"Owned by Fred I. Wilkins, Wilkins Shoe Store was located at 443 Main Street at the site of the homestead of Samuel Wiley, and one of three parts of the Quannpowitt House later moved to the corner of Avon Street and North Avenue. Prior to Wilkins, the building had been owned by Greeley Merrill and Richard Britton. Wilkins was proprietor of the Britton Shoe Store before he became owner of the establishment in the early 1900s. A sign on the right side of the building notes 'Established in 1875.' Newspaper advertisements of 1910 proclaimed '40 years - Home of Good Shoes.' The building was later purchased by Charles J. Klapes of the Colonial Spa. Fred I. Wilkins placed the fund-raising clock for the Melrose Hospital Association during its $100,000 inter-city fundraising campaign in 1912 to build a new 75-bed hospital at the corner of Lebanon and Porter Streets in that city. A vigorous nine-day fundraising campaign that began on March 23, 1912 raised over $126,243. The hospital moved into its new home in May 1913. Wakefield's efforts to build its own hospital began with the creation of the Wakefield Hospital Association in 1929. Lloyd Thayer and Junius Beebe purchased a 12-acre tract of land on Hopkins Street from Bear Hill Associates with the intention of working with Reading (which had a $150,000 grant to build a hospital) to erect two 30-unit hospital buildings on the site, half in Reading, half in Wakefield. After several public meetings, definite plans for the hospital never materialized." -- Text from calendar by Jayne M. D'Onofrio. Image from the Wakefield Municipal Gas and Light Department annual calendar, 2005
