COBBLESTONES

The Yorick Gentlemen's Club, which was founded in 1882, purchased the property in 1901 after a fire forced them to move from the Mansur building on Central Street. They took over the building on July. At this time they hired nationally renowned architect, Frederick Stickney, who had studied at the then Institute of Technology in Boston, for a series of major renovations. Stickney was praised for his introduction of, ", many original features which admirably serve to vary the dull monotony of the old-fashioned brownstone fronts." All in all, the purchase and renovation cost around $60, 000, which by today's standards is more than 1.5 million dollars.

The private gentlemen's club occupied this space for the next 78 years. After opening, ", the club was noted for its fine food and luxurious interior" including a private dining room, library and billiards hall. The fine style and decor still holds true today. Rumors of the speakeasy and secret passages behind the walls still circulate among the staff and regular customers, as service bells, wainscoting and a secret stairwell can all be found in the depths of the cellar labyrinth. We may never know where the "doorbell" in the lobby leads, but it makes for a darned good story.

After more than a century, the original structure was one of only a small number of "tenements" constructed by the Merrimack Manufacturing Company still in existence. The special architectural treatment the Yorick Building had received both upon initial construction in the mid 19th century and later renovations at the beginning of the 20th century, "set the three-story structure apart from its simpler neighbors, " and saved it from urban renewal in the late 1960s. The now storied Yorick Building was converted to restaurant space in 1978 and housed a number of different concepts including Oliver's Restaurant and later The Dutton Street Grille, until it was purchased by Scott and Kathy Plath in 1994 and reinvented as COBBLESTONES Restaurant and …