09-01-2005
( Reply#: 69 ) |
m10bob |
When you passed Cleveland street, you were 1 block from Jean's house,(and Emde's folly and the Bruner/Bumpus house as well).
You also passed right by the original Tap, which is still standing..[:)]
In Hoc Agricula Conc
In Est Spittle Louk |
10-22-2005
( Reply#: 144 ) |
Bill Bucko |
Hello, For more info on the original Flick's tap, please see my 3 Guestbook posts. I grew up in that neighborhood. I haven't been back in Hammond in many years, but my research on the net has established that the site of the original Flick's is now a steakhouse. For details, please see my Guestbook comments. |
10-22-2005
( Reply#: 147 ) |
Bill Bucko |
Hurray! I see Mr Clavin has corrected his info on Flick's original location! [See my Guestbook comments.] Thanks! |
11-26-2005
( Reply#: 212 ) |
Bill Bucko |
Final correction: the TRUE original site of Flick's Tap positively identified!
I have an embarrassing correction to make.
Ever since I first read Shepherd's stories around 1968 (a couple of years after leaving Hammond), I've been convinced that Flick's tap was across the street from Dick's Grocery. But recently, after making a map of Kennedy Avenue (as it was during the 1950s and 60s), I found myself oddly wondering about a place I felt sure I had left out: Toomey's Tavern. Hadn't thought about it in decades, but was sure I had seen it often. Just couldn't place it.
I read Mark Kiesling's article about Flick's (following the link at this site), and e-mailed him, disputing what he said about Flick's original location. He sent me a very courteous reply filled with such a wealth of information from old City Directories, that I could do nothing but concede he was right. And Mr Clavin was right, originally (before he updated his site in response to my well-intentioned, but mistaken, message of last August.) I apologize to him.
It must be that after leaving Hammond my mind confused the two oddly-named taps, Toomey's and Flick's, associating the one I saw the most (right across the street from Dick's) with the out-of-my-way tavern on the corner that I was reading about. (We parked in Dick's parking lot, to the north of the building, and rarely had occasion to walk all the way to the corner.)
At least, on the upside, I did locate 2 much better photos of the building, at:
http://huea.net/FrontEnd/BuildingDetails.php?bldID=16
In the photos you are looking at the northeast corner of Kennedy and 165th. Kennedy Avenue is to the left; 165th is to the right.
Don't know if the photos are copyrighted; but maybe Mr Clavin can use them.
The Tudor-style panels have been cleaned up--the whole facade looked dark and dingy, all through the 50s and 60s; but otherwise the building looks nearly as it did back then. (Mr Kiesling calls it the Turner-Meyn Building.) Dick's Grocery occupied the entire middle of the ground floor, stretching from the entrance on Kennedy Avenue, all the way to the alley in back. Flick's Tap (I now admit) occupied the corner. I almost never saw anyone go in or out (probably because my family shopped at Dick's mostly on Sundays). It, too, was dark and dingy ... It looks like they boarded up the window to the left of Flick's door. There was also no white sign above the door; instead, there was Flick's name on a small neon sign in the window, that I almost never saw lit.
==================================
Info from Mark Kiesling:
Flick's WAS originally at the northeast corner of 165th and Kennedy during the late 1930s and early 1940s when Jean Shepherd lived at 2905 Cleveland. A check of a contemporary Hammond city directory (1941) shows Flick's Tap at 6449 Kennedy Ave., which is the northeast corner of the intersection of 165th and Kennedy. It was owned by Noble Flickinger, who lived at 3024 Cleveland, just down the block from Shepherd.
Freddy's Steak House, which opened in 1962 and was previously known as Toomey's Tavern, is located at 6442 Kennedy Ave., on the northwest corner. There was previously a used car lot for Smith Chevrolet on the corner.
Flick's eventually moved to 6205 Kennedy, its present location, and was owned by Jack N. Flickinger, who lived at 3016 Cleveland. Dick's grocery, owned by Fred G. Dick, was located in the Turner-Meyn Building at 6445 Kennedy Ave., which would have been on the same side of the street as Flick's but immediately north. The grocery existed at the same time as Flick's in the corner building on the NE side (1961 Hammond city directory). By 1971, the building that housed Flick's had become a tax office.
===========================================
Again, I'm sorry for the mistaken information I gave earlier.
Bill Bucko
Warren G. Harding Class of '63 |
12-06-2005
( Reply#: 220 ) |
Bill Bucko |
On this site's Hammond page > Flick's Tap page, I see Mr Clavin has restored the TRUE original location, i.e. 6449 Kennedy Avenue. Again, I apologize for the incorrect information I gave earlier.
On the Hammond page, I just saw the satellite photo of the neighborhood! Never noticed it before, it must be new.
Mr Clavin has everything on that photo labelled exactly right. Though please note, the bowling alley (Kenwood Lanes) dates from the early 50s or late 40s. (I lived a block and a half west, on Kenwood Street, just off the left edge of the photo.) But it's quite possible this alley was built on the site of the earlier alley where Shep worked as a pinboy. In the 50s and 60s there was nothing else in the area that looked as though it might once have been a bowling alley.
Note the park, to the north and west of Shep's house. I've never heard him mention it. Its official name is Gibson Park, but in the 50s we called it Lost Park.
UGH, the green area two blocks east of Shep's house is where the 1-story wooden Harding portable USED to stand, in the 50s and 60s. (The building that Shep attended.) I knew it was too much to hope that it might still be standing. Though the blacktop and woods seem to be still there. People said the portable originally stood where the brick Harding stands now, on Parrish and 165th. The brick Harding, as you can see, is currently U shaped. The earliest wing, built around 1950, is the left side of the U. As a kid I saw them build the bottom of the U, in 1957. Damfino when they built the right side of the U, it was after my time. (Pardon my French.)
Bill
Warren G. Harding Class of '63 |
12-06-2005
( Reply#: 221 ) |
Bill Bucko |
OOPS, the park is north and EAST of Shep's house. 1 block east and 2 blocks north, on Kenwood Stree, between California Ave. and Delaware Ave.
Warren G. Harding Class of '63 |
12-30-2005
( Reply#: 248 ) |
momcat2000 |
i remember going past flick's tap on the way to my aunt's house. i remember it being on the corner of 165th and kennedy. my cousins went to harding, anyone know the gollners? |
01-20-2006
( Reply#: 288 ) |
wvcogs |
quote:
Originally posted by momcat2000
my cousins went to harding, anyone know the gollners?
The only Gollner I knew was Bob who taught and coached at Morton. Is that the one you meant?
Former Hessvillite
Morton Graduate 1960 |
01-21-2006
( Reply#: 303 ) |
momcat2000 |
yes, that was my uncle bob, coached football and wrestling, died in 1973 |
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