Telegraph photo by DEAN SHALHOUP Well known Nashua cobbler Charles Panagoulias erected this building in late 1958, shortly after crews demolished several buildings in order to widen the west side of Main Street. (Telegraph photo by DEAN SHALHOUP)

When Nashua native Chris Panagoulias returned home with thoughts of opening a podiatry practice after several years away at college, the first formidable challenge he would face had nothing to do with securing affordable office space or establishing a steady patient base.

“I went to turn onto Kinsley Street and cars were coming at me in every lane,” Panagoulias said with a laugh, recalling his sudden introduction to the new traffic pattern that turned downtown Nashua into a network of one-way streets while he was away.

Now, four and a half decades and thousands of pairs of treated and corrected feet later, Panagoulias is easing his way into retirement, having shuttered his most recent office location at 3 Water St., in a section of the multi-unit building his grandfather built some 63 years ago.

The wedge-shaped building is probably most recognizable by the “Building 1958” lettering above the entrance to 83 Main St., where a series of retail space and offices have opened and closed over the years.

It used to read “James Panagoulias Building 1958,” but the name was eliminated during one of its renovations.

Courtesy photo Dr. Chris Panagoulias, with his wife, Ann, during a recent trip to Italy, is easing into retirement after 45 years practicing podiatry in downtown Nashua. Three generations of his family owned businesses in different downtown locations over many years. (Courtesy photo)

In the post World War II years, James Panagoulias, Chris’s grandfather, operated Panagoulias Shoe Repair at 83-85 Main St., and in 1947, his brother, Nicholas Panagoulias, fresh out of dental school, opened a dental office in the same building.

Chris Panagoulias’s father, Charles, eventually joined his father in the shoe business. By then, a combination of uncles and siblings operated shoe repair shops at 231 Main St. and around the corner at 12 West Hollis St., where Chicken N Chips restaurant is today.

Brothers Charles and Lou Panagoulias ran the Main Street shop, while a third brother, John, ran the West Hollis one.

And yes, if talking about shoe sales and repair shops in downtown Nashua brings to mind the name “Scontsas,” there’s good reason: Like the Panagouliases, three generations of the Scontsas family were in the shoe business for decades.

And that they’re related probably comes as no surprise either.

Courtesy photo Dr. Chris Panagoulias, with his wife, Ann, during a recent trip to Italy, is easing into retirement after 45 years practicing podiatry in downtown Nashua. Three generations of his family owned businesses in different downtown locations over many years. (Courtesy photo)

“My grandfather married a Scontsas … that’s how the (two families) ended up combining their shops,” Chris Panagoulias said. “In those days, the Scontsases and Panagouliases took care of everyone’s shoe needs.”

Nashua history tells us that starting in 1947, the same year Dr. Nicholas Panagoulias opened his dental practice in his father’s building, city officials began studying in earnest a little anomaly in the Main Street traffic pattern that had annoyed motorists ever since self-powered carriages began replacing the horse-drawn version.

It took a decade’s worth of meetings, discussions, suggestions, ultimatums and arguments for City Hall, downtown merchants and local motorists to agree that the little, curved peninsula of sidewalk and buildings that jutted out into Main Street between the F. W. Woolworth building to the Nashua River had to go.

The offending spate of property, known simply, and quite accurately, as “the bottleneck,” would meet its demise in early 1958, at which time James Panagoulias set out to rebuild the block that became 83, 85 and 89 Main St. and 1-3 Water St.

Meanwhile, Chris Panagoulias would also open his podiatry practice in his family’s building.

Courtesy photo Former Gov. John H. Sununu stopped in downtown Nashua some years ago to get a shoe shine from the late, well-known Nashua cobbler Charles Panagoulias. Several members of the Panagoulias family worked in shoe repair and other businesses for many years. (Courtesy photo)

Early on, he remembers classmates from the old Spring Street Junior High becoming patients, as did a number of his former teachers.

Now semi-retired, Panagoulias and his wife, Ann, call Ogunquit, Maine, home, after renovating their seasonal place into a year-round residence in the artsy seaside community.

He maintains a limited practice in Nashua, holding office hours one day a week at Northeast Foot and Ankle, 17 Riverside St.

While shuttering his office in a building steeped in family history surely brought back a lot of fond memories, Panagoulias says he “feels blessed” to be able to continue to see his patients until he decides to fully retire.

Four and a half decades … it’s been a great run,” he added.

It's kind of hard to make out, but this photo that appeared in a January 1958 Telegraph shows the start of the demolition of the buildings that for decades stood close enough to Main Street to create a traffic impediment known as "the bottleneck." One of the buildings that replaced them was built by Nashua cobbler Charles Panagoulias.

Dean Shalhoup’s column appears weekly in The Sunday Telegraph. He may be reached at 594-1256 or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.

Dean Shalhoup

Longtime reporter, columnist and photographer, is back doing what he does best ñ chronicling the people and history of Nashua. Reaching 40 years with The Telegraph in September, Deanís insights have a large, appreciative following.