The public bathrooms provided relief for shoppers in Quincy Center.

WHAT IS IT?

In the days when Quincy Center reigned as "Shopperstown U.S.A.," a sign on Hancock Street directed pedestrians down a walkway towards the city's "Comfort Station," public bathrooms in the city's Hancock lot that was staffed by attendants during business hours.

LAST WE HEARD

On March 28, 1981, the city closed the Comfort Station, which was used by more than 200 people each day. Two full-time and two part-time attendants were laid off. The city was struggling with budget cuts that followed the passage of Proposition 2½ the previous November, and then-Mayor Arthur Tobin said the facility cost between $30,000 and $40,000 a year to operate and it wasn't as high a priority as maintaining police officers and nurses at the then-city-owned Quincy Hospital.

The decision triggered a flood of people seeking relief in public buildings, stores, restaurants and offices. Business owners tried to get the comfort station reopened, and it even became a topic of debate during the mayor's race that year. One local business owner placed two portable toilets in front of his Hancock Street store, so his customers could "shop in comfort." The city ordered them removed.

The Comfort Station was opened occasionally for the next few years, during the holiday shopping season and the summer sidewalk sale. They were reopened in 1984 and were managed by the company which ran the city's parking lots. But they were damaged by a fire, subject to vandalism and become a gathering place for the city's homeless.

WHAT'S HAPPENING NOW?

The Comfort Station was later closed for good, and the brick structure was torn down. A newly-opened parking garage now occupies the site.

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