Fanelli Cafe: In Business for 178 Years!

From Dave Brigham:

Located at 94 Prince Street in New York City's SoHo neighborhood, Fanelli Cafe has been in business since 1847 (!). I knew nothing about this historic eatery when I walked by, trailing my wife and daughter as they window-shopped. I saw the sign, pointed my camera up because I liked the looks of it, made a photo and moved on.

This is the final post in my series of quick hits about a trip to NYC last fall. Links to the previous six are at the bottom of this post.

"Herman Gerken leased the wooden building at 94 Prince Street in 1847 and became the proprietor of a grocery on the site," per the cafe's web site. "In 1853 [John] Hance’s heirs, Edna Brown, Mary Sarles, and Sara McIntosh, sold the lots to Herman Gerken. In 1857 Gerken built the present day (sic) handsome five story (sic) brick building that still carries the 94 Prince Street address. This corner building was interconnected with his adjourning (sic) building at 135 Mercer Street by at least 1891."

To read the history of this property, starting with a Dutch farm in the 1640s to its status during Prohibition as a speakeasy, check out this page on the cafe's web site, which quotes from an article originally published by New York Art World.

Here are links to the previous six posts:

March 15, 2025, "Globe Slicers May Rip You to Shreds"

March 8, 2025, "House in Flux in SoHo"

March 1, 2025, "Hoofin' It to the Bowery Ballroom"

February 22, 2025, "Shoot Your Shot at Amsterdam Billiards"

February 15, 2025, "Webster Hall Was Right Across from My Hotel"

February 8, 2025, "The Carl Fischer"

A Lovely Walk Through Roslindale Village

From Dave Brigham:

Sometimes I pore over online maps trying to find a place to explore. Other times, a location just pops into my head. That was the case with my recent walk through Boston's Roslindale Village neighborhood. I lived in neighboring West Roxbury for a few years a while back, and thought about returning with my camera. But then I remembered that Rozzie likely had more of interest to me, so that's where I ended up.

Located about six miles south-southwest of downtown Boston, Roslindale was originally part of the town of Roxbury, per Wikipedia. "In 1851, current day Jamaica Plain, Roslindale and West Roxbury seceded from Roxbury. The area voted in 1873 to be annexed to the City of Boston."

The neighborhood's name has an interesting origin story.

More from Wikipedia: "In the 1860s, the area was called South Street Crossing, due to the railroad's intersection with South Street. However, when the community applied for a post office district of its own, the name 'South Street Crossing' proved to be unacceptable to the government. The name Roslindale was suggested by John Pierce, a well-traveled member of the community, who told the assembled citizens that the area reminded him of the historic town of Roslin, Scotland, outside Edinburgh. Pierce thought the area was like a dale because of the hills surrounding it. Thus the combination of 'Roslin' and 'dale' was submitted to the United States Postal Service and the name Roslindale was formally established."

On my short visit to Roslindale, the first thing that caught my eye, because it just seemed so out of place, was Alexander the Great Park.

The statue at the center of the park was presented to the City of Boston by the people of the City of Athens, Greece, in 1997. The park is maintained by St. Nectarios Greek Orthodox Church and the Greek Spirit Committee.

Across from the park, on a small traffic island dividing Belgrade Avenue and Corinth Street, which is quite a busy intersection, is a whimsical sculpture.

Called, appropriately enough, "Traffic," this piece was sculpted by George Greenamyer, an artist who has a "moralistic message" and is "not afraid of preaching or offending others," according to his web site. I believe his Roslindale sculpture was installed in 2012.

I headed out southeast on Corinth Street, and quickly ducked down Birch Street. There, I found one of my favorite things to shoot: a social club!

My fascination with shooting social clubs is well documented here. I have a connection, albeit a tenuous one, to Sons of Italy clubs. When I turned 40, I joined a men's baseball league. I got drafted by a team called the Quincy Sons, short for Sons of Italy (see March 31, 2019, "A Slow Jog Around the Bases of My Memory"). I only went to the club once for a post-game drink, but I did get to hang out with a guy named Crusher.

Walking south on Corinth Street, I spied the lovely sign for the Blue Star Restaurant.

A little further south along Corinth, I spied another social club.

I'm not sure how long the club has been here. I found a short article online indicating that the club used to be in neighboring West Roxbury, but was forced to move from that location in 2009.

On the opposite side of the street, along the entire side wall of Family Dollar, is a faded mural.

I haven't been able to find out who painted it.

Across Corinth Street, on the side of Fornax Bread Company, I found another mural. There are so many great ones; a few more will follow below.

This one has been here for nearly 20 years. It was painted by Alex Cook, who has created more than 190 murals in 18 states and five countries, per his web site. He did at least one of the other ones I'll look at below.

At the intersection of Corinth and Washington streets is Mi Finca Mexican Food & Pizzeria.

I love the color scheme and the details on the building.

Across Washington Street is the Roslindale branch of the Boston Public Library.

Built in 1961, this circular building with a blue dome (it was tough to get a good photo, unfortunately) sits on a pentagonal-shaped lot and sits over an underground brook, according to the Friends of Roslindale Branch Library web site.

Directly behind the library, on Poplar Street, I spied the lovely contrast below.

This is a barn or garage behind a main house that was built in 1905, according to the Boston Assessor's Office. Obviously somebody takes nice care of this place. In my dreams, this quaint little building is filled with antiques and an old car or two.

Heading southwest along Washington Street, I was happy to see an old-school Irish bar, B.K.'s Pub.

I continued for a bit on Washington Street, as I knew I had to shoot the locally famous Pleasant Cafe.

In business more than 80 years, the Pleasant is best known for its pizza. I've only eaten here once, and that was many years ago, but I remember the food was excellent.

I swung back in the other direction, toward the heart of Roslindale Village. There, I spied a great mural overlooking the outdoor patio for Mexican street food restaurant Chilacates, which is named after a type of pepper. And yes, that's Mexican artist Frida Kahlo in the mural.

Continuing northeast along Washington Street, I made sure to shoot the former Roslindale Substation.

Built in 1911 as part of the power system for Boston's network of streetcars, the Classical Revival building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Empty for quite a few years (decades?), the substation was renovated in recent years, and is now home to Turtle Swamp Brewing's beer garden and perhaps other businesses.

On the side of Dragon Chef, at the corner of Washington and Basile streets, is the awesome mural below.

This fun and colorful work was done as part of the Boston Mayor's Mural Crew effort to beautify all corners of the city.

The sign for phone and computer retail/repair business Easy Fix caught my eye.

I like the dichotomy of the high-tech store next to Binta's African Hair Braiding.

Next door, at the corner of Murray Hill Road, is a wonderful marketing mural for this village.

This work of art is on the side of hair salon Studio M.

Continuing along, I saw one of the few missing teeth in the area, the former J&P Dry Cleaners.

As far as I can tell, the cleaners moved to Boston's Jamaica Plain neighborhood. Not sure if anything is slated to move into this space.

The side of the Roslindale Market -- "Now Serving Dominican Food" -- has a massive homage to the Boston Red Sox, including some high-profile players from the Dominican Republic.

(Top left corner is, I believe, Jason Varitek; lower left corner, could be Derek Lowe; to the right of Varitek, I'm guessing Johnny Pesky; below Pesky appears to be Manny Ramirez, from the Dominican; above Ramirez, I have no idea; next to that guy is Ted Williams; then Babe Ruth; below Ruth is, of course, Big Papi (David Ortiz); and in the upper right corner is Pedro Martinez. The latter two are also from the Dominican.)

The final mural on my tour is located on the side of the Little People's Playhouse on Washington Street.

This lovely work of art was created by Alex Cook, who I mentioned above.

Back in the main square of Roslindale Village, I spied the Prescott Building, which dates to 1929. This place, as with most older buildings, has an interesting history....

...so let's talk about that. Or rather, let's allow Historic Boston Inc. to share its knowledge: "In the early 1930s, [Anne] Prescott filed a permit to include an indoor miniature golf course in this building. Other long term uses included Charlestown Savings Bank, a beauty salon on the second floor, and Blair’s Foodland, for which a small 1 story rear addition was built in 1946. The building’s storefront has been altered several times."

And here I thought that indoor mini golf courses were a newfangled thing (relatively speaking)!

Steps away from the Prescott Building, I found what I'm always looking for, but rarely find these days: a ghost sign!

Located at the intersection of Corinth, Poplar and Washington streets, the sign is difficult, if not impossible to read, unfortunately. I asked a former longtime Roslindale resident if he had any clue, and he said, "Sorry, nope." I believe this building was once the Roslindale Department Store. It dates to 1890. If anyone has any idea about this ghost sign, please let me know in the comments below.

Well, that wraps up Roslindale Village. For the only other post I've written about this Boston neighborhood, see November 30, 2017, "Stone Cold Monuments."

Seattle, Part IV: Pioneer Square

From Dave "Proto Grunge Rocker" Brigham:

This is the fourth post in a five-part series about Seattle, a beautiful and fun city I visited with my wife and kids back in April. This series is by no means meant to be an exhaustive survey of the Emerald City. It just features a lot of the stuff I saw while annoying my family by taking so many pictures. For links to the three previous installments, see the bottom of this post.

I saw this ghost sign on a building abutting the parking garage where I put our rental car, and I knew our tour of Pioneer Square was going to be a good one. I had only a rough idea what to expect in the square, which dates to 1852 and calls itself "Seattle’s original neighborhood." There are some Native Americans who might disagree on that title. We went to the square for Bill Speidel's Underground Tour, which was cool, but we had time to kick around the historic district, so we did and boy am I glad.

The Bank of California sign above was a gigantic advertisement for the Seattle outpost of the financial institution that was the first commercial bank in the Western United States. In 1996, the Bank of California merged with Union Bank; in 2008 it became a wholly owned subsidiary of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, per Wikipedia.

Alright, I'm gonna run through the Square more or less in the order my family and I did it before we went underground. You might want to go to the bathroom before starting on this journey; it's gonna be a long one.

This stunner is known as the Good Arts Building. Situated on the corner of First Avenue and Cherry Street, this place was completed in 1890 and was known as the Scheuerman Block, per the building's web site. "It has been the home to department stores, a two-story diner ('Good Eats,' from which our name derives), a cigar store, a jazz club, a boxing gym, brothels, speakeasies, and the original office of Washington Mutual Savings Bank," per the web site. "In the nineteen-seventies the basement housed the first gay and lesbian community center in Seattle, followed by the Skid Road Theatre....In 2015, Good Arts LLC purchased the building with the mission of preserving its artistic heritage and affordability to creative enterprises."

This totem pole is so cool, and the kind of thing I just don't ever get to photograph around New England. In addition to being a stunning work of art, the Tlingit Indian Totem Pole has an interesting back story. "The Totem Pole first appeared in 1899, after members of the Chamber of Commerce, vacationing in Alaska, stole it from Tlingit Indians," per the PioneerSquare.org web site.

Wow, I wasn't expecting that bit of racist history. How the hell did they travel with that thing? Boat? Train?

What happened next, oh great and wonderful Internet?

"The men gave the object to the city as a gift, but the tribe justly sued for its return and $20,000 in damages. The courts found the men guilty of theft, but fined them only $500 and allowed the city to retain ownership. In 1938, the pieces that remained after vandals set the Totem Pole on fire were sent back to Alaska, where Tlingit craftsmen graciously carved a reproduction."

Why am I not surprised that the Native Americans were bigger men than the idiots from Seattle's Chamber of Commerce?

(Detail of the totem pole.)

Steps away from the totem pole is a statue of Chief Seattle.

A Native American, Seattle (or Sealth) was born in 1786 and died in 1866. "While known as 'Chief Seattle, there were in fact no hereditary chiefs among the Puget Sound tribes," according to this biography. "From time to time leaders arose who distinguished themselves by their actions or particular skills, and were respected and followed." Seattle, per the biography, wanted the natives and the white settlers to live in peace and harmony. As such, he worked with David Maynard, who is considered one of the founders of what became Seattle, to realize that goal. Obviously, some Native Americans at the time rejected this accommodation; others went along. Chief Seattle's legacy is therefore a bit complicated.

"Though many people see this cooperation as a lesser of two evils, some individuals have a different opinion," per this post on Indians.org. "Some have criticized Chief Seattle claiming he was cowardly and it cost the tribe their land and their way of life. However, the other Native Americans who chose to fight for their lands eventually lost."

A few more steps away from Chief Seattle's statue and the totem pole is the Iron Pergola, which sounds like a heavy metal band or a medieval torture device but it's actually neither.

Erected in 1909 as a stop for the Yesler and James Street Cable Car Company, the fancy shelter was "the most lavish of its kind west of the Mississippi with ornamental iron columns, wrought iron ornamentation and a large underground restroom," per the PioneerSquare.org web site. It was restored in 1972 and today serves as a place for tourists to hang out, and for homeless people to gather, as you can in the above photo.

The Lippy Building went up in 1902, built for T.S. Lippy, who made a fortune in the Klondike gold rush. I'm guessing the mosaic entryway below had been touched up more than once in the ensuing 117 years.

Too bad this building wasn't named for Zippy the Pinhead's square brother, Lippy.

The State Hotel doesn't exist anymore at this spot along 1st Avenue South, but somebody was smart enough to save and restore this fantastic neon sign. Not sure the history of the hotel.

You may be starting to understand just how excited I was for Pioneer Square, what with the beautifully restored old buildings, the funky statues, the neon signs and the ghost signs. Well, when I saw the building below, I about crapped my pants.

I've shot ghost signs all around Greater Boston (and will even be featured in an upcoming Boston Globe article about these advertising relics), but I've never seen anything as amazing as the Buttnick Building. I thought I was looking at a movie set. I'd never seen ghost signs that were so easy to read, and that featured multiple commercial products: Buttnick Manufacturing, Driftwood Sportswear and Paul Bunyon (not sure why the spelling is different than the lumberjack of folklore) Outerwear. The building dates to 1908 for the Brunswick Balke Collendar Company, which made billiard equipment.

By this point in our walk, I was lagging well behind my wife and kids. Often I wasn't even on the same side of the street as them as they wandered along, chatting, looking at their phones, whatever. But there was no way I was going to miss the opportunity to snap photos of as many of these fabulous places as I could.

The J&M Cafe & Cardroom dates to 1889 as a hotel, and as a bar to 1892, when it served the men of the Gold Rush. The ceiling is tin and the bar-back is made of Austrian mahogany, per the web site.

Walking through Pioneer Square, I felt like I was on a movie set. No more so than when I saw the Bread of Life Mission building.

Founded in 1939, the mission has been in this building since 1942. The charity offers "a bed, food clothing, and a safe environment for those who are in need. Bread of Life reaches beyond the physical needs by offering an opportunity to make a life-changing decision to accept Jesus Christ. Bread of Life is interdenominational and is supported entirely by individuals, churches, businesses, and foundations that believe in giving hope to Seattle’s homeless."

Built as a hotel in 1890, the building was once home to a brothel; the name "Matilda Winehill" just under the cross at the top of building refers to a former madam or prostitute, according to the mission's web site.

Built as a warehouse between 1903 and 1905, the Schwabacher Hardware Building is now home to, among other businesses, Flora and Henri, which offers bespoke products for children, women and home, per its web site.

The red brick building was once home to the Seattle Quilt Manufacturing Company, which was founded in 1915. The company was bought and sold a few times over the decades, and I believe its brands are now dead.

The Washington Shoe Building was built 1892 as the Washington Iron Works Building. It was remodeled, with the addition of two floors, in 1912. I'm not sure if the ghost sign across the top reads "DAGG DURNEDEN" OR "DAGO DURNEDEN." I've seen both interpretations online. Whatever it was called, the company manufactured "green hood shirts," which I assume are the same as hooded sweatshirts.

When I saw this, I assumed this was where our underground tour would begin or end, but I was wrong. I'm sure this stairway leads to something cool.

This is the former Occidental Park station for the George Benson Waterfront Streetcar Line. To answer your questions: no, not that George Benson; the line operated from 1982 to 2005 using vintage streetcars.

Located in Occidental Square, this sculpture depicts Tsonqua, a mythical giant from Northwest Indian lore. Created by Duane Pasco, the statue was displayed at the Kiana Lodge restaurant until 1985, per this Waymarking web page. In 1985 restaurant owner Richard White donated the totem to the City of Seattle. Pasco refinished the totems and they were placed in Occidental Square in 1987.

Located on the back of the previously mentioned Buttnick Manufacturing Building is this ghost sign for local favorite Rainier Beer.

A city has really made it when it has not one, but two (and possibly more) Schwabacher buildings. This one dates to 1884 and is just down the street from the previously mentioned one.

Upon its opening in 1914, Smith Tower featured 540 offices, six retail stores, two telegraph offices, and a public telephone station in the building, in addition to a thirty-fifth-floor observatory, per the building's web site. Today, Smith Tower is home to the famous observatory, thirty-fifth-floor bar, Legends of Smith Tower exhibits, ground-floor retail store, special events space, and office leasing.

Merchants Cafe calls itself Seattle's oldest bar. Established in 1890, the saloon also for a time featured a brothel upstairs for the local loggers and Gold Rush maniacs heading to and from Alaska.

With Merchants Cafe, we completed our circle and were back in front of the Pioneer Building, where we would shortly do our underground tour. While we waited, I noticed this amazing building, which served as a nice backdrop for an oversize chess set.

Now home to Magic Mouse Toys, this stunner of a building rose in 1891 as the Mutual Life Building.

The amazing Barney McCoy sign I saw as we left the underground tour stopped me in my tracks.

Located in the former Elgin Hotel/Traveler's Hotel building (circa 1913), McCoy's was a pre-Prohibition bar, according to this account I found online. The bar offered lunch, cigars and Olympia beer "in cartons."

Continuing our way toward the waterfront, I spied this cool pair of neon signs.

The Pioneer Square Hotel (a Best Western facility) dates to 1914; it was formerly the Hotel Yesler. I'm not sure if the signs are vintage.

Last, but not least, is this impressive old heap.

At its construction in 1893, this power plant was owned by the Seattle Steam Heat & Power Company. "The company was granted a franchise to lay pipes under city streets to provide steam and hot water for various uses," per this web site. Since 2014 the facility has been owned by Enwave Seattle, which uses renewable biomass as its primary fuel, per the company's web site.

OK, so that's (most of) Pioneer Square. Make sure to come back for the fifth and final installment of this Seattle series, which will cover the Lower Queen Anne neighborhood where my family and I stayed during our visit.

Here are links to the previous three installments:

Part III: Underground Tour

Part II: Discovery Park

Part I: Pike Place Market