In fire?s aftermath, Restaurant Row eager to get back to business
Karen Caiazzo and Kenya Welsh of Cambridge paused to take a photo of the mural
on Peterborough Street yesterday. (John Tlumacki/ Globe Staff)
By Eric Moskowitz
Globe Staff / September 27, 2009
The fire in January that ripped through the section of Peterborough Street known as Restaurant Row did more than gut a commercial building housing six restaurants and a dry cleaner. It tore out a vibrant stretch of businesses that had given residents a gathering place and a sense of community, apart from the lights and noise of Fenway Park.
So when 20-year Fenway resident Lori Frankian grabbed a microphone yesterday and announced ?Restaurant Row is going to return!?? the crowd of more than 100 at the ?Revitalizing Peterborough?? block party broke out into applause.
But a question loomed: When?
?There?s no timeline at all,?? said Bud Thornton, co-owner of Thornton?s Fenway Grille, one of the neighborhood anchors. Thornton and his brother, Marty, are awaiting word from property owner Monty Gold about when they can return.
Jim Hoben, whose fish tacos at El Pelon Taqueria drew diners from far beyond Fenway, said to cheers that he was optimistic about returning soon ?to serve some great Mexican food.?? But afterward, he could do little more than shrug.
?We?re just kind of waiting for Monty,?? he said. ?We?re ready to go. It?s just, you know, kind of where we are - I don?t know.??
Frankian, one of about 130 residents temporarily evacuated after the four-alarm fire Jan. 6, helped organize the party as a board member of the Fenway Community Development Corporation to restore festivity to the block. The CDC collaborated with staff and students at McKinley Preparatory High School across the street on a colorful mural to cover the boarded-up, charred remains of Restaurant Row.
The mural - painted by five students working with their art teacher and three artists, and funded by a City Hall grant for youth summer employment - was officially unveiled at yesterday?s party, which included a band, drum circle, dance troupe, and face-painting.
How long the mural would stand - before being replaced by new construction - remained unanswered. ?There?s just so much runaround,?? Frankian said, alluding to insurance company delays. ?I had thought the roof was going to be up by now, but it?s not. It?s a hurry up and wait situation.??
City records list the owner as 84-100 Peterborough Realty Trust, with Warren I. Gomberg and David H. Weisman as trustees.
Gold, identified as the owner in the party program, told the Globe in March that he wanted to restore the building exactly as it was, but that he had to wait for his insurer to respond to his claim. That helped reassure residents who packed a community forum, concerned that the cavity might be filled with high-rise condominiums lacking the character of the old red-brick row. Gold attended yesterday?s party, but said he did not want to discuss the status of the rebuilding.
Basking before the mural, neighbors said they were glad to have the eyesore replaced with something as colorful and multinational as the neighborhood and its former restaurants. The panels include a Venetian gondolier, a couple of Delta blues musicians, and a Phoenix rising from the ashes.
?It takes a blight and it makes it public art,?? said Margaret Witham, who has lived in the Fenway for 25 years.
The five muralists from the alternative public high school - Mario Darget, Danavian Daniels, Wolf Louis, Jerry Cooper, and Billy Margetis - received citations yesterday from state Senator Steven A. Tolman for their ?initiative, creativity, and genuine concern for the community.??
Standing near the mural afterward, Darget reflected on the January day he arrived to find school canceled, with the smell of smoke filling the air and firetrucks crowding the street.
?That was a really dark day,?? said Darget, a 17-year-old from Roxbury. He and his classmates used to seek permission from the school to get lunch at the restaurants when they tired of cafeteria food. Now starting his junior year, Darget said he hopes they rebuild by graduation.
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