Then & Now: Grace Wayside Furniture, 268 Turnpike Road, Shrewsbury

Before Grace Wayside Furniture relocated to an earlier Fairlawn shopping plaza on Route 9 in Shrewsbury, the spot was home to a Food Farm grocery store.

That business, which also had a location in Hudson, had a slogan that might not cut it these days: "Where Ma saves Pa's dough."

Grace Wayside Furniture, with roots in Worcester, relocated to the old grocery store in 1967. It had been down the road for many years, at 504 Boston Turnpike (Route 9). Before that, the business started by Joseph E. Grace about 1930 was in a few spots in downtown Worcester.

Grace Wayside was known for its detailed showroom setups, with various rooms — a bedroom, living room and dining room — set up next to each other. The goal was to outfit a customer's entire house, not just one room.

The business had a solid reputation. In 1976, when the builder of Quabbin Estates off East Mountain Street in Worcester was trying to sell high-end new houses, Grace Wayside was hired to outfit the model houses.

The Grace Wayside store shown in this week's Then photo, from November 1967, was in a shopping area then known as Fairlawn. That name is now associated with a shopping center across Route 9, home for many years to Price Chopper and now Reliant Medical.

Grace Wayside moved out in 1978, relocating to 429 Boston Turnpike before closing for good years later.

Since 1981, the building in this week's Then photo has been home to Trippi's, a uniform store with roots as a seller of men's clothing. Antonio Trippi ran a pants-making business on Front Street in Worcester in the early 1900s.

Last week Then & Now: Dewey Mansion, 71 Elm St., Worcester

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Then & Now: 268 Turnpike Road, Shrewsbury