When Stop & Shop opened on Metacom Ave. in 1994, it had a unique feature that no other supermarket could claim: a house in the middle of the parking lot, fronting Metacom Ave. In an article in this paper in June of that year, James Merolla interviewed the homeowner of 607 Metacom Ave., John Francis III.

At the time Francis was just celebrating his 74th birthday, and standing firm against selling his “simple home of 46 years, covered with blistered paint, set on a small lot which is also home to one fig tree, one grape vine, one half-cut pine tree, several bushes and lush grass.” The then-owner of Jack’s Salvage Co. and Junkyard insisted he had no gripe with Stop & Shop, and that they did not attempt to get him to sell them his home. “I don’t want to sell,” he said at the time. "This is my house.”

“I guess there will be a lot of traffic,” Francis said. “But that’s okay. Nothing bothers me.”

Eventually, however, the house did sell, in 2007, for $285,000 to Pawtucket-based Marshall Properties. In the ensuing 20 years the house was essentially abandoned, falling further and further into disrepair. In recent years, the town had been talking to the owners about doing something with the structure; the owners recently decided on demolition, and that was done last week.