Monday afternoon marked the end of a pleasant 14-year era for Paul Leonard, 236 Mechanic Street, when he closed Paul’s Variety Store, of which he has been the owner for the past four years. Before that he was a clerk in the store when it was run by Leonard Merchant.

The attractive little variety store, with its newspapers, grocery items and greeting cards will be ve4ry much missed by residents who counted on it being open seven days and evenings a week. The newly-installed coffee bar with personalized mugs hanging behind it was a special gathering spot for public officials on their way to Town Hall and for neighbors who wanted to stop and chat about Town affairs. Those attending a Mass at St. John’s found the store very handy for refreshments or for those items they had forgotten to include in their weekly shopping.

William Pesaturo, who owns the block in which the store has been located recalls that there has been a variety store there as long ago as the turn of the century. His father Anthony Pesaturo, bought the business around 1900 from a Volpe family and at that time the block was owned by a Charles H. Grimes, from whom the Pesaturo family eventually bought it and the adjoining land on which the Pesaturo Gas Station now stands.

When the variety store was run by the Pesaturos it had a soda fountain, Mr. Pesaturo recalls, and sold vegetables and fruits along with grocery items and the usual newspapers, tobacco and tonic.

According to his recollection, the store then changed hands several times, going next to a DeMayo family, then to a William Daly and George Marks, to George Marks and his sister, Mrs. Viola Kaufman, to Leonard Merchant and John Ruane (our present Police Chief), to Leonard Merchant as sole owner, and finally to Paul Leonard.

Mr. Pesaturo hopes that he can rent the vacant store to someone who will continue the variety-items tradition. He feels there is a great need for such a store in that part of Canton.