The DNA of Buildings

A few months ago, a new restaurant, Isaan Thai Star, opened at 11 North Seventh Street. A hundred years ago today, the Columbia Republican announced the opening of a new restaurant called The County Gentleman in that very building.

The Shirley, which was operated by the same proprietor as the new County Gentleman, was located at 340 Warren Street, currently the location of Swoon Kitchenbar. It seems a hundred years ago The Shirley, as Swoon is today, was one of Hudson's finer restaurants. It was there, according to an item that appeared on the front page of the Columbia Republican on February 25, 1919, that friends gathered to honor Dr. Henry C. Galster and celebrate his return from service in World War I as a captain in the Medical Corps.  

The picture below, which was probably taken in the 1930s, shows 340 Warren Street when it was the location of yet another restaurant, Brandow's.   

There was a (fondly remembered) restaurant called Brandow's in this building again for a year or so in the early 1990s. In the later 1990s, it became a cafe and market, again called Brandow's, and remained so until it became Swoon in 2004. (The Brandow's sign, done in stained glass, still survives under the Swoon signage.)

COPYRIGHT 2019 CAROLE OSTERINK