Booze + Broads

From Dave Brigham:

In early February , I picked up a framed print I had on display as part of the Small Stones Festival of the Arts in Grafton, Mass. Before swinging by the Brigham Hill Community Barn to retrieve my work, I drove somewhat aimlessly through the neighboring towns of Worcester and Auburn, looking for things to shoot with my camera.

OK, my drive wasn't completely haphazard; I've had Lamplighter II, a shuttered strip club in Worcester, on my radar ever since I began compiling potential sites for my series on New England's second-largest city (see this post from last September, which includes links to eight prior installments about Worcester).

Along with diners, movie theaters and bowling alleys, gentlemen's clubs are vestiges of a dingier past, and that's the sort of stuff I find image-worthy. I've featured strip clubs before on the blog - see this post about the vestiges of Boston's Combat Zone; this post about a former club in Chelsea, Mass.; check out this installment of my Worcester series, which leads off with mention of Hurricane Betty's; and this post about Springfield, Mass.

After circling around for a while, I came upon Chieftain Liquors along Route 12 in Auburn, and slammed on the brakes in a way that I absolutely do not recommend.

I'm not sure how long Chieftain has been in business, but it's long enough that the store once had a neon sign. According to Roadside Architecture, the neon was replaced with backlit plastic several years ago.

There you go - booze + broads, in reverse order.

As a friend said when I posted these photos on Facebook, "You go to all the best places!"

Records, Wrecks + Religion

From Dave Brigham:

I used to love going to record stores and flipping through albums, EPs, 7-inches, cassette tapes and, as time wore on, CDs, hunting for punk, post-punk, New Wave, blues, classic rock, etc.

I still hit such shops once in a while, mainly looking for used country records, and always keep my eyes peeled for the stores when I'm out and about with my camera. I've featured images of record stores in plenty of blog posts, including in Gardner, Mass., Boston's Jamaica Plain neighborhood, Beverly, Mass., Worcester, Mass., Central Square in Cambridge, Mass., Ball Square in Somerville, Mass., Boston's Allston neighborhood, Natick, Mass., Belmont, Mass., and others that I didn't take the time to look up.

I recently decided I wanted to make photos of as many Boston-area record stores as I can. With that in mind, I headed to Mattapan, specifically the north-central part of the Boston neighborhood, along its commercial spine, Blue Hill Avenue. There, I found one that will be hard to beat, aesthetic-wise.

Founded in 1981, Taurus Records specializes in reggae, soca and Calypso in their mission to bring "the rich sounds of the Caribbean to their new community," per the store's web site. "Our store remains a hub for music lovers, where culture is celebrated and the beats of Jamaica live on. For us, it's more than just a business; it's a celebration of heritage, a community gathering space, and a tribute to the unifying power of music," the shop's owners, Sonia Barnett and Leroy Webb, profess on their web site.

Taurus also sells jewelry, apparel, car accessories, flags and other merchandise.

I walked around a bit, making sure to get a shot of the Mattapan Auto Body shop, which also houses All Star Motor Group.

I'm guessing the building dates to the 1920s or 1930s, and that the business has been around for a few decades at least. I really dig the signage.

The last place I checked out on my quick trip was the Lily of the Valley Baptist Church, at Blue Hill Avenue and Hosmer Street.

The church was founded in 1984, I believe. The building looks like it may have originally been a store or a warehouse.

For the other post I've written about Mattapan, see August 16, 2018, "The Lowdown on the High-Speed Line", about the quaint branch of Boston's rail system located about 1.5 miles south of the Baptist church, just on the Milton line.