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Another Unleashed By Petco store closing

The Unleashed By Petco store on New Edgerly Rd (across from Symphony Whole Foods and Symphony Hall) will close permanently on January 26, according to the man standing on the sidewalk holding a sale sign. Everything in store is currently 10-40% off, including pet food.

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Not trying to be snarky...I work in the neighborhood and used to live on Westland, so I'm curious about the "new" part?

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Google Maps shows New Edgerly as the little offshoot between Edgerly and Westland, the three streets make the triangle that contains Harry Ellis Dickson park. There is also a dentist office with a New Edgerly address, though to my eye it and Petco both appear to be on Edgerly. Perhaps that stretch is "New" to distinguish the commercial buildings from the residential stretch of Edgerly?

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Maybe they could change the name of that 50ft. stretch of free news boxes and old Wholefoods produce to something more glorious like Bread & Circus Boulevard. For clarification.

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In Boston's urban renewal era, the 1960s and '70s, the city regularly used the prefix "New " on a relocated or extended street that took the name of an older thoroughfare. Hence, for example, New Sudbury Street, New Chardon Street, and New Congress Street in the Government Center area. Eventually, many of those "News" were dropped as people forgot that there once had been an earlier street using the same name.

New Edgerly Road is an example. Edgerly Road originally started at Haviland St., proceeded south parallel to Mass. Ave., then made about a 45 degree angle and followed what Google Maps now calls Bickerstaff Street, ending at Burbank Street. It never got to Westland Avenue.

When the Church Park Apartments building was erected on Mass. Ave. as part of the Fenway urban renewal project, a new street -- called New Edgerly Road -- was laid out behind the apartment building, all the way to Westland Avenue. It looks like a good chunk of the old Edgerly was turned into a pedestrian way and apparently renamed Bickerstaff at some point, probably as part of the urban renewal plans, but I don't know exactly when/how.

Eventually, as people started forgetting that the old Edgerly had once existed, the "New" got dropped from "New Edgerly" and the entire street parallel to Mass. Ave., as far as Westland, was just called "Edgerly Road". I'm not sure when/if this decision was made officially, one would have to check the city records for that.

Yes, Google Maps does show that one segment near Westland -- the segment that's perpendicular to the rest of Edgerly -- as "New Edgerly Road". I've learned NEVER to trust Google, or Bing, or GPS, or any other online source, to be the true arbiter of official street names in things like this. All those online sites get crowdsourced and edited by algorithms and by computer scientists in Silicon Valley, and you can come up with just about any place name you want. Remember that funny community name that they once put in the middle of Franklin Park? The one that no one in greater Boston had ever heard of?

I'm not sure where you can go for accurate info about Boston street names these days, other than going in person to the BRA/BPDA office, but I wouldn't trust Google.

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These truly informative and interesting answers are a huge part of what makes your site indispensable!

I thank you for the forum, and thank your correspondents for sharing their expertise.

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I had another look-see this afternoon, all of the street signs say "Edgerly" only, even though Petco and the dentist have New Edgerly addresses.

Thanks, Charles and John, for the historical perspectives.

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Malcolm X Blvd was called New Dudley Street back in the day.

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The whole street was originally called Bickerstaff, as shown in this 1917 map:

http://www.wardmaps.com/viewasset.php?aid=1719

By 1938 it had been renamed Edgerly:

http://www.wardmaps.com/viewasset.php?aid=4840

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the original terminus of Edgerly Road was the little stub of a street off Burbank Street that abuts the recently redone Symphony Park in front of Morville House. So I assume New Edgerly Road denoted the stretch from the back of church Park to Westland Avenue. The address of the independent living center I used to go to for services was 50 New Edgerly Road. I think it is dentists now or may be a gym. And I assume the road was created when Church Park was built in the early 1970s. Or maybe it was when "Symphony Park" was created?

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about whether it's Edge-Er-Ly or Edgar-Ly.

Where does one go for the "correct" pronunciation of a street name, anyway? In Roxbury we have Guild St, which a number of long-time residents pronounce "Guy-Old." (A similarly sizeable group of long-time residents express incredulity that anyone would possibly think you pronounce a street bearing the name of a standard noun in any way other than the usual pronunciation of that noun).

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You learn something "new" everyday.

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There once was a street called "New"
There was one and maybe more than two
It has to do with construction
Maybe even destruction
All we can say is "Who Knew?"

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Rant /

An interesting find. Maybe the franchise itself was over-distributed and the marketplace not fully vetted?

Maybe the people that have been dancing on the grave of the one closing in Roslindale have it all wrong. Maybe it was not the 'shopper-public' withholding business in favor of "local business." No pets here, so....

It can be an interesting read sometimes.

So many have been wringing their hands over a cut-down-sized Target going into the former Staples building (in Roslindale) with moral outrage over traffic, parking, etc. Yet the same class of people roots for Trader Joe's or Whole Foods.

Hello? Might those "chains" (and they are chains...) also cause the same parking and traffic issues? Why would certain business suddenly be exempt from the same issues associated with patronage? Does the business name suddenly mean that only people who walk, bike, or roller-skate will trade there? I mean, really... listen to yourselves.

Then there are those on the other side of the coin who are embracing the Target that is coming, and also the plan for a small CVS within, and the potential for some low-cost groceries. So much for support of "small business" that already provides that service in that community.

Oh yeah, I forget... One has one-way traffic issues in and out of the parking lot that are not enforced, and the other has too many employees and trucks parking in all the wrong places -- on public streets. Maybe they should put out space savers. LOL!

And now there will be another vacancy in that business district. Even the main streets people can't seem to locate willing takers, and the business rents keep going up forcing the few remaining mom and pops that are left to make serious decisions.

Truly a community that talks about how bonded they are but in fact are quite at odds with each other. They want the small-town experience (Williamsburg ??) but forget (indeed are in denial of...) that they are, in fact, within a metropolitan city limits. The convenience of the city has trade-offs.

To quote Charlie Brown, "Good Grief."

/Rant

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There are not that many vacancies in Roslindale Square in reality. People use that line all the time but the facts are the vacancy rate is fairly low when you include spaces that are leased but not occupied yet. And there are a number of businesses interested in Roslindale, there is not a dearth. The issue is finding the right spaces for them because, as said, there are not as many vacancies as you may think.

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The recent trend towards offices/services instead of retail is clearly the right one for the square so it's been nice to see spaces get leased.

I am curious though, how do you know there are 'a number of businesses interested in Roslindale'? Are you a real estate broker or working with Main Streets?

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n/t

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Is RVMS focused on the retail aspect of the square primarily or just the commercial real estate aspect? I.e. do they get involved with stuff like the Webster House development moving into the old Bob's Pita space or the chiropractor taking over the old thrift store spot?

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