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Try not to mist up when you see the photo with the Rat

BU's put together a slideshow on the changing face of Kenmore Square. You can also see larger versions of some of the photos.

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This feels like asking a serial killer if he'll show you home movies from his recent "vacation".

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really fucking depressing.
bring on the homoegenization of the country.

anyone miss deli haus? and the 24-hr ihop? as a former raver (!), I spent my formative years there, sobering up at 4:30am to the unpleasant realization that the trains wouldn't start running for a while...
jesus I feel old.

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I bet I was sitting right next to you in Deli Haus after a club night, watching the Simpsons, listening to awful 80s metal and eating fries. R.I.P.

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I was at The Rat in bands PLAYING awful 80's metal. Yeah, Kenmore Square was something sort of special.

Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com

P.S. In case anyone is wondering, the bands I played with were (in chronological order) Worlds End, Live Wire, Powerline, P.S. Wild, City Limits, Soldier, and Assault & Battery. Yup, I'm not surprised. Nobody else ever heard of us, either. The one that played The Rat was P.S. Wild.

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Miss the Rat. My brother-in-law used to play there. Fun times!

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I confess, I was usually drunk enough by the time we hit the Rat that there is no chance I'd remember the name of any bands I saw there...But I'll pretend that I saw you for old time's sake. And given that tomorrow (well, 3 minutes from now as of this writing) is my birthday, that's a year-older-time's sake. :)

(I will also confess; I didn't realize that the Buckminster used to be a HoJos. So I guess I'm not *that* old, huh? :) )

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The dorm on the north side of Comm. Ave., just west of Kenmore Square, was a HoJos.

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With that photo as evidence, I retract my statement! I had no idea.

During my late-70s stay in Kenmore Square, the Buckminster was not a hotel, but rather a dormitory for Grahm Junior College. I remember the White Fuel sign quite well.

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I lived in Kenmore in 1997 (The Charlesview) and as far as I knew the HoJos was still operating on some level. Maybe I was mistaken but I thought part of it was for the dorm (the hotel rented the rooms to BU at a bulk price or something) and very small part was the hotel. When my building burned down the HoJos offered up rooms for people to stay in.

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The Howard Johnsons at 575 Comm. Ave. was in operation as a hotel until at least 2001. At some point after that it became a high end luxury dorm for BU students with wealthy parents.

Until this thread, I had no idea about the Hojos that once occupied the Buckminster, but I do remember when it was Storyville in the 80s (where the Pizzeria Uno is now), which was a rock and roll club back when Boston had many of them. Just one more part of the cool Kenmore Square that is gone.

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Luxury dorm? You do realize youre talking about a motel right?

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Sorry. The luxury dorm I was actually thinking of was "Student Village II" in West Campus area of BU, not the former Howard Johnson's in Kenmore. Here's a Globe article about it from 2009:

www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2...

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Unless you think three loft beds, three desks, three dressers, and three wardrobes crammed into a hotel room is luxury.

I've been in that dorm, it's more like a cramped summer camp bunk or minimum security prison.

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totally miss deli haus and the ihop somewhat... lol! the rat was great of course. Here's the thing, suburbanites love to come to the city and go to our universities, but they want everything white-washed, homogenized and turned into frozen yogurt shops and barnes & nobles.

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We used to head there after late-night theater rehearsals. It was one of the stops on my Bachelorette party.

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Thanks for reminding me again of another reason why I have never and will never give a dime to BU.

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Ron Newman

You are not wrong often but you are this time. The HoJo's at the Buckminster closed when the hotel opened ( 1963-4 )

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That's Richie Parsons of Unnatural Axe walking into the Rat with the surfboard. Must have been a photo session for his single "No Surfing In Dorchester Bay", which places the photo in 1979/1980. A cool record. Notice all the pay phones. Those are another thing of the past.

Kenmore Square in it's glorious grimy heyday was a destination. I can't imagine anyone now saying "Let's Go To Kenmore Square". There's nothing there.

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Thanks for IDing the content of the photo. Was really wondering what band that was.

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Unnatural Axe. One of my all-time favorite band names along with Judy's Tiny Head and Relentless Cookout.

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Whatever became of...

Fox Pass (which I thought was terribly clever, being a take on "Faux Pas")

Third Rail

The Spores

The Incredible Two-Man Band

Anyone have stories about them? One of my bands shared a bill with The Spores (at The Beachcomber, Wollaston Beach) and they were really nice guys.

Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com

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Whose name I loved because I always figured it was a bunch of chemistry students who decided to try music instead (explanation provided upon request).

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I heard they were a gas, but far from ideal.

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Hey adamg,
as the drummer and co founder of the band, I can tell you we were not chemistry students officially, however the Ideal Gas Law is usefull and fun in more ways than one might consider !!

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Unnatural Axe. Haven't heard that name in ages. I have one of their '45 singles buried somewhere. Where did I buy it? Looney Tunes? Cheapo Records?

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Apart from three of the best bars in Boston/the US. Fresh local oysters and leading lights in craft cocktails? Yep, no reason at all. Kenmore may have been so frickin great when you were a poor teen alt-music fan; it's also where I stepped on a dead rat.

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Can you be more specific?

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Ironic that BU has sold the Hotel Commonwealth to a company called Sage Hospitality. The Howard Johnson's Motor Inn that used to be in Kenmore Square -- not the Buckminster, but the 1960s hotel on the north side of Comm. Ave. -- was built and owned by a local developer named Sage. I think his first name was Robert. He owned a small local chain of hotels, most of which had the name "Fenway", including motels in Revere, Cambridge, Kenmore Square, Boylston St. near Fenway Park, and I think Newton. As far as I can tell, there's no connection between him and the Sage Hospitality company, which is based in Denver.

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R.I.P Mr. Butch.

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Yo. As a high school student going to bars and clubs in Boston to see bands were great years. The Piv Nerts were a killer band. Saw them w play many shows. Think saw them w Dinosaur Jr. and Big Clock at Bunrattys in 1989. Also They played w Pixies at The Rat before Doolittle came out. They played a song called The Well that mentions
Kenmore Sq. First time I had Rolling Rock. Only 2$!!

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