Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Surprise Revelation: That Stained Glass...

Here in Windsor Terrace layers of history are being revealed as a former pet supplies store gets fitted for a new future. I've heard reports that it will be a liquor store. Will they keep that stained glass? Well, now that everyone is so excited about it, and indeed we are, I hope they do.

It was exciting to see that underneath that beloved sign



















was this:
















The stained glass was revealed about a week ago, then boarded with plywood, and today, revealed again. And I happened to have my camera on hand.

I wonder if anyone knows how old either sign is. I believe the stained glass is a remnant of a place called Wetters, some sort of restaurant, a hangout for local kids maybe...around 30 years ago (?). The glass is mostly brown now, but in some patches, there remains a brilliant indigo. I wonder what sort of colors would be revealed with a good cleaning.

This comment, left on another post regarding the storefront on Windsor which was once the Asimov Candy store, gives me a sense of what it must have been like in the days of that sign:

It (the Asimov store at some point in history) was called "Buggy Bill's" and for a dime we could get a 7 cent chocolate soda in a filthy glass and a 3 cent "loosie" cigarette. One of the guys from the neighborhood worked for him and we would steal cases of socda from his basement for parties. We were about 12-14. When we went to high school, we would have our own cigarettes and hang out in Wetters on the avenue.Can't tell you what happened to Bill. Guess the lack of profit from our dimes drove him out of business.


See better pictures of the stained glass here. (Thanks, Vanessa!)

Here's the Container Diaries post about Wetters, with interesting comments like this one:

Maureen Rice(Flanagan)

I met the new owner at Joey Corrar’s wake, he told me he is going to preserve as much of the old signage as he can. He also told me that there will be a movie filming there soon. Nia Vardalos (?) from My Big Fat Greek Wedding is doing another movie, they expect to have the liquor store up and running by mid-july. He also attended the Mass for Joey, senior moment, I forgot his name, but he seemed like a nice guy.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I talked to the owners of the liquor store.

They KEEPING the stained glass!!!!!!!

Thank goodness.

Anonymous said...

I talked to the owner too. When I asked him if he was keeping it, he gave me this look like "Are you crazy?? What do you think??". Nice to know they appreciate what they have. Also, he said they had no idea it was under there. A complete surprise.