No fooling — Wellesley Grossman’s lives!

Our April Fools’ spoof from last year about a group of Wellesley preservationists seeking to save the Grossman’s sign and colors wasn’t so far from the truth after all.

It turns out that National Development Group, the outfit building the Waterstone at Wellesley senior living project on the site of the old Grossman’s store in Lower Falls, indeed does have plans  ” to incorporate the historical significance of the Grossman legacy into the design of the community, from using the same iconic orange and white colors in certain portions of the design to utilizing portions of brick from the store in the actual construction.”

My head is spinning. We had written last April 1:

Efforts are underway by the Save Gross outfit  to work with builder National Development to ensure the mixed-use project it plans to break ground on this spring on the old Grossman’s site will incorporate historical aspects of the store. Reportedly, the apartments set to be built will be painted either orange or white, featuring flecks of paint scrapped off the Grossman’s building, and will be laid out by “aisles” commemorating the most beloved sections of the old store, such as screws and plumbing.

As for the big old sign, no, it isn’t sitting in some selectman’s living room. Rather, the Quincy Historical Society has grabbed it and is trying to figure out what to do with it. Grossman’s got its start in Quincy, so it’s of historical significance there.

Meanwhile, progress continues at the Waterstone project as seen here. Interestingly, Waterstone has become the subject of study for graduate students in a Boston University School of Management class as well.

RELATED: Wellesley April Fools 2011

The Grossman’s sign goes down (video)

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