On June 15, the Needham Historical Commission voted unanimously to add the You-do-it Electronics sign to its Inventory of Historic Properties. Perched atop the building at 40 Franklin St., the sign has been a Route 128 icon since 1979. The list of historical assets in Needham includes 147 items. The vast majority are historic homes, but Gloria Greis, commission member and director of the Needham History Center & Museum, said that there are also parks, bridges and a dam on the list.
Although this will be the first sign on Needham’s historical register, Greis said that there is precedent in the state. “The most obvious example is the Citgo sign,” she said. It will also be the first thing on Needham’s list to date from the second half of the 20th century.
The idea of granting the sign historical recognition arose when the new owners of the building, Onyx Partners, a commercial real estate firm, sought permission from the Needham Design Review Board to put its own sign on the building’s northwest corner, also facing the highway. Needham bylaws allow one sign per address and forbid rooftop signs. The proposed sign for the new owners would also include a second sign for Pure Hockey, a retail store that will lease the first floor. An Onyx press release expressed the goal of saving the You-do-it sign, “the most beloved feature” of the building.
Greis said that the process of becoming registered as a historical asset starts with the town, and final approval is granted by the Massachusetts Historical Commission.
Her draft appeal to the state reads, “As a result of the store’s prominent location beside the highway, the You-do-it rooftop sign has been a defining landmark at the gateway to Needham. Positioned alongside ‘America’s Technology Highway’ in an area filled with technology companies, YDI rapidly became a major regional resource for electronic components and equipment.”
The store was founded by John Ahigian in 1965, and the top two floors and the sign were added in 1979, according to his son, also named John Ahigian. The younger Ahigian learned about the efforts to preserve the sign from the Observer and was thrilled. “Wow, that’s amazing,” he said.
Ahigian said that his father became a TV and radio repairman after serving in the Marines in World War II, traveling from house to house to repair sets. “Back then TV and radio repair were big deals. It was a pretty fancy profession, almost like a doctor,” Ahigian said.
The elder Ahigian expanded his business by locating about 125 tube testers in drug stores in eastern Massachusetts, Rhode Island and southern New Hampshire. Television tubes, the heart of the old sets, could be replaced by laypeople who weren’t intimidated by the latest technology. By providing high-tech parts to hobbyists and professionals alike, Ahigian found his niche. That would become the main draw for about 400 customers a day that flocked to the store from all over the region. Ahigian also installed workbenches in the store with access to electronic tools that rented for 25 cents an hour.
“It was like a maker space before there were maker spaces,” his son said.
Ahigian said the store pioneered the use of barcodes. The top two floors sold electronic appliances to the general public, specializing in all the latest fads like gaming systems and DJ equipment. Long lines at opening with eager customers waiting to get in for sales or new products were a common occurrence.
The younger Ahigian, who also became store manager, said his siblings, wife, children, nieces and nephews also worked there. Part of the store’s appeal was the personal service and positive attitude of the sales staff, Ahigians and non-Ahigians alike. “It was a good place to work. A lot of us, when we were in our 20s, were partying together and going out after work together,” Ahigian said.
When Radio Shack went out of business in 2015, some thought that business would flow to You-do-it, but Ahigian said it didn’t work that way. “We were glad that Radio Shack was around,” Ahigian said. “They sent us lots and lots of customers.”
Ahigian said that the store bailed out a lot of businesses that kept them functioning in emergencies, including TV stations, hospitals and the MBTA. With the store’s closure in 2024, Jonathan Ortloff of Ortloff Organ in Needham Heights, a business that builds and repairs organs, said that he lost a valuable resource for parts that he needed in a timely manner.
Howard Samuels, a hobbyist from Newton, said that he was heartbroken when You-do-it shuttered its doors. Samuels remembers going there in the ’60s with his father to test television tubes. Now retired from Analog Devices, where he designed mixed-signal integrated circuits for micromachines, Samuels frequented You-do-it to buy parts for his many projects and hobbies. For example, he found parts for a homemade garage door opener, and for his racing and acrobatic drones. He remembers creating a home security system from parts sold at You-do-it long before the advent of the Ring camera.
“One of the nicest things I remember was every Presidents Day they had their annual sale, and you could get 20% off of almost anything you could fit in one bag,” Samuels said. In one of his last visits, he advised a 12- or 13-year-old who was with his grandparents buying a soldering gun. “It was good to see my young doppelgänger. That meant there was a new generation of engineers coming up.”
Ahigian said he was surprised at the outpouring of love when the store closed.
Mark Gluesing, chair of the Design Review Board, the Needham board charged with enforcing the town’s signage bylaws, said that Onyx has several hurdles to clear in order to be in compliance with town regulations. In addition to the fate of the original sign, the proposed new sign exceeds the 100-square-feet limit for highway-facing signs. Gluesing said that he can’t predict what will happen, but the board has granted exceptions in the past. “We try to be flexible and relate to the situation,” he said. “The [You-do-it] sign’s not something I personally would use as a landmark, but other people say they would.”
Gluesing said that Onyx has not made a date to reappear in front of the Design Review Board, but if it votes its approval, Needham will have a sign preserved on its list of historical assets. The sign would be a reminder that the technological revolution was in part powered by the work of hobbyists and creative individuals, not just the large companies that made Route 128 famous.
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