Four Points West? Collinwood bar has a new home
I've always enjoyed reading the different local papers to keep up with changes in town, especially when it comes to restaurant
reviews. So I was very interested upon reading about chef Marlin Kaplan's latest incarnation, Luxe, in the Detroit-Shoreway
neighborhood.
In the article it mentions how he tried to incorporate local recycled elements in the space, such as the dining chairs which were from the venerable New York Spaghetti House from Downtown Cleveland, and a bar and backbar which were salvaged from an old tavern in Collinwood that was soon to be demolished. The article failed to mention the name of this former tavern nor where it was located in Collinwood.
A month or two ago I was passing through the West 65 & Detroit area and decided to stop in and see what I could find out. It
was a busy night and the 57-year-old native New Yorker was working the room. When he stopped by my seat at the bar, I
asked him what, if anything, he knew of its former home. He didn't really know much about its history, but he did tell
me that the building that it came from was formerly at the southwest corner of East 152nd and Saranac. I remember passing
the whitewashed block structure just south of the Collinwood Railroad Yards many times prior to its demolition in 2008, but
it had seemed long shuttered, at least in the six years since I moved to the neighborhood.
After asking a few long-time resident friends, I learned that it was called Four Points Tavern. Subsequent visits to the library
revealed that the structure was originally referred to as the Wilke Block. It had changed hands many times through its history. Prior and during the First World War, it was owned and operated as a saloon by Henry Bauer. With the implementation of Prohibition, it became a restaurant operated in the later twenties by George Fisher. After Prohibition and throughout the Depression it was operated by Vincent Piscioneri. During and after the Second World War it was run by John Poll. In the fifties it is referenced as the Four Points Tavern, run first by Jack Skryanc, then Louis Izanic and later Herbert Skall. Through the sixties it was owned Mary Gottwig. For a period in the early seventies it was run by Ralph and Ann Bush, then for the rest of the decade it was operated by George Harris till it closed in the early 1980's.
So even though another local Collinwood haunt is lost to the wrecking ball, at least a part of it still survives to serve up
libations to new generations of Clevelanders--only now it resides at 6605 Detroit Avenue.