Venerable buildings still dominate Gardner's skyline today Mike Richard Special for The Gardner News If there was ever a shot that perfectly depicted West Gardner Square on a lazy summer day in the 1960s, the accompanying photograph taken by Charles Clark could be it. Shoppers are seen milling in and out of the many stores, while downtown regulars lean on a streetlamp or congregate in the doorway of a barber shop to share in the daily news. A Gardner police officer, safely stowed in his traffic box, directs the cars motoring along through the square. This was downtown Gardner in the mid-1960s when Edward’s Rexall Drugs, City Barber Shop, Gardner Office Supply, Priscilla Candy Shop, Sandrof’s Men’s Furnishings, Davis Hardware, First National Bank, J.C. Penney and Gardner Cooperative Bank filled the Pleasant Street store fronts.