In the ancient times of the late 1970's, when I was a student at UMass, the most popular place for students to go drink (besides your dorm) was a place called The Drake. There is a bit of graffiti (above) related to the now defunct establishment which apparently no one has the heart to remove. I remember the place well, it was located in what is now an upscale apartment block.
The building is located by the Historical Society and almost across the street from that popular, if stuffy new hangout located in the old Amherst Cinema building, Amherst Coffee.
Don't put too much stock in me calling it stuffy, remember that my standards were set by Springfield's Pine Point Cafe, a place where at times no laws of God nor Man applied. It is on the side of the cinema building facing the parking lot that the Save the Drake graffiti can still be seen.
Yes, boys and girls, it is true - in the 1970's the drinking age in Massachusetts was eighteen! We actually had a soda machine in the front lobby of my dorm except instead of dispensing Coke and Pepsi it sold Bud and Miller. That meant that if you ran out of beer you could keep the party going from the vending machine. Except on Sundays, because the machine was always sold-out after Saturday night and wasn't refilled until Monday.
So on our beerless Sundays we would often go to the Drake, or more precisely, it's downstairs dive, The Rathskeller. The locals with money favored the Drake proper, but the Rathskeller was for boozy hippies like me and my roomies. It was great, Karl Mayfield's Martian Highway used to play there a lot and everyone smoked so much pot in the restrooms that newcomers could find the toilets just by following the smoke plume. This was a clientele that did not "Just Say NO."
In those days the answer was always yes.
It was years before I realized what the real name of the Rathskeller was. Here is the internet definition of what I believe is originally a German word:
raths·kel·ler
A restaurant or tavern, usually below street level, that serves beer.
For a long time I thought the name was "Rat Cellar" as did most of my friends. It wasn't until we saw an article in the Hampshire Gazette about a drug bust in the joint that we realized its real name. It seemed strange to us - "Rat Cellar" may have been technically wrong but it was spiritually more accurate. The old entrance to the Rathskeller/Rat Cellar has been sealed off from the modern building, although you can still see a faint outline of it.
When the Drake/Rathskeller closed sometime in the 1980's there was a great outpouring of that old canard about it being "the end of an era" except in this case it was true. The closing represented the triumph of the new Amherst - Amherst as the academic Longmeadow. People with real serious money were moving into town - high paid UMass staffers from the University's fast expanding bureaucracy and people who were fleeing Boston or who were the last remnants of Holyoke and Springfield's upper crust.
The Drake/Rathskeller, with its dirty hippies and wild times, just didn't fit anymore. When it closed everyone knew that it meant that the flower-power era that had dominated Amherst throughout the 60's and 70's, making it the counterculture capital of Western Mass, was over. The local hippies either became yuppies and joined the new establishment or fled to rural sanctuaries in nearby towns like Pelham, Sunderland and Whately.
But in a town that is obsessed with cleanliness and appearances and otherwise acts with alacrity to remove graffiti everywhere else, after all these years no one in Amherst can quite bring themselves to scrub away that "Save the Drake" spray painted on that brick wall. That pleases me, because it means that on some level Amherst still remembers what it used to be.
Speaking of Pine Point, the infamous Marilyn Vennell sends along this classic 1960's postcard of the hotel at the corner of Boston Road and Seymour Avenue. At one point the owner of Trace's also owned the Pine Point Cafe. (click to enlarge)
16 comments:
Hey Tommy --
I lived in "The Drake" from 2000-2002, while my wife was in grad school at UMass.
That graffiti had fascinated me since I was a kid, when my parents would take me to the Jones Library. "Save the Drake" was one of those mysteries I grew up with, figuring I'd never figure it out. Then, I did:
http://www.masslive.com/localbuzz/stories/index.ssf?/base/buzz/117752430244390.xml&coll=3
I was a Drake regular until the bitter end (even taking part in the relatively pathetic closing night party - complete with live band).
Just so others know, the reference to Willy in the graffiti is to the Drake's aged, and last bartender.
Also, when the building was originally built (I don't remember exactly when, but late 19th century), it was the fanciest hotel in town. You could see signs of its faded glory in the "upscale" upstairs bar (site of my first pickled egg - I definitely had too much to drink to get to that point!).
I remember Willie andtherewas a real short women who ran the pop corn machine.I think sheeither had a monkey or a bird.They used to serve GAnsetts in a large dixie cup for .75.I remember watching monday nite F.B. therewhen that started.if youwanted a little elegance you could go upstairs to the grown up bar where you could watch channel 40 or channel 22 in virtual solitude.
Been looking for evidence that the Drake wasn't just figment of my imagination. Anybody remember Sheehan's in Northampton?
Was Sheehan's on the corner of Pleasant & Holyoke? That was a nice place. My old roomy Duncan Bruce III was a barkeep at the place next door. I was at UMASS in the late 60's and had my first legal drink at the Drake, and a few after that! I also lived a block away from Joe's Cafe which had a great neighborhood bar and great meatball grinders.
I remember the Drake well while at Umass 66-69. The Rathkellar was comforting in a smoky laid back way. My pals from those days are gone, but I give in to nostalgia form time to time.
I visited Sheehan's back in the day. It had a classic 19th century feel with mirrors behind the antique bar. My dorm monitor in 67 was Bill Sheehan, son of the owner, I think.
70 cent shots in plastic cups at the Drake. I remember it well. Kim Toys across the street. Russells Liquor would deliver to the DORMS with a TWO Keg minimum. I'm a Martian Highway fan, too. It was Peter Martians(Mitchells) band, too. With original drummer Joeno. The good old days. A lasting memory was the 20 minute "Shroom Kitty" that the Highway did at the coffee shop downstairs at the Student Union.
The Drake in the early 70's was fun. The drinking age dropped to 18 on my 21st birthday - March 1, 1973. I worked the concession stand at Amherst Cinema in the late 70's. I'ld trade a big bag of popcorn for a whole wheat pizza. We both profited from the deal.
I worked at the Drake in 1978/79, my senior year at Umass. I was a short-order cook in the small kitchen at the back, upstairs-- served burritos, burgers and the like through a window that opened to the main room. From that kitchen I could see the whole scene, and it was fascinating--a truly colorful place and cast of characters--Willie, Mr and Mrs Parker-the owners, the Senator, Sheri, the beautiful blond waitress. On a Saturday night it would get packed--the Juke box crankin'--Far Away Eyes from Some Girls, which fit the place and people pretty well. And always something going on in the bathrooms --the doors painted as the King of Diamonds and Queen of Hearts. Downstairs was altogether different, a bit more divey and dangerous maybe, but no less colorful--Willie worked that bar. Martian Highway was an amazing Dead band--wish I still had that cool T-shirt that Carl designed--he a superb space artist as well as guitar player--I remember Shroomkitty, and the big yellow farm house in Leverett, and a blue and tan Peugeot 505, Peter's I think. MH played in our back yard on Nutting Ave in the spring-- a week or so before the Dead came to play the stadium for the spring concert, May-12-1979 -- a heck of a year.
I remember the Drake and the Rat well. The cars in the photo are mid 1950s.
I too worked at the Drake during my junior year at UMass (‘69-‘70). My roommate and I would alternate as bartender and bouncer. By the way, when one refers to the Drake, it’s a given that the reference is to the Rathskeller, the dingy, dark, dank basement bar where the smell of spilled beer permeated every porous surface. An older gent Brad was the owner of the real estate and the guy that paid us, but Willy was the boss. Behind the bar with us student hires was a guy named Jim; he taught me the pleasures of Early Times bourbon and ginger ale. Also on the permanent payroll like Jim was his wife (Sandy). I don’t recall her exact role. Another “by the way,” Sandy and Jim were the first interracial couple I had ever encountered let alone knowing them. To say that the Drake was a liberal establishment would be an understatement. One of the few forbidden activities was urinating on the pool table. I recall one night being asked by Brad to escort a young patron, who had wetted the pool table on a previous night, out of the establishment. He was drunk, I wasn’t; he was obstinate, and I had a job to do. To this day I feel badly about that act, but like Hitler’s minions, I was just following orders. It did wonders for my reputation though! Upstairs, the first floor of the building had a newly opened restaurant named Lum’s, famous for hotdogs steamed in beer. It was there that I fell in love with a waitress, a UMass student. I asked her if she’d like to go out sometime, and she said yes. I wasn’t prepared fir an acceptance since she was out of my league, and fearful of her not accepting an actual date request, I never followed up...(sigh).
Yes! Peter Mitchell lives in Pennsylvania.
We recorded with Karl Martian in Manassas as Chapel Perilous. The Hive, All for One, Just Wait and a few of our own Backwards in Time, Tired of You , Oroborus and The Void..
Last I saw him was in Dumfries Virginia.
The Drake and the Rat Cellar. Oh my. I was a UMASS Land Arch student 68-70, and one of the hand full of Black students at that time. Dr. J was another. (BTW, before there was MJ, there was Dr. J) I actually rented a room up stairs once for an evening. The bar, however, was so very special. I had never witnessed such a "friendly" space before nor have since. No one has mentioned the peanuts and shells all over the floor. One evening there was an intoxicated raccoon (I think) sitting in a booth with some guys. Poor racoon, cup of beer within reach, was suffering from the dry heaves. Funny, I was there a lot but the detail recall is thin; I am 82 now.
How wonderful for you to share that with us Al.
I remember she is very well. Before they had the music downstairs the music was upstairs in the window so everybody walking on the street to see the band playing
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