1950s' Shop Was a Valentine's Day Stop

Today’s cupid-fest offers an opportunity to take a nostalgic look at how Northville once celebrated this sentimental holiday.

And there may be no better place to review our Valentine’s Day past than Paul’s Sweet Shop.

Opened in April 1955 by Paul and Mamie Folino, the shop at 144 East Main Street (on the site now occupied by ), sold homemade candy, specializing in hand-dipped chocolates assembled in decorative boxes. (Paul’s prided itself on not charging customers extra for the box.)

The candy, which included homemade fudge, assorted creams, fruits and nuts, cherry cordials and vanilla caramels, was sold in half-pound to five-pound boxes, and became a popular local favorite. In addition to the Main Street store, Paul’s candies also were sold downtown at the Sally Bell Bakery, EMB Food Market and Guernsey Farms Dairy, which at that time was located on South Center Street. Other locations that sold Paul’s candies included Farm Crest Dairy and Sally Bell Bakery’s sister store in Livonia, as well as McAllister Bros. Grocery in Plymouth.

In addition to boxed chocolates, there were jars of penny candy on the counter, a popular draw for local children and teens.

While Paul’s made its mark in the candy business, its soda fountain, juke box and pizza pies (the first served in Northville) made it a haven for high school students.

Paul’s Sweet Shop was to Northville teens what Arnold’s was to the gang from the fictitious TV sitcom Happy Days, according to Teresa Folino, Paul and Mamie’s daughter.

Northville teens flocked to Paul’s for 19-cent sodas, sundaes made with Sealtest ice cream and the one-of-a-kind pizzas (the secret to Mamie Folino’s topping was the combination of fontina and mozzarella cheeses).

Before opening the Main Street shop, Paul Folino worked for his uncle who owned a jukebox distributorship. That connection brought to downtown Northville one of the first jukeboxes. In the mid to late 1950s, Northville teens headed to Paul’s to listen to Rock Around the Clock by Bill Haley and His Comets, Lee Baxter’s Unchained Melody and Yakety Yak by The Coasters.

The Folinos owned Paul’s Sweet Shop for about five years. By 1961, it was the Old Mill Restaurant. Paul eventually went into the insurance business and distinguished himself in civic affairs. He was elected to the Northville City Council and was a Northville Chamber of Commerce Citizen of the Year.

The building that housed Paul’s Sweet Shop eventually became a Little Caesar’s Pizza in the 1970s and a hair salon in the 1980s.

Slated to be razed for construction of the Utopia Salon in 2006-07, the building caught the attention of the Northville Historical Society. Believed to be the last wooden frame-constructed commercial building in downtown Northville, the society’s research indicated the building dated back to sometime between 1830 and 1850 and housed Northville’s first library in 1889, a tobacco and cigar shop, steam laundry, auto repair garage, bakery and a hay and feed store.

The Northville Historical Society sought the city’s permission to dismantle the building and reconstruct it as a general store in the Mill Race Village. After three years of planning, fundraising and tireless volunteer labor, the J.M. Mead General Store was dedicated last September. It will be open for business when the village season gets under way this spring. 

Though Paul’s Sweet Shop is long gone, the building that housed it has been preserved for future generations.

And that is a sweet ending.