The Backside is Coming! The Backside is Coming - to Revere! (Part II)

From Dave Brigham:

I hit a trifecta just north of Boston, and I wasn't anywhere near Suffolk Downs (outdated reference, I know). I checked out a diner, the remnants of a trailer park and a rusty old Quonset hut all within a few minutes of each other. Welcome to the second installment in a series of quick-hit posts about Revere, Mass. In the first, I wrote about one of the small city's main thoroughfares, Broadway (see July 27, 2024, "The Backside is Coming! The Backside is Coming - to Revere! (Part I)").

Whenever I'm checking out a new town or city, I do a Google search for bowling alleys, old theaters, neon signs, ghost signs and diners. I found a really good example of the latter on Furlong Drive, just off Route 1A.

La Suegra's Airport Diner claims its mission is to "meticulously curate the finest ingredients for our breakfast and craft Colombian-style fast food with a touch of home," per the web site. The eatery is open 7 days a week. Previously, this place was known as just the Airport Diner; prior to that it was Frank's Suffolk Diner and, before that, Jonquille's Diner starting in 2002, according to this Diner Hotline Weblog article.

The article continues: "The diners (sic) original name was the Suffolk Diner and was built on-site in the style of a barrel roof (sic) Worcester Lunch Car from the 1930’s. Originally operated by Frank V. Scigliano, his son Fran was the last family member to operate it until sometime in the 1990s."

Here's a Flickr photo from 2008 of this place when it was Jonquille's.

Directly behind the diner, between Pratt Court, Green Street and First Street, I found what little was left of Lee's Trailer Park.

The park is fenced off, although I'm sure I could've found a way in. Earlier this year, a developer announced a plan to building an apartment complex on the site. "The six-story building will have 36 studio, 106 one-bedroom, and 106 two-bedroom apartments," per the article. "While the project is in walking distance of the Beachmont MBTA Station, there will still be parking spaces for 179 vehicles. The mixed-use development will have retail space on the first floor of the building."

Below is a Google Street View photo of the trailer park before it fell under the wrecking ball.

About 75 yards due east of the diner, and just south of the old trailer park site, is a Quonset hut occupied by Sullivan Tire.

The Revere assessor's office says this building dates to 1965. I always keep an eye out for Quonset huts because of their unique shape and their history as utilitarian buildngs for U.S. Navy. I've written about one other Quonset hut on the blog, one located in Newton, Mass. (see December 18, 2021, "I Seek Newton, Part XI: Newton Corner (Section 2)").

The Backside is Coming! The Backside is Coming - to Revere! (Part I)

From Dave Brigham:

Named for some guy who rode a horse from Boston to Lexington during the Revolutionary War -- perhaps you've heard of him -- Revere was incorporated in 1871. When I moved to Boston in the early '90s, I became aware that Revere (which locals pronounce "Reveah") was considered a "bridge and tunnel" town, meaning it was populated by people who traveled to the Hub of the Universe via those methods in order to go to nightclubs. This was said while looking down one's nose.

Of course, Revere is also known as a place that once had a world-class amusement park along its beach, which I'm sure plenty of Hubsters visited via, you know, bridges and tunnels.

I recently checked out a handful of the small city's neighborhoods, and will serve them up on the kind of silver platters that Paul Revere used to make when he wasn't, you know, helping invent America. Today's installment deals with Broadway, the north-south road that bisects the city.

I started my Broadway trek roughly in the middle of things. Tucked neatly into the corner of Broadway and Winthrop Avenue, The Good Diner is run by a very nice guy who I met briefly while I was making photos.

The eatery, which replaced The Blues Diner, has been in business for more than a decade.

I headed south past a lot of small shops, restaurants, apartment buildings and city hall before spying Luberto's Pastry Shop.

The family-owned shop has been in business for 35 years. That's a great sign!

The furthest south I reached was Fenno Street, where I was excited to see an Indian motorcycles sign.

As a kid, I would love to hear my father talk about Indian motorcycles, which were manufactured close to the house where he grew up in Springfield, Mass. He didn't know the first thing about riding a motorcycle, and had no desire to learn, but he expressed such pride that America's first motorcycle company was founded in his city in 1901. I've always kept an eye out for the bikes, whether a few decades ago during Motorcycle Week in Laconia, NH, or just randomly on the road.

The shop that sells Indians in Revere is part of a New England chain called MOM's, which was founded in 1973.

I'm not sure this shop is open, as it isn't listed on the company's web site. In addition to Indians, the company sells all other brands of bikes, in addition to ATVs and Polaris Slingshots.

I reversed course past plenty of shops, eateries, drug stores and the like, finally pointing my camera at the local Moose Lodge.

Long-time readers of this blog know I have a love for social and fraternal clubs. According to the Internet, Moose Lodge 1272 has been permanently closed. Too bad.

A restaurant just up the street, Companions, has also closed up shop, according to a sign in the window from my visit earlier this year.

I'm not sure how long Companions was in business, but it was decades.

Continuing north, I saw a place that I guessed was once an ice-cream shop or fast-food joint.

Most recently, this place was home to Nunez Livery, which I believe has an office in nearby Chelsea. Prior tenants included Broadway News & Tobacco and -- wait for it! -- Revere Dairy. There have been plans for redevelopment for this site going back many years. I'm not sure of the status of those plans.

Sadly, the next site is also a shuttered establishment.

I don't know how long Sebastian's provided fine dining, or when it closed.

Next, a place that is still in business, and that has a funny sign!

Since 1989, Sabella's Ravioli has made fresh pasta on a daily basis. Zoom in on the photo.

I turned back south at this point, and found yet another place that's all washed up.

Jay Cleaners appears to be a place that was in business a long time. Again, I'm not sure when it closed.

That's it for Broadway; make sure to check back for the next installment, which will cover a diner and a trailer park.

Going Coo-Coo Over a Dovecote

From Dave Brigham:

I suppose the word "dovecote" was in my lexicon before reading about such a thing on the web site of Antique Homes, but once I finished the article, I decided I needed to find the closest one to my house.

A quick Google search turned up one on the campus of Bentley University, less than three miles from where I live.

Located on Bentley's south campus, near Fenway Hall and the sports complex, the dovecote was once part of the Lyman Estate, a late-18th century National Historic Landmark also known as "the Vale." I'm not sure what the university uses the building for -- some sort of academic or administrative purpose, I guess. Dovecotes are used to house pigeons or doves, which is likely how the Lyman family used it.

The estate was built by Theodore Lyman, a successful shipping merchant from Maine and father of a Boston mayor by the same name, as well as grandfather to Theodore Lyman III, a U.S. Representative from Massachusetts in the 1880s.

Like me, you may be wondering, "Why did rich people keep doves and pigeons?" The National Trust in the United Kingdom has our answer: "On a practical level, doves and pigeons provided a source of food for the table, as well as feathers for the aristocratic household and manure for the estate. Doves were also valued for their religious significance due to their associations with the Holy Spirit in Christian thought....[T}o have a dovecote was an easily recognisable status symbol."

Coo coo....

Changes Coming to Former HoJo's Site Near Concord Rotary

From Dave Brigham:

I had several really good meals at the Papa Razzi along Route 2 in Concord, Mass. The Italian restaurant closed in the summer of 2023, so I'll have to get my delicious pasta and lasagna elsewhere. While there, I never thought about the history of the restaurant building, assuming it was just your run-of-the-mill joint that had hosted several eateries over the years. It has, but it's also got a pedigree right out of the annals of legendary roadside America.

And so does the former hotel located across the parking lot.

This pair of buildings, you see, was once part of the vaunted Howard Johnson's dining and hospitality universe. I realize my pictures are sub-optimal, but when I took them I didn't realize the history of this site. I will make up for that with plenty of background information and personal reflections!

Although it's difficult to tell by the looks of the place now, the old Papa Razzi space opened as a Howard Johnsons's restaurant in 1938, according to MACRIS (another source says 1937). The motor lodge (aka motel) opened in 1964 (or perhaps earlier) as the 199th in the chain, according to information at this Flickr post (which also features a nice historical photo). You can see hints of the famous Howard Johnson's pitched roof in the second photo above.

The restaurant operated as a HoJo's until 1991 (or perhaps 1992...sigh); the motor lodge was a Howard Johnson's until the mid-1990s. According to MACRIS, before the restaurant closed, it was "the last operating of all the pre-war Colonial Revival Howard Johnson's in the United States."

During its tenure in Concord, the HoJo's "acquired about two dozen of the original captain's (sic) chairs from the 1935-36 Howard Johnson's in Portsmouth, NH, which burned in 1983," according to MACRIS. Before its closure, the Papa Razzi had approximately 60 full- and part-time employees.

The former motor lodge operated as a Best Western and the Inn @ Historic Concord before being converted to a homeless shelter.

As for the Howard Johnson's chain, known across the country for its bright orange roofs, it was founded by its namesake in 1925 as a restaurant specializing in ice cream in Quincy, Mass. When the company went public in 1961, "there were 605 restaurants, 265 company-owned and 340 franchised, as well as 88 franchised Howard Johnson's motor lodges in 32 states and The Bahamas," per Wikipedia.

The chain continued to grow over the ensuing years...until it began to decline. Eventually, the restaurants all closed and the motels were acquired by Wyndham Hotels.

I used to eat at the HoJo's in Avon, Conn., a neighboring town to where I grew up. It was a great late-night spot after the movies or mini golf or just cruising around town to parties with my high school friends. One time a friend and I got kicked out, along with two slightly older co-workers, because one of us -- I forget who after all these years -- jokingly pretended he was going to lift a chair onto the table. I may also have chewed and screwed once or twice.

We split our time along Route 44 between that restaurant, McDonald's and an Abdow's Big Boy. Good times. A few years ago, I wrote about another former Howard Johnson's located on Cape Cod (see July 16, 2022, "Hyannis Revisited: A Little Something About the Kennedy Clan Here").

Because the former Concord HoJo's buildings are located in prime locations along Route 2 (along with an adjacent shuttered Chinese restaurant), they are likely to increase in value in the near future once the nearby MCI Concord prison is shuttered and the site potentially opens up for redevelopment (for more on this, see June 2, 2024, "Doing Time on the Reformatory Branch Trail").

In May 2023 the owner of the restaurant site, Elm Street Realty Trust, filed a demolition review application with the town. In late May of this year, the Boston Globe reported that in 2025, the site would become home to three eateries: Starbucks, Chipotle and Sally's Apizza, the latter a New Haven-based chain that is expanding into the Bay State.

Finding Easthampton in Tip Top Shape

From Dave Brigham:

When my friend Jim asked in late January if I wanted to take a road trip to Easthampton, Mass., I jumped at the opportunity. And once I realized that our initial destination was located in a former mill complex, I got pretty excited.

Jim did the driving, so I plopped into the passenger seat of his Prius and enjoyed the 85-mile ride, which was a nice change of pace for me, as I often complete 60- to 90-minute round-trip backside drives on my own. He wanted to visit a wine shop operated by the partner of one of his high school friends. I was happy to accompany him to the 01027.

Located in Hampshire County, about halfway between Holyoke and Northampton, Easthampton, like so many towns in New England, made the transition from farming to manufacturing during the Industrial Revolution. Our first stop was the former West Boylston Manufacturing Company complex that stretches for quite a distance between Pleasant Street and Lower Mill Pond.

The West Boylston Company was founded in 1814 in -- you guessed it -- West Boylston, Mass. In 1897, however, the State of Massachusetts selected a large section of the town, along with parts of neighboring Boylston, Clinton and Sterling, to create the Wachusett Reservoir. "[T]he Nashua River in the town of Clinton was impounded by the Wachusett Dam, causing 6.5 square miles to be flooded," per Wikipedia. "Over 2,200 acres of West Boylston's land was used for the reservoir, the most of any town. This disrupted the center of town and most of the industrial base. Many buildings were moved to the unaffected parts of the town but the majority were demolished and filled by the reservoir."

But the West Boylston Company did things a little -- okay, a lot -- differently. "Instead of abandoning the mill, the company dismantled it brick by brick and shipped it by train to its new home in the Pioneer Valley, where it was rebuilt on the banks of the Lower Mill Pond," according to the web site for The Boylston Rooms, a wedding venue located in the former mill complex. "Between 1899-1907, the West Boylston Company built the huge complex of mills on Pleasant Street."

That's amazing!

After the demise of the West Boylston Company, "the building finally became the property of the Lesnow Manufacturing Company, manufacturers of clothing, who operated the factory for many years until their demise in 1985," per MACRIS. "The building was acquired by the adjacent Kellogg Brush Manufacturing Company, a growing manufacturer of household brushes. A small semi-attached office building was originally the West Boylston plant superintendant's (sic) office, later became the offices of the Lesnow Company."

Today the old mill complex is home to commercial, office, artist and warehouse space. After parking in the front lot, Jim and I wandered aimlessly both outside and in (including a much-needed trip to the bathroom for two middle-aged guys) for a bit. Below is the first (and likely last) photo I've ever made inside a bathroom. I just couldn't resist the ol' piss trough.

After a few minutes, we realized we needed to walk down back to the side of the mill facing the water. I enjoyed the scenery, from the Abandoned Building Brewery....

(Wish we'd had time to stop in for a brew.)

...to the wonderful urbex paradise in one of the yet-to-be-developed areas of the complex.

I really wanted to explore more, but this wasn't my expedition.

In short order, we found ourselves in front of Tip Top Wine Shop.

I love the sign in the top photo, and was pleasantly surprised by the tile entryway. I asked one of the owners about it; she said a local artisan created it for the shop.

The store isn't large, but it's got a great selection of wine, beer, non-alcoholic beverages and chocolates, snack foods and other treats. Jim and I had a nice chat with his friend's partner and her co-owner, but didn't overstay our welcome. We asked for a lunch recommendation and then were on our way.

I made a few more photos around the mill before we got back to the car.

(Spring Action Electrical is no longer in business.)

(The Invisible Fountain is an art gallery and event space, I think.)

(Old loading dock.)

Another luxury of riding shotgun through an old mill town is getting to make photos out the window of a slow-moving car.

D&D Auto Parts & Machine is no longer in business. The building dates to 1930, per the local assessor.

We parked downtown and walked around for a little bit. I liked the feel of the area and the old buildings. At the corner of Union and School streets, on the side of Razor's Edge barber shop, I spied a ghost sign that's been partially covered by a fire escape.

I have no clue what business this advertised.

I'm going to finish up this post with two restaurants, one where we ate, the other where I'd like to meet the person responsible for the outdoor decor.

Guess which one this is?

Galaxy is open for dinner Wednesdays through Saturdays, so we were out of luck being there in the middle of the day. The restaurant serves salads, small plates, delicious-sounding entrees and more. According to the eatery's web site, "Galaxy grew out of [owner/chef Casey Douglass's] dream of opening his own restaurant. After many years of working for others, gaining notoriety in helping develop establishments such as Icarus in Boston, Del Raye in Northampton and the much missed Squires, Casey finally realized that dream by opening the once beloved Apollo Grill, which ran from 2001 to 2015. Casey is now focused on Galaxy, a restaurant born of the same dreams as the Apollo was, to serve its community using fresh ingredients with our own twist."

We ate across the street, at The Silver Spoon, which the Tip Top owners recommended.

This place serves up diner food in a cozy space poppular, from what I can tell in my limited experience, with hipsters. I had the cinnamon raisin French toast, which was delicious.