New efforts begun to restore Bud building

Date: 5/3/2011

May 4, 2011

By G. Michael Dobbs

Managing Editor

HOLYOKE — Members of the Holyoke Historical Commission and some city residents are leading a new effort to save the historic Bud building.

In 2006, City Engineer Matthew Sokop prepared a report that urged the city to either make the long-closed bar and restaurant safe or tear it down.

Olivia Mausel, chair of the Historic Commission, explained to Reminder Publications the building is still privately owned. The city is in the process of seizing it for non-payment of $280,000 in back taxes.

Mausel is developing a plan, which the city would have to approve, that would allow The Bud to be redeveloped. She noted that more than half of the $280,000 is interest, which she hopes the city would waive if an interested developer could be found.

She said with the caved-in roof and subsequent water damage, the building is considered a "gut rehab."

The Massachusetts Historic Commission has requested the city take the building off a list of potential demolitions, she added.

A group of people in favor of the new redevelopment recently cleaned up the exterior of the building.

Mausel said many of the interior decorative elements that gave The Bud its unique character are still intact. The first floor bar, the fireplaces on all three floors and stain glass windows are in relatively good shape. The stairs between the floors are still passable, even though the roof is wide open.

The three-story brick building was first a tavern and rest stop along the Boston to Albany stage lines and built in the 1870s, according to information in the files of the Holyoke Public Library History Room.

Patrick J. Murray bought the building in 1903 and by 1913 it was known as "The Bud," due to the tavern being the first local distributor of Anheuser-Busch beer.

A sign, now faded, on the back of the building reads, "This is not a bank. This is The Bud." Murray convinced local banks to have hours available to the city's factory workers by cashing their checks himself with silver dollars. The influx of silver dollars to local merchants showed the banks the importance and size of the spending power of the blue-collar workers.

Prohibition didn't stop The Bud. Murray opened a speakeasy on the second floor of the building from 1920 until 1933.

Patrick's son Wilbur added numerous distinct touches to the establishment. After seeing the film "Royal Wedding," in which Fred Astaire is seen dancing on the ceiling, he added plaster casts of shoes and bare feet to the ceiling of the first floor bar. There was a nautical motif on the first floor dining area that created the feel of eating aboard a ship.

The brickwork on the building's exterior is also unique with hearts and clubs decorating windowsills.

With its long history, The Bud inspired several unproven stories including that a tunnel connected the basement of the building to City Hall. The secret connection allowed elected officials to go into The Bud unnoticed.

Mausel said in a tour of the building last year, a fire official pointed to a wall in the basement and said that was where the door to the tunnel had once been. She admitted she couldn't confirm the legend by looking at the brickwork.