"spa" = 'neighborhood grocery store', aka 'convenience store'? (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Mullins, Bill AMRDEC]

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE


[display adv] _The Tech_ [MIT Student paper] 4/6/1893 p. i
"225 WASHINGTON ST., next door to Thompson's Spa."
http://tech.mit.edu/V12/PDF/N25.pdf


_Boston Evening Transcript_ 6/29/1903 p 11 col 1
"Clarke's American spa sells plain soda at ten cents gold or twenty-five
cents (dos reales) "Mex." "  [about commerce in the Phillipines]
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=r5c-AAAAIBAJ&sjid=JVoMAAAAIBAJ&dq=r
estaurant%20spa&pg=6693%2C4153448


_Lewiston Evening Journal_ [Lewiston, ME] 5/25/1938 p. 1 col 7
"The College Spa was badly damaged, the Progressive Auto Supply store
was filled with smoke and two escaped unharmed, when fire broke out at 4
o'clock Wednesday morning in the two-story wooden block which houses the
two businesses on upper Maine street."
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=pzgjAAAAIBAJ&sjid=LmoFAAAAIBAJ&dq=c
ollege-spa&pg=5416%2C4470620


_Daytona Beach [FL] Morning Journal_ 4/5/1941 p 1 col 8
"Mrs. Mayo, who with two sisters runs the "Triple Spa," a Richmond
restaurant and store, said in corss-examination that "never" had Joss,
in their friendship of less than a month, given any hint that he plotted
to harm Mrs. Joss."
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=BGsoAAAAIBAJ&sjid=AccEAAAAIBAJ&dq=r
estaurant%20spa&pg=1692%2C4235860


_Lewiston Daily Sun_ [Lewiston, ME] 12/10/1947 p. 2 col 4

"The winning men's team was awarded sundaes at the college Spa."
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=aZkgAAAAIBAJ&sjid=WWgFAAAAIBAJ&dq=c
ollege-spa&pg=4247%2C6831632






> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
Behalf Of
> Joel S. Berson
> Sent: Monday, February 28, 2011 2:19 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: "spa" = 'neighborhood grocery store', aka 'convenience
store'?
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
----------------------
> -
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      "spa" = 'neighborhood grocery store', aka 'convenience
store'?
>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
> -
>
> If anyone knows how to separate "spa" = 'neighborhood grocery store'
> from the mass of "spa" = 'watering place', I'd be interested.  It's
> an eastern New England usage (says AHD in "More word histories and
> mysteries", but without saying a word about date of origin).
>
> Adding "neighborhood" or "local" or "corner" (for a phrase) still
> comes up with a lot of tubs or watering spas.  Adding "grocery" (not
> as a phrase) gives much with GBooks, but tedious, small print, and it
> seems a high probability of disconnected occurrences and false
> positives.  Even adding "convenience store" comes up with many located
at
> spas!
>
> The best (earliest) I can find is a 1954 reference to (I think) the
> famous* Montrose Spa, 1646 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge,
> Mass.  Although it's much to the west of Tokyo!
>
> In Tokyo and points east, by Keyes Beech - 1954, Snippet view:  Page
> 216.  [GBooks]
>
> "One of my best and most useful friends was Mitch Sabbag, who earned
> enough money as a truck driver to buy a half interest in the Montrose
> Spa, a small neighborhood grocery that prospered by staying open when
> other, larger stores were ... "
>
> Acts of the Legislature of the State of New Jersey, allegedly 1933,
> page 1384, has a business named "Kaiser's Spa, Inc.", but that is
> hardly unambiguous.  [Snippet]
>
> * See Henry Louis Gates, as written about by Charles Ogletree.  I
> also learned of the famous town of Ballston Spa.
>
> Joel
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
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