant was popular with students from the newly created Stonehill College.



In 1975, Easton residents, Buddy and Kay Richard, purchased the property and restaurant to operate as Buddy's Union Villa. In 2016 scenes from the movie ‘Stronger’ were filmed in the Villa. The movie was based on a book by the same name written by Boston Marathon survivor Jeff Baumen. Actor Jake Gyllenhaal starred in the movie. Today, Buddy’s five children run the restaurant. It continues to be a popular local bar and pizza restaurant. The following is a quote from Boston's Hidden Restaurants, "The pizza is really something special at Buddy's, however, and its old-fashioned atmosphere is of the type that becomes more and more difficult to find in the Greater Boston area and beyond as the years go by." So go to Buddy's and get yourself some pizza!

 
           The dried-up bird’s nest remarks
           To the gloom in the potato cellar
          That only the thin green stalks of
          The briar bushes retain any color
 
Anne Wooster Drury
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