Foote’s Ice Cream Stand & the Demise of Mid-Century Architecture

I wrote about the history of the beloved Foote’s Ice Cream stand in Salisbury in the July 17, 2025 issue of the Seacoast Scene newspaper. The ice cream stand, an iconic mid-century modern building, has been closed since 2020 and is slated for demolition to make way for a new housing development.

Foote’s was established by Charles and Ida Foote in 1946 and was a popular ice cream and fried food stand for decades. It originally started as a fried food stand down at the beach, next door to Joe’s Playland, before the Footes bought the property on Beach Road in the 1960s and built the ice cream stand there.

I wanted to write this story because I’m dismayed by the number of mid-century modern buildings being demolished around the country to make way for new houses, businesses, etc.

Mid-century modern buildings are vulnerable to demolition because they tend to be small, constructed from hard-to-replace materials, and are often not seen as historic enough to consider saving.

As a result, they are under constant threat of demolition, and a number of notable historic mid-century modern homes in America have been demolished in recent years, such as the Zimmerman House in Los Angeles in 2024 by the new owner Chris Pratt and the Geller House in New York in 2022, just to name a few.

Soon, Foote’s will be added to that list. Foote’s is a classic mid-century modern building. It features a butterfly roof, a red brick facade, clean lines, and was once topped with a vintage neon sign that read “Wow” (which has since been relocated to Happy’s Fried Dough stand at Salisbury Beach.)

The Footes were a well-respected family, many of whom were servicemen and hometown heroes. Charles’ brother, Edward Foote Sr., was a local policeman, volunteer fireman, and businessman who served in WWII, and his son Edward Jr., who later took over the business, was also a policeman and a member of the Salisbury Police Honor Guard.

I even found an old article from the 1950s about a terrible car crash in the area and how Edward Foote Sr., who was serving as a volunteer fireman at the time, went straight to the hospital and donated blood to the victim of the crash. The Footes are good people, and I’m pleased to be able to document some of their family history in this way.

I gathered a lot of information on both the building and the family and wasn’t able to fit it all in the article, so I’m going to post what didn’t make it into the article here:

To get more background on the business, I emailed Bryan Eaton, great-nephew of Ida Foote and a former Newburyport Daily News photojournalist, who gave me a lot of really great info:

“My cousin Charles Jr. ran the place, his father and mother were involved on a small basis as they were getting on in years. I started there in 1974 picking up trash, etc. Then scooped ice cream a couple summers. Even when I became a news photog, I still filled in when they needed. Charles instilled a work ethic in us. He died in 1985. Charlie’s nephew, on his side of the family I think bought the place from Aunt Ida and his sister and husband ran it up until several years ago.”

Bryan also told me a little more about the family and the type of food they served at the stand:

“Charlie and Ida were parents of Charles. Their only child. He ran the store from the late 60’s until his death in 1985. Charlie’s nephew Ed Foote, who was a Salisbury Police Department sergeant, bought the business with his sister Joanne Blaise after that and closed in 2020. They made some changes adding tuna salad, shrimp boats, etc. and soft serve ice cream in addition to the hard ice cream they were known for. Charles made the hard ice cream in the back from the highest butterfat content available twice a week. They had about 28 flavors. They were famous for their pepper steaks, but did hot dogs and burgers as well. Fried clams, fries and the ‘puffy’ onion rings.”

One thing I heard over and over from former employees was that the Footes had a strong work ethic and made sure to pass that on to their own kids and the local kids who worked at the stand, as Bryan explained:

“The place was a haven for kids looking for summer jobs. Ida hired the kids, did the payroll, record keeping etc. She would come in some days early to keep an eye on things until Charles came in later in the afternoon. Charlie would help out and sliced the onions and pushed them into rings and put them into tubs until ready to be battered. He called everybody Chubby. As I said earlier, Charles instilled a work ethic. On rainy days if there was no business, he would expect the kids to clean, etc. If you didn’t, jokingly he would say you’re gonna have to count the Jimmies. (sprinkles, shots, or whatever you’d call them.) It was a fun atmosphere. It was a family, some kids stayed a year, some 5 or 6. At the end of the season, the Foote’s would take us all out to a ‘banquet’ at a local restaurant to thank the staff for their diligence over the summer. Charles, my father’s first cousin, could be a prankster and we had good times.”

Bryan’s sister, Michelle, told me that she also enjoyed working there at the ice cream stand:

“My 3 brothers and myself worked there in the 70-80’s. My Aunt Ida and her husband Charles owned it and their son ran it for years. Lots of fun and laughs.”

A former employee, Kristen Packer, also praised the Foote’s work ethic and said the stand was a great place to work as a kid:

“Footes was my first job in the 90s. I loved working there. It wasn’t easy. That place was hopping in the summer. I started off scrubbing those dirty picnic tables in the morning before we opened. The owners taught us teenagers to work hard. No standing around. If there were no customers we cleaned. At the time Ed Foote and his sister JoAnne owned it together. They were the second or third generation. I think I was told an uncle named Charlie owned it before them. Ed hid scratch tickets for us to find on rainy days when he wanted us cleaning to find them. They instilled a great work ethic in me. I’m sad to see the building go.”

Another former employee, Tom Riley, told me how nice the Foote family was and how much he enjoyed their food:

“Worked there late 70s Charlie and his mom Ida two of the nicest people ever. My mom Andrea worked there also. I miss the real ice cream Charlie made, unlike what most places now serve.”

Despite pushback from locals and multiple lawsuits to try and stop the development plans, the project is now underway, and the building is currently vacant and surrounded by construction vehicles in preparation for its demolition. It’ll be heartbreaking to see that cool, iconic building destroyed, but I’m glad I was able to document it and its history before it’s officially gone.

I don’t know when exactly the building is scheduled to be demolished, but if you want to see some mid-century modern architecture up close before it is erased forever, the building is located at 159 Beach Road, Salisbury, Mass.