The Peoples' Restaurant

Yesterday I happened by 1514 Blake Street, and learned via a plaque there that the very same building was the longtime site of Barney Ford's People's Restaurant (and a barber shop in the basement). Other than seeing the ads in the Racist Mountain News I don't know too much about Ford or his restaurant, but I know he was an escaped slave, and that the restaurant was a popular institution. The modest building has been standing since 1863. The original structure was destroyed in the "great fire."

The second selection shows that Ford's restaurant passed to Riethmann for a time. Later ads imply it's back in Ford's hands.

I'll post some more about Ford in coming days. In the meantime, go check out 1514 Blake and the surrounding block of old buildings to get a sense what this bustling little business center was like 150 years ago. The India House restaurant is the current occupant, so you can even get some sense of what it was like to eat here. Just imagine hoof-clomping wagons instead of cars, and boots stomping on the boardwalk. And gunfire.



[RMN, September 4, 1863, p. 3.]


[RMN, June 1, 1866, p. 1.]