Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em

From Dave "Smokey" Brigham:

L.J. Peretti Co. has been in business for 150 years in Boston. That's pretty good for a business selling products that are bad for your health, and that pollute the air we breathe. Don't get me wrong: I have no problem with cigars and pipes, especially the latter, which always smell good and remind me of my late uncle. The number of folks who smoke them, though, has decreased significantly in the last 15 years.

Founded in 1870 in Boston's North End, Peretti at one time had a factory in Park Square where "fifty rollers...produced some of the finest cigars in New England," per the company's web site. "Not only did Peretti's manufacture blended cigars, but they also created Clear Havana Vitolas such as the legendary La Mirendella."

The tobacconist at one time had stores in the Financial District and elsewhere, but I believe this one at the intersection of Boylston and Charles streets, just steps from the Boston Common, is the sole survivor.

Perched outside the front door is a stogie-holding Punch.

Half of the ancient comedy duo Punch & Judy, the cigar-loving wag has been common outside tobacco shops for decades and probably centuries.

For more about local tobacconists, see November 29, 2018, "Leavitt & Peirce: For All Your Hoity-Toity Tobacco Needs."

Leavitt & Peirce: For All Your Hoity-Toity Tobacco Needs

From Gentleman Dave Brigham:

When I walk into Leavitt & Peirce in world-famous Harvard Square, the WASP in me comes out just a little bit. Located directly across from Harvard Yard, the shop has sold tobacco, chess games, barware, cologne, cigar cutters and much more to Harvard students, their families and others with too much walking-around money since 1883.

I love the cigar maiden hanging over the door, the pendant lights hanging inside and the "FAMOUS CAKE BOX MIXTURE" sign in the window. As great as the outside looks, the inside smells. I don't smoke cigars or pipes, but my nose and I enjoy the smells of those tobacco products that have seeped into Leavitt & Peirce's wood walls, floors, ceilings and display cases. I like to think, for a few minutes, that I'm a blue-blooded toff just popping in to purchase 8 ounces of Whiskey Cavendish pipe tobacco, a small vinyl chess mat and a Schnitzelbank Stein.

Truth be told, I have only purchased a few things in this store, and none of them was as glamorous as what I just listed off. I stopped in here before my wedding, 21 years ago, to buy some gifts for my two groomsmen: my brother and my best buddy from high school. I believe I bought them fancy pens.

I feel a connection to Harvard Square, not only because I've hung out there countless times in the last three decades, at places ranging from the Wursthaus (R.I.P.) to Newbury Comics, 33 Dunster Street (R.I.P., replaced by John Harvard's Brewery & Ale House) to the movie theater (now shuttered, but it might be revived), but also because my ancestors once lived there.

Thomas Brigham, considered the first Brigham to emigrate to these shores from England, settled in Cambridge in 1635. He is buried in the Old Burying Ground on the corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Garden Street in Harvard Square, although his grave is unmarked after all these years. At his death, he owned approximately 180 acres of farmland, with the main house situated on the outskirts of what is now the square, at the intersection of Ash and Brattle streets. So I like to think that in some alternate universe, my branch of the Brigham clan inherited that land, right near Tory Row, sold it to Harvard University and made enough money to keep me in Whiskey Cavendish and wide wale pants for the rest of my life.

For more about my WASP hang-up, see March 22, 2018, "WASP Wanderings and Wonderings".