After fire, still sweet memories

O'Brien's store served generations

Onlookers gather at the scene of an early-morning fire Tuesday that destroyed a strip mall in the Northborough Shopping Center; among the establishments lost in the blaze was O'Brien's Five & Dime, a popular store remembered fondly by many residents. (Mark Wilson/Globe Staff)

During the sermon at Jack O'Brien's funeral five years ago, the priest asked a question: Who among the mourners had, as a child, pocketed penny candy from O'Brien's general store without paying? Almost everyone raised their hands, family members said, including the undertaker.

The funeral took place at the Church of St. Rose of Lima on West Main Street in Northborough. The church sits directly across the street from the shopping plaza where a fire destroyed O'Brien's Five & Dime and a handful of other stores on Tuesday.

Brown's TV & Appliance, Desi Supermarket, Garabedian Jewelers, and Queen Bead & Gifts were all well-established independent stores consumed or damaged in the fire. But O'Brien's, founded in 1953, had a special place in the town's heart, residents said.

"I was sick when I heard it on the news," said Karen Ryberg, 57, who visited the shopping plaza on Tuesday after the fire had been extinguished. She'd been going to O'Brien's since she was a child, and jokingly insisted she had never pilfered candy. "They were so good to us kids."

Ryberg was one of many spectators milling around the plaza and sharing memories of O'Brien's. In the 1950s and 1960s, she said, her Saturday routine was Shattuck Pharmacy's soda fountain, O'Brien's for candy, and then Assabet Park to hang out.

Part of O'Brien's appeal was its continuity through different owners, locations, and an economy that was increasingly unfriendly to small retail shops, residents said. John O'Brien Jr., Jack's son, said his late father's personal touch was crucial to retaining customers.

"Every time a new development opened in the area, he would worry about it and then his business would decline for six months," O'Brien said of his father. "Then it would always come back."

When Ryberg visited the store as a youngster, it was housed in an old building in the town center. "They had the wide pine-board floors," said Richard Sargent, 75. "When you walked in, they would creak."

O'Brien sold the store to Colby and Therese Taylor in 1974. The Taylors kept the O'Brien name and continued the tradition of greeting customers walking through the door and ordering items upon request.

"We don't want to give ourselves credit, but that's the way you're supposed to run a five-and-10," said Therese Taylor. "Service is the biggest thing we could give. We tried to speak to everyone who came in. It was a family store."

In 1979, a fire consumed the old building. Town officials allowed the Taylors to move O'Brien's to a former firehouse on Church Street. Two years later, they relocated the store to the West Main Street shopping plaza.

In 1996, the Taylors sold the store to four partners, including Bruce Terry, who said the store kept its familiar atmosphere until the day before the fire struck. "It was like your 'Cheers' bar," he said on Tuesday. "Everyone knew each other."

Terry, the Taylors, and the O'Brien family all kept in touch over the years. Jack O'Brien ran a paint business in a back room of the store for years. The Taylors would drop by and say hello periodically.

"I told Bruce, if you ever sold the place, I want the sign," said O'Brien's grandson, Scott, who was also at the fire scene on Tuesday.

Terry said he and his co-owners didn't know if they would or could rebuild. It was hard enough to stay profitable in a market dominated by Wal-Mart and other big-box stores, he said.

"We're undecided. We'll just have to wait and see what happens," Terry said. "We're kind of numb right now. The capital outlay is a lot for a store like this."

Officials are still investigating the cause of the blaze, said Northborough Fire Captain James Houston.