Old Athlone businesses

leck

I know this is about recent "old shops" but does anyone know where Macken's Drapery was on Church St, Athlone?

Doing a bit of family history research and found a cousin working as a draper's assistant in 1911 at Macken Drapery, Church St, Athlone. It looks like a sizeable business with the owner Mary Macken (draper, 63, widow) and five assistants (four sons, one daughter and three others) plus a servant. Wondering if this might be where the present-day Burgess shop now stands.

guylikeme

leck wrote: »

I know this is about recent "old shops" but does anyone know where Macken's Drapery was on Church St, Athlone?

Doing a bit of family history research and found a cousin working as a draper's assistant in 1911 at Macken Drapery, Church St, Athlone. It looks like a sizeable business with the owner Mary Macken (draper, 63, widow) and five assistants (four sons, one daughter and three others) plus a servant. Wondering if this might be where the present-day Burgess shop now stands.

Macken shop was next to the Bottleneck pub. Think its a Cafe now (Torc). Used to get packs of Mentos there as a kid

Mearings

guylikeme wrote: »

Macken shop was next to the Bottleneck pub. Think its a Cafe now (Torc). Used to get packs of Mentos there as a kid

No, Macken's drapery was in Church Street. It was run by Kevin Macken in the '50s.

The shop was next to Fleming's chemist shop & Coyle's bar/grocery. It was bought by Heatons and is now a beauty shop with an Indian restaurant on the 1st floor.

Bizzylady

I think Mackens is now Corner House Bistro - well worth a visit - definitely not Burgess which is in the same location since 1839!

leck

The 1931 Trade Directory on from-ireland.net lists three Macken businesses in Athlone:
Macken J. 7 Mardyke st Grocers Athlone
Macken P. 14 Church st Drapers Athlone
Macken J. 26 King st Boot Merchants Athlone

The one I'm interested in is the draper at 14 Church St.- not sure if the street numbers are still the same. The 1911 census describes it as a 15-room building with 11 windows in front. The proprietor at that time was Mary Macken.

Zubeneschamali

leck wrote: »

The one I'm interested in is the draper at 14 Church St.

You can just about make out MACKEN on a shop front at right in this pic from before 1914:
http://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000318787

reverse view (can't make out the shop name, but it is on the left just beyond Flemings)
http://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000316211

Here is the OSI 25" map from 1912.

In Google Streetview, you can see that this bit of the street was redeveloped in 1990.

snmmcm

My father, Keviin Macken, sold the business around 1969. This photo is from around 1920. I think Mary Macken is 2nd from right.

Rikand

Its about 10 years now since techstore / the netcafe is gone. In the unit beside Rayners. Great spot. I worked in it for over 10 years.

Anesthetize

I used to visit Netcafe just to go on MySpace, because my dial-up internet at home was terrible. I miss the 00's.

Another good spot was E-Fusion, across the road from AIT where the bookmakers beside Charlie Browns was later. It was only open for a year I think. It had Alienware PCs, and I had some nice gaming sessions in there with some mates from college.

mmgtv

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119867944#Comment_119867944

Wondering if you would have any old photos of the Macken family from Church Street. I have a request from great grand daughter of Bernard & Mary Macken looking for info.

Lewis_Benson

Retreat Stores

Seamy Nugents

Late N Early

The Cova

Dial A Video

The Greenhouse

DH Burke

Pockets

The Diner

rn

On connacht Street

Brodick shoe shop (I think that was name)

The American Fry takeaway

Dooleys grocery on connacht Street

And there was a newsagents/stationery beside that.

Further up the street VG supermarkets

Rikand

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120388893#Comment_120388893

Newsagents was Welsh's I think. My dad used to get the paper in there every morning. Shoe shop was Paddy McKevitts. Brodericks was there too, but I forget what that was

TheRiverman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120389264#Comment_120389264

I think Brodericks was a bakery.

Rikand

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120389273#Comment_120389273

bakery was what I had in mind too.

Mention of the AMerican Fry has just reminded me of heading up at lunchtime from Aloysius and getting the Sausage Special, extra Sausage!

veryangryman

Cloonans->Biddy Mulligans-Richard Graces-> Biddys Teach Steig->Robs Ranch-house (still open AFAIK)

Claw Hammer

Joe Scanlons.

thalia_13

What happened to that Lolly Thai place?

batman75

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121094186#Comment_121094186

Gone a while now. Used to be a Chinese for years.

thalia_13

Yea used to be imperial many moons ago, but was really curious as to why the lolly thai closed, it was barely any length open, seemed they were doing the exterior for ages only for it to close really swiftly... I'm a nosey hole I was wondering what happened