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Looking for photos of you and your friends on Thayer Street from Back in the Day. Get in touch and send some my way, please.

The Ever Changing Face of Thayer

1) Brown Dorms, top of Thayer: Miko was once in one of these storefronts before it was an Adult store. There was also a few computer shops/Internet cafe type places. Nothing ever seemed to last up here.

2) the former Oop building: This Building was built somewhere around 1989 or 1990. It housed Oop for many years, and most recently, housed an Oop sort-of anna-be called Only in RI. Before that it was a multifamily house. Previous tenants included In Your Ear, Allston Beat, Pecks Bad Boy (which became Lunasea), a Rollerblade store owned by Nancy Kerrigan, Optical Shop, Mobee’s Music (clothing, and musical equipment), and various other short lived enterprises. Oop was there for five or six years, but left in 2006.

3) Beadworks, a candy bar (formerly Supercuts), and a bagel store (formerly Ronzios): If memory serves Beadworks was Skate-Away, then Black Wolf, which then moved to the rear of the building and became Savage Brothers

4) CVS – Formerly the Thayer Street market, a deli and butcher.

5) Urban Outfitters – this building was put up in 2000. Before Urban Outfitters was built, there was a row of small stores... street level was Taco Maker, a Thai restaurant, a nail salon, and upstairs was a clothing store called Cinderella’s Closet, a comic book place, and Tom’s Tracks was there before they moved down the block to #6,replacing an outdoors-supplies/shoe store. It burned down and remained vacant for at least a year before it was completely razed for this new building.

6) Sushi Express – which used to be Hole in the Wall, the smallest sandwich shop ever – Toms Tracks, Shades Plus, and the Army Navy store. I guess there used to be a toy store called the Merry Go-Round here too.

7) East Side Pockets and Phillips on the ground floor... a For Lease sign where In Your Ear and Lunasea used to be: Before In Your Ear and Lunasea we had a really great vintage clothing shop called Roxy Deluxe which occupied the whole upstairs. They closed around 91 or 92 and moved to Point Street before finally packing up shop entirely and moving to the west coast. I cant remember much about Phillips, but previous tenants of East Side Pockets included O-Cha which is now on Wickenden but was a fast food style setup in this location, and also East Side Weiners which sported some “up da ahm” New York System action and had a signature Race Car they would park out front.

8) Details, the Dunk, Details again, and Spike’s: Details has been there forever, Dunk and Donuts used to have a seating area up some steps in the back of the building, and Spikes was a clothing shop called Palmers that featured, among other things, The worlds biggest pair of Levis.

9) the Gap, where an International House of Pancakes used to be. The Gap tore down an older building for this one, and moved in from where Starbucks is now in photo #23. IHOP closed well 1992, and before that there was a bar called Leguna in its spot. The new tenant is City Sports of Boston

10) The Berks block – Cafe Java (RIP), Berks shoes, Wings to Go, Sovereign Bank, & Maxs Upstairs: Before Max’s it was called Montanas, on the upper left hand side we had Goldies Records and next door was a Futon shop for a while and also a Game/Toy store. Berks has been there as long as I can remember, but before Wings to Go we had a Pizza place and an Indian fast food place.

11) the Johnny Rockets building – new in 2001. The previous building last contained a vintage clothing store Appropos.

12) Kebab’n Curry

13) Esta’s going out of business sign

14) Andrea’s, with the Brown Life Sciences building going up behind it

15) Spectrum Internationals old location, the Avon independent cinema, and Antonio’s Pizza/Gordito Burrito: Antonios/Gordito had a few brief live cafe incarnations, but for a very long time was a Cafe called Peaberry’s. Peaberry’s also had locations in Univeristy Heights and an Annex in what is now the Creperie around the corner from Au Bon Pain.

16) Store 24

17) the Geoffs sandwiches / Smoothie King / Ragtime vintage building: Geoffs was where Smoothie King is and before that it was a franchised Soup/Sandwich place. Next door was a place that sold Silver jewelry and trinkets which then turned into a Maximillians before Geoffs moved over.

18) Tealuxe: Many short lived businesses including a really lousy chain records store. This is another storefront that changed hands many many times.

19 & 20) the former College Hill Bookstore, soon to be Spectrum International (West Indian clothing)

21) construction on Olive street for the Brown Life Sciences center

22) the Brown bookstore and offices
// I am currently missing photos of Paragon, Au Bon Pain, and the convenience store-asian clothing-Foreign Affair-eyeglass store building //
Paragon used to be Spats, there was also a clothing shop and jewelry store in this building. Upstairs was Fast Forward Records (which moved there from the Coffee Exchange location on Wickenden and then moved to Steeple St) and at one point In Your Ear was upstairs as well before they moved to the current Oop Building

23) Starbucks, an Allegra print shop, and Chez Lenore: Star Bucks was the Gap, and upstairs was Yangs (now across the street) and a cool Jazz record shop

Thanks to Daniel Macks, Brown 1992-1996 and Liam Lunchtray for the info on past tenants

History

I’ve been wanting to document Thayer Street for awhile now, especially with all the store fronts changing hands so much recently, but I really wanted to do it early in the morning without any cars on the road. Even at 6 in the morning, though, there are many cars parked out front. And then I thought, wait, silly, what would Thayer be without cars and motorcycles? That’s the craziness that is Thayer!

These pics were taken while strolling up and down and NOT getting any funny looks from people. Thayer has always been a place where kids with mohawks hang out next to moms and their little kids, next to slightly preppy, slightly crunchy Brown students and Harley Davidson dudes... anything goes and not much gets a rise out of the locals.

The mix of businesses has always been great, but lately there is a steady mallification of the selection of shopping on Thayer, and it really bums me out. This was where Andre the Giant has a Posse started, in the back room of the Watershed surf/skate shop(remember the Watershed?). I bought my first punk albums at In Your Ear (I liked them because their logo – a guy with his fingers in his ears – could have been seen in Thrasher magazine for some skateboard company I dont remember). Hell, even now, I actually liked Supercuts, but not even they could afford their new rent. There has been a lot of changes on Thayer, and there always will be, so I dont want to spend too much time lamenting these things, but I do want to try to remember a time when Urban Outfitters, the Gap, and Starbucks did not infest our little homegrown, punkrock shopping center.

Anecdotes

Joseph Francis Aug 9 2008 In 1984, when this building housed Penguins Restaurant, the transparent enclosure did not exist and that area was a place for outdoor seating. Customers used to nurse a fifty cent cup of coffee forever. Not great for tips. Upstairs at that time was a “new wave” clothing store called Screamin’ Mimi’s (unrelated to the New York one) and it was run by a woman named Elaine, if memory serves.

NADIM E KAYALEH Aug 1 2008 I used to love East Side pockets in 1999-2000. Is it still as packed as usual? What about that dive that sold the best hot dogs?? There is alos used to be a very expensive arts/craft store. Can’t remember the name...

Chris June 25 2008 I remember when my friend Todd introduced me to Thayer street in 1985. Steve’s Ice Cream (now Tealuxe) was our destination, but I enjoyed the experience of exploring a whole new world. A few years later I introduced my twin brother to Thayer street. As he stepped out of my car a trio of young women approached us and handed us a red balloon. He couldn’t have been more exhilerated! A few years later I found a job at BeDazzled (upstairs from Berks). It was my ticket in to the “in crowd”... I would hang out on Thayer street after work and meet up with the boys I would meet at the No Name bar. Then, in 1991 when I was an “adult” I was walking Thayer street with my (then) BF, and saw my brother and his (then) GF drive by. At that very moment we were the coolest people on earth! Thanks for the memories!

Joseph Francis May 19 2008 Janeane Garofalo used to come into Penguins. I met my wife while working at Penguins in 1984. She went to RISD and I was a townie. We are happily married today. After the Blizzard of ’78, when the roads were snow covered and still, I walked through the bus tunnel from Thayer St to downtown.

Martini Apr 7 2008 Ahhhh Thayer Street, I’ve been hanging there since the early 90s... Alot has changed... I shopped at Cinderella’s Closet (where urban outfitters is now) Ate at taco maker, sat in the back of Dunkin Donuts and used the Public Restooms, Been to Wendys’ where Via Via 2 is now on Benefit St, Use to sit on the steps where Appropos use to be even though we never new the name of the place. We are also missing pics of the Garment Distrisct (RIP) Bedlams (next to TeaLux) Antonio’s use to be Cafe Lemaire and before that Cafe LeFrance, How about where Nice Slice and Rock Star is now use to be Crash Anime (a comic book store) I could go on and on with this, I’ll check out my archives and see what I can come up with for early 90s pictures.

Alice Gruber-Phinizy Mar 10, 2008 Thayer definitely brings back great memories. I grew up on the East Side during the 90s and spent pretty much all of my waking hours on Thayer. I would skip class at Moses Brown to hang out there, even if it was just to wander around. The first time I ever had Thai food was at Siam Garden – I forget which sidestreet it was on the corner of. I also remember a building with a huge triangle roof (like the roof went all the way down to the ground). I think it was a block or so away from Apropos? I can’t for the life of me remember what was housed in it. It has been great reading everyone’s memories. I too remember the store that used to be near Ben & Jerry’s old location. I remember eating lunch at Ronzio’s all the time. Ah memories... I wish I had more to share!

Jason Simonelli  AAAHHHH!!!! Such fond memories of my hometown city, Yes I remember it well, through the ages attending high school in the early 80’s in a downtown office building at the now defunct Alternate learning project, I was always hanging out in the city. My friends and I used to hang out in the biltmore fire exits and from time to time ride the glass elevator. we would roam through the then decaying about to be closed down train station. Later in the dawn of the 90’s i have pictures of my band standing on the rubble of the demolished train track area. What a great city to have grown up in I consider myself very lucky to be from here.

j  i grew up on the east side so thayer street was a huge part of my formative years. it was always a little funky, but was rich with the fabric of the local community. it was main street usa with a slight twist. i haven’t been back there in a very long time but i can say, it ain’t what it used to be.
   the picture of the cvs makes me sad. that was the location of the old thayer market. a great neighborhood grocery with cashiers and butchers that knew your name and were friends. they were good people who cared about the east side community. they often helped my mom out when we were going through a tough patch by letting her put groceries on account, sometimes just letting it slide knowing she was more than a long time customer but a neighbor trying to feed five kids. bless them for that. i doubt you’ll find that at cvs or anywhere else on thayer anymore. my mom cryed when they closed, as did many an east sider i’m sure.
   there used to be a great toy store, “the merry go round”, upstairs in the store shown in # 6. that’s where every east side kid got his birthday presents from, that or “brodsky’s” but that was in a different part of town entirely.
   down the block just past the dunkin donuts was a great old barber shop, “albarunci’s’ (sp). many a boy had their first, tearful (or maybe that was just me it was the late 60’s after all).
   on the other side of the street upstairs from berk’s was an arcade that copped alot of quarters from the restless youth of the east side. downstairs was a pizza place that had all you could eat spaghetti specials on wednesday. that was the spot for the pre-game meal no matter what the season.
    and as a side note my brother actually once owned and ran “hole in the wall deli” mentioned in #6. long before that, when we were kids it was at one time one of the first “subway” franchises.

Kris  Thayer Street in the 80’s was so cool. The corner of Angel and Thayer where the Paragon entrance used to be a diner called Jake’s , they would be open till 1am.
   My friends and I used to go there after a double feature at the Avon for about $5.00. We would go see Hair, Rock n Roll High School, Tommy. One Friday I did eight hours (3movies) The first movie started at 6pm, Woodstock; the second movie was Monty Python’s Life of Brian; then the midnight show was Quadrophenia. I had to go to Penguins (a great coffee shop across the street where Kabob & Curry is) to get a hot tea before the midnight movie to refuel.
   Also, in front of the Brown Bookstore used to be a wall. “The wall” was a frequent hangout for us after school.
   The International House of Pancakes was a hangout for two of my high school friends who drank eight pots of “bottomelss coffee” one evening. Those were the days!

Bob Walsh  My wife and I just recently went down Thayer Street for the first time in 15 years. As we were reminiscing, we were debating where Steve’s ice cream was. Can you help use? I think it was at Tealuxe across from Spats and she thinks it was a block up the street. Please help! Thanks in advance.

keven blanchette  Just wanted to let you know that Nick Cardi and I opened a space for local artists at #7, upstairs, where In Your Ear and Lunasea was. We offer yoga, massage, acting classes, music lessons, gallery space and seminar/meeting space for local artists. This area is the closest thing Providence has to The Village, and it is in danger of getting overrun by chains, which is a shame when there is this kind of history behind it.

Alyssa  I’m a freshman college student at URI that grew up in RI... I learned about Thayer St. my junior year of high school. I wish I’d been there back in the 90’s, because the descriptions of the stores above sound so much better than what it is now. It’s still an awesome place, but indeed, it has started to be infiltrated by the Abercrombie crowd. I think a lot of the problem is that while they have the unlimited gas money to go there, the crowd that belongs there (including artists like myself and a lot of my friends) don’t live in the vicinity (I’m about 35 minutes away) and I don’t have the funds to get there.

Gemma  I am smiling with nostalgia as I read everyone’s recollections of Thayer Street, remembering the “good old days” of the 1990s! Can we rewind, like, almost thirty years? It was 1968 and I lived at 373 Thayer, right at the beginning, where it breaks off from Hope Street. It was one of many apartments I would have on the East Side, but because it was my first, it holds great memories. There were four of us living there, in a wild apartment, in wild times. At the risk of coming off like a relic, I will give you an idea of how long ago it all was. One of our roommates would gather up his favorite albums and walk down to Brown, where he would do his radio show from a little campus station called WBRU. Want an idea of how small the station was? We couldn’t hear it on the radio waaaay up on the other side of Thayer – it was for campus listeners only! Another great Thayer memory? We left for a concert in upstate New York from our apartment on Thayer, all packed into a VW camper. My 16-year-old sister was visiting me from Florida and she came along. Little did we know that the concert would turn out to be Woodstock. Laugh. Out. Loud. When we pulled back into our little driveway on Thayer, we had all been changed forever. Thayer Street in those days was amazing. No GAP, no Ben&Jerry’s, no glossy chain retailers. It was the real deal, boys and girls. But you know what? Thayer Street – and our lives – will always be a changing work of art. Someday, you will tell your story like I’m telling mine. Ob-la-di...ob-la-da...

Dean Kemph  I saw Thayer Street recently and was woefully disappointed. I’ve been in New York since 1980, but always checked out the street on returns to visit family. I enjoyed it through the ‘90’s, but it’s history of cool goes way back before that. It was a big deal to sneak off campus for both my older brother and me when we went to Moses Brown and “hit” Thayer Street, the closest thing that Providence had to Greenwich Village. I’m talking about 1968-1973. I think the Avon might be the only thing left from those days.

karen  before they put up that building that now houses city sports (i think?) it was an open lot with outside seating for some bar or cafe and that corner had THE ONLY PHONE ON THAYER STREET. this was about 1990. i’m still sad they put up that building.
   thank you for this… i forgot about allston beat!! and the watershed!!! and i LOVED going through all the vintage clothing stores on the second floors, the 4 different record/tape stores (remember the one above berk’s?) the army navy store, the different bead places, the only place to get chinese slippers (they were all the rage in 1988), when ben & jerry’s was next door to where it is now, and they had the porch out the back door where there was almost always someone i knew.
   thayer street helped define us as “alternative kids” in the early 90’s. i want to throw up now when i’m there.

Jessica Beagan  As restless teenagers from outside Providence, we ran to Thayer every chance we could. We were trying to escape the very culture that has, in recent years, made into a commodity what was homegrown and unique on the East Side, or demolished it entirely.
   I won’t wax nostalgic about all the things we did on Thayer, and how important it was for us to have that place to go. The person I was on Thayer Street 12 years ago would hate me for doing that. Instead, I will say that the passing of time never seems so vivid as when you visit the landscapes of a time that’s past, of a time you’ve left, and you see that it too has changed. And done so without you.
   Thank you for preserving those changes here on this site. Thayer Street in the 90’s was a stage whereupon so many of us acted out the dramas of lives in that time, and served as a staging ground for where we’ve ended up (even if we’ve never left, or never looked back). For that, it’s worth preserving both in our own minds, AND in our collective memories on this site. This is important.

Ben Garber  The cultural significance of Thayer St. to several generations of Providence youth is astounding. You’d wake up on a Saturday morning, say “Ma, I’m going to Thayer st,” walk or take the bus, and walk around to see who was around. Inevitably you’d run into some people you knew, along with some no ones from else where in the state, and by night time, if you weren’t still loitering on the corner, you were off on some adventure somewhere else. But its where it all formulated, and fit in perfectly with American 1990s culture, and the rise of grunge/punk/indie music, shops, etc… Its where you went after school, its where you hung out when you didn’t want to be at home and had nothing to do. Its where you’d use the pay-phones and say “meet me in front of Store 17.” It was exactly what an angst ridden 90s teen wanted. In the 80s, it had seen the rise of that very culture, until it exploded, and then they built a mall downtown. I guess thats where the kids these days hang out, and that sucks. Thayer st. has been completely revised since the millennium, and its sad to watch how quickly they’ve killed a place that played such an important role in a lot of kids growing up. As an adult, I still head there everyday when ever I am in Providence. Its automatic. But its a business district. You can go and get a good lunch, and find a minimum wage job there. The culture is pretty null these dulls, but I figure as an adult on a Wednesday morning, its always seemed pretty much the same. Still, the run off from the mall is disheartening.

Adam Hutchins  I agree with the above anecdote and historical recollection of Thayer Street and it’s changing façade. I’m not a fan of what has become of Thayer. My first recollection of Thayer Street is vivid and it was in the Spring of 1994. The feeling beckons back to the Grunge period in music and a far less mainstream influence in fashions. The crowd was motley but hip. It was an atmosphere where people could identify with music, art, and undisputed cool culture. The few times I have strolled up and down Thayer Street, recently, I have noticed more Abercrombie Zombies milling about. They’ve migrated from the suburban malls and staked their claim on the once sacred grounds of the punk rockers, artists, hipsters, and innovative free-thinkers. I embrace change and transition, but not of this kind. I have a feeling it’ll never be the same.

feather marle  to me, it will always remind me of 1998… the year i changed from a shy school grrl to a wyld wytche who roamed thayer at all hours and where i realized i was a lesbian… my then g/f and i were known as the “crate girls” cuz we would grab a milk crate from Store 17 (which is only actually open 17 hrs) and wick up or purchase random things along the street…

we also conducted a “study” to see if it was true that if people see someone looking they will look to and to see how strong the power of suggestion really is… we stood outside near Berk’s and stared across the street at the flat roofs and whispered and pointed to one another. 117 people stopped to look in 20 minutes. Of those, 93 asked what we were looking at… we replied that there was a naked man running around the roofs… of the 93, 74 claimed to see him and when we left the area, 14 people remained still “watching” the naked man on the roofs!

often times i still miss those days b4 i had to be a “responsible” adult and was able to roam Thayer til 4-5am and knew the cops that patrolled the area by name. Some of the happiest times of my life were spent there… when apropos was demolished i remember feeling a sense of loss cuz my then g/f and i would sit on the stairs late at night and right “redrum” on them w/red chalk or scrawl “malibu” (Hole’s song off of Celebrity Skin) across the wall w/yellow chalk… it is a place that can never be replicated and a place laden with memories.

Add your Anecdotes

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