Moody Street is one of the reasons Money Magazine recently rated Waltham number 72 on its list of best U.S. cites in which to live. But it wasn't always that way.
The land on which Moody Street sits was bought in 1849, and by 1884 the stretch had single-handedly made Waltham a notable city in the area, according to Kristen A. Petersen's book, "Waltham Rediscovered."
Moody Street was in its heyday in the 1920s, '30s and '40s, but by the '70s the street started to slip.
The old national stores that had been there, like JCPenney, Thom McAn and Woolworth's, as well as local department stores Enterprise, Lincoln and Parke Snow, had left. Even the original Embassy Theatre closed and was later demolished in 1973.
When the stores died out, so did the street's spirit.
In the early '90s, Moody Street underwent what City Councilor Robert Logan calls a mini-renaissance.
Logan, who represents Ward 9, where Moody Street is located, became chairman of the Downtown Revitalization Committee - a group dedicated to bringing Moody Street back to its former glory.
The committee not only wanted to fill the vacant storefronts, but also wanted to make the street a place where people from neighboring towns would come to have a good time.
"The real question was, what can we do to set ourselves apart from the surrounding towns that will make their residents want to come here instead of stay there or go downtown," Logan said.
First the committee focused on the Charles River, creating the paths along the river's edge and breaking down the tall walls on either side of the Moody Street bridge so that the river could be visible from the road.
"We realized the river was a neglected, beautiful natural resource that's a visual focal point," Logan said. "It makes downtown more attractive."
"The river is a natural attraction that, once businesses came to the street, added to the dining experience. Margarita's, Solea, all those places that are here now have outside dining options because of that," said Mayor Jeannette McCarthy, who was not mayor at the time of the revitalization but who has lived in Waltham all her life.
After the river was revitalized, the committee worked on making the street open to small businesses.
"They had to retool the uses (of the property) first," McCarthy said. "Retail stores weren't moving in because they had all moved into the malls, so we had to make restaurants the main theme of the street."
By 1995, Moody Street was still shaky, but things were looking up.
"That's when Nick Pappas moved in," McCarthy said of Lizzy's ice cream owner. "I'm sure he'll tell you that when he moved in, it wasn't a sure thing."
"Well, it was a gamble," Pappas said. "But the renaissance really took off about two years after we moved in here, and we've been busy every summer since."
Logan, too, agrees that the revitalization was a success.
"We now have things in Waltham you can't get anywhere else. You could go to Boston and eat at a chain restaurant that has 35 locations in the Boston area, but if you want Jake's or Solea or the Tea Leaf or any of those places, you've got to come to Waltham," he said. "It's the only place you're going to find them."
Pappas agreed.
"Moody Street is unique, but we still have one-stop shopping. If I wanted what everyone else had, I'd go to a mall," he said. "But I never do."
