This is the store on the corner of Military and Bannerman in St. John’s. Today, it is a chain store, obviously, but, in the past, it seemed to be an important place for those who grew up in St. John’s. The store, which is located on a pretty interesting corner with the Colonial Building and the Government House (official residence of the Lieutenant-Governor) across the street, is better known as a Fountainspray Fountain Spray. I am not quite sure where the name comes from or whether is supposed to be spelled as one word or two words, but several people, when they learned about my corner stores project, asked if I photographed this particular store. So, yes, I did. And if you could share any details about it in the comments, that would be fabulous.
It is (still) St. Patrick’s Day and although I don’t have a single Irish (or religious) bone in my body I’d like to share two St. Patrick related links. The first one comes courtesy of Dave and it traces fascinating history of how we got lowercase letters (apparently, you can thank St. Patrick for that one). The second link will take you to Slate magazine and a collection of beautiful photos from Ireland by Magnum photographers.
[UPDATE] A bit more info on the Fountain Spray store has surfaced thanks to two facebook friends. Dave says it’s definitely “two words — Fountain Spray, so named for the fountain that used to sit in the square in front of Colonial Building. The base of the pool is still there, I think, but it’s covered in plants now. We call the story Rubber Neck’s, for the former owner who would gawk over the counter at young skeets who were likely planning to shoplift.” And Lynn claims that it was THE place to go to for treats, including candied apples.
Croatian word of the day: Irska Ireland [ee r ska]
