Posts Tagged ‘Rat Alley’
A stranger in a strange land
From Fred Barzyk: Bill insisted I try to get into the scholarship program. You studied for your graduate degree at Boston University and worked three days a week at the Educational Television station. Free tuition and you got $600 to live a year in Boston!
Read MoreMysteries from the Archives (1950s)
From the WGBH Archives Brooks Leffler offers these clues. "The three guys include John Sunier, who worked for WGBH-FM and maybe was Barzyk’s roommate towards the end of our year. "Al Reese is wearing Bermudas & knee socks. He was a droll West Virginian going for his masters in Journalism. Very funny guy. (I once…
Read MoreRat Alley Reminiscence (1959)
From Paul Noble Now, here’s a really choice photo, from Brooks Leffler. It’s the entrance to Fred Barzyk’s and Tom McGrath’s dreadful little hovel in "Rat Alley," 1959. It was literally in a back alley which ran from Massachusetts Avenue out behind the Zebra Lounge. The hundreds of resident rats were the size of house…
Read MoreLiving Places of the Not-so-rich and Occasionally Infamous (1957-63)
From Don Hallock Just around the corner from the former Zebra Lounge, (the present-day Crossroads Tavern, shown in this photo to the right of center) was a pair of apartments at 27 1/2 Massachussetts Avenue, over a greasy spoon eating place which shared a kitchen with the Zebra. The second floor was occupied by Bill…
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