PHOTO GALLERY
TOWN SQUARE
TOWN SQUARE
IN PICTURES
Created by Gail Hussey Weir
May 2025

Many of the photos I have of Town Square were gleaned from postings on various Facebook groups. Many are poor-quality, low-resolution. I will give sources when known. Many photos found on the Internet are not credited regarding ownership. If you see one that belongs to you, I will gladly give you credit. I also welcome information about the buildings, such as which businesses were located in them over the years. This site is under construction, so will change as I add photos and move some around in the timeline. 
An aerial view of Town Square, looking northeast, late 1950s or early 1960s. Photo credit: Southey Collection, A&SC, MUN Library. 
The following photos start at the bottom of Town Square where it meets Quigley's Line and move southward along the east side of Main Street to the Roman Catholic Convent.
The lower east side of Town Square c.1950s. Credit: Dominic Slade. (Posted by Bernie Johnson.)
I believe the building in the newspaper clipping below is the 2-storey building on the right in the photo above. The newspaper clipping is c.1970s(?). (Posted by Gord Johnson.) The caption says, "This is the new liquor branch of the BLC. Situated between the Tucker Brothers store and the store of John Basha and Son Ltd., Town Square, the liquor branch was opened Monday, Dec. 17. Windows are boarded up for protection. It will move to another building in January."
Below: John Basha (green building) and the former Wabana Shoe Store (red building). (The former Nathan Cohen's Store to the right.) Photo courtesy of Wally Byrne. c. 1980s.
The former Wabana Shoe Store is in the left background of the photo below. c.1980. In the right background is the former Nathan Cohen Building, renovated and at the time of this picture was the Fountain Lounge. Photo credit: Harvey Weir. (The white dots are holes that were punched in the photo.)
Nathan Cohen's Store on the east side of Town Square in the early 1960s. 1963 was the last year that Nathan Cohen's Store was listed in the Telephone Directory. The store windows are boarded up in this photo, so it was after 1963. Read more about Cohens' stores on this website at https://www.historic-wabana.com/cohens-of-bell-island.html. (Posted by Gord Johnson.)
The photo below has the same buildings as the one above it but also shows buildings on the west side of the Square. (Posted by Janette Rees.) The closest building on the right was Simon Levitz and Son, which business operated in the late 1950s. Prior to that, it was a business run by David Feder and his wife, the former Sadie Goldstone. You can read more about these business people on this website. In the drop-down menu under "People," click on "F" and scroll down to "Feder." The taller building a few doors south of Levitz's was Charles Cohen's store (a woman in a white dress can be seen walking past it in the photo). See the photo below this one for a later view of this area.
The photo below (posted by Janette Rees) shows Charles Cohen's former store on the right. Photo taken c.1990s. The building on the left was the former location of Fleming's Drug Store.  
The photo below, looking towards the northeast, shows Nathan Cohen's store and a one-storey business (behind the prominent pole) to Fleming's Drug Store on the east side of Town Square. (Posted by Janette Rees.) Fleming's was on the corner of St. Pat's Lane and St. Kevin's RC Boys School was the next building up from it. You can see another view of Nathan Cohen's and the next three shops in the next photo below. 
Cadets on Town Square in the late 1950s. Credit: Gerald Kavanagh. The building housing the Agnew-Surpass shoe store was owned by Benny Glick, who had previously had his business there. It was later a Bowring Brothers Supermarket when it was destroyed by fire in December 1963 along with Mercer's Snack Bar to its right and Lawton's Drug Store, the yellow building to the right of that. Read about the December 1963 fire on this website at https://www.historic-wabana.com/town-square-shops-fires.html.
The photo below was JJ Tucker's Store in the 1940s. You can read about JJ Tucker under "T" on the People page in the drop-down menu at the top of this page. The building was previously the Bell Island Co-operative Store in the 1930s. It was Carbage's Supermarket in the 1950s to early 1960s. Located on the west side of Town Square, immediately south of this was Lawton's Drug Store and immediately north was Charles Cohen's Store. (Posted by Brian Burke.) 
The photo below seems to have been taken before the Horse Fountain was built in the summer of 1933. This was before the 1937 fire destroyed most of Town Square, so the buildings are not exactly the same as the ones that replaced them when the Square was rebuilt. Photo courtesy of Michael Kennedy. The vacant land in the forefront of the photo is where St. Kevin's Boys' School and St. James RC "basement" church would be built in 1938.