Four Points revisited

The lot on E. 152nd where Four Points used to be. 

If you're going to try and tell a story, let alone putting one to print, it's never good just to get it half right. I initially took up researching the provenance, and eventually writing an article about the Four Points Tavern last month because another person had written an incomplete story. Now I find myself guilty of same. 

The other day after visiting a friend in the village, I popped into Mirabile's on Ivanhoe for a quick drink. While nursing my vodka and tonic I overheard the bartender, Mark Mirabile, and a patron discussing the article I had written. After I introduced
myself, they let me know that though Four Points had closed when I said it had in my article, it's history as a tavern wasn't quite finished.

I took what they had told me and confirmed the dates back at the library. I can now tell you that Four Points became the Nashville East Tavern around 1983. It was operated by Ted Maski who was a musician that played country music. It ran till about 1990 then it became the Eighteen Karat Lounge. That lasted till around 1993.

Then last Friday I stopped by the Slovenian Workman's Home on Waterloo for their weekly fish fry. While catching Vida Zak, who grew up on East 155th, between darting from table to table with plates of walleye and fried shrimp, I asked her if she remembered the Four Point's Tavern. She smiled and laughed "Yeah, I saw the article in the paper, but he got it all wrong. It was called Polc's Tavern". This must then have been prior to 1950.

I then thought I should give Reader's Heating and Roofing a call since they have been a long time family business in the
neighborhood and they are just down from tavern.

Stuart Reader said that when he was a child his grandfather would take him there for fish frys. He added that later owner George Harris was a railroaderfrom Buffalo who's girlfriend ran it and he just would pop in while passing through. Stuart also noted that it was a fairly rowdy place when it became Nashville East.

So if nothing else, I've found when researching local history, the library can only get you so far. With so much not documented, you really have to get out and speak with those who lived the history or to whom the stories were passed down.

Many thanks to the folks at Mirabile's, the Slovenian Workman's Home, and Reader's Heating & Roofing. The next time I attempt to write another article regarding the history of the neighborhood, I'll have to plan to stop back in for another drink and or a plate of walleye while confirming my facts beforehand.

The Collinwood Observer is looking for pictures of the Four Points Tavern in any and all of its incarnations.  Do you have pictures or stories about time spent there?  Please submit them to our website: www.collinwoodobserver.com, click on Member Center, sign in, and click on Submit, under "Writer" or mail them or bring them to the Collinwood Observer office at 650 E. 185th St.