Thursday, May 7, 2020

Bar building torn down

Tearing it down at Sixth and Jefferson.this morning.
BACK IN THE day, Quincy was full of little corner bars, grocery stores and a lot of churches. You can see the old bars and stores on many Calftown corners. Our original Second String Music location was in an old grocery store at 8th and Washington, and there's another old grocery store building (now an apartment residence) at 9th and Washington.

Some of these old bars are still hanging on. This morning we noticed the bar at 6th and Jefferson was being torn down - there was a fire just after everything closed due to COVID-19, and it took less than two months to figure out it was better to level it than renovate.

I never went in that bar. I think it was called Belcher's before it was burned (a dubious name, but maybe it fit). I know it was popular for a lot of the neighborhood folks who called it 6th & J. When I first started reporting crime and courts 20 years ago, there was a robbery at the bar and a high-profile trial, and the robber was convicted and sent away for a long time.

Now it's just a hole in the ground. I wonder if they are rebuilding or just getting out, and maybe something else will pop up on the corner.

Or maybe it will stand empty, mute testimony to the many corner bars that have come and gone in Quincy.

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