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St. Helena Restaurant - Cafe
Sommers Dining Room - Hairdresser
83 Union St. Boarding House
Bethel and Union Streets - New Bedford, Ma.

1800's photo (below) of the St. Helena Restaurant - Cafe - 83 Union St cor. Bethel. (Johnny Cake Hill)
Downstairs on the corner of the men's boarding house of the time.
The boarders were laborers and plumbers and tradesmen for the most part.

A bit of research shows that in 1887 the boarding house and restaurant was owned or managed by Henry Dutheridge, in 1892 It was managed or owned by William Carter and he lived at 30 Walnut St.
Iin 1897 it was owned or managed by Frank Sommers.
The name was changed to "Sommers Dining Room".
In 1906 the dinging room was was owned or managed by Emily Martin
in 1911 and at least until1914 by R. R. Sylvester who lived at 169 Emerson St..

In 1917 the restaurant section operated as a "Men's Hairdressor" or a barbershop by Manual C Souza who lived at 173 Cedar St. .
I suggest that you do open up an enlargement to see some really interesting details.
Most of the east side of Bethel street was demolished in 1916 to build the Whaling Museum.

The sign above the door advertises "Best 15¢ Dinner".
It would be great to be able to read the rest. The sign on the Bethel St. side reads "St Helena Cafe".

The fountain in the street is a really nice touch. I was told that horses would drink from there.

On the brick wall of the restaurant just near the second step it can be seen that at one time the brick wall was altered and filled in with more brick to bring the wall closer toward the front of the building.
It may have been a door at one time.

The low spot at the bottom of the stairs had to be a problem with rain or melted snow in the winter as it is lower than the side walk near it and the wooden door or window would have been a problem with the water..
The stairs coming into the buildings at a side angle right off of the sidewalk are similar to those on many Nantucket homes in the thickly populated center of that town.

The British burned much of the city on Sept. 5, 1778 so this might well be built or rebuilt after that.
It looks to be quite old at the time of the photo.

On the far left can be seen a telephone pole with wires. Telephones were put in New Bedford starting in 1879 - 1880. This photo was taken after that date. In 1886 the Edison Illuminating Company brought electric light and power.

The whole area is now demolished and up the Hill on the right we now find the Whaling Museum.
The bottom of the hill where the restaurant was is now a small park.

Just up the hill on the left and out of view is the Seamen's Bethel, a chapel completed on May 2, 1832.
enlargements below

Here you can view and download different file sizes of the photo. The bigger the numbers the more detail.
200 DPI - 1.35MB	300 DPI - 2.72MB	600 DPI - 9.15MB	1200 DPI - 32.6MB

Below is the Sommer Dining Room photo taken around 1900

Below you can see the original map the same corner lot location was owned by Seth Russell in 1765

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St. Helena Restaurant - Cafe Sommers Dining Room - Hairdresser 83 Union St. Boarding House Bethel and Union Streets - New Bedford, Ma.

St. Helena Restaurant - Cafe
Sommers Dining Room - Hairdresser
83 Union St. Boarding House
Bethel and Union Streets - New Bedford, Ma.