Up to the mid 60's, students at Allen High could leave the building for lunch. Scattered in alleys around the the school, garages had been converted into lunch shops and hangouts. The Hutch was in the alley between 17th and West Streets, in the unit block between Hamilton and Linden. Suzy's was behind the Nurse's Dormitory, between Chew and Turner. Another was across Linden from the Annex. They all had the same basic decor, a few pinball machines, a few tables and a small lunch counter. Most of the business was during lunch period, and before and after school. It's my understanding that occasionally a kid or two would skip school and hangout all day. Today these garages, turned into luncheonettes, have long ago reverted back to garages. Most of the current residents of West Park probably don't even know about this commercial history right behind their houses. I missed photo day at Allen for my yearbook, but if anybody has a picture of the gang from the Hutch, I'd appreciate a copy.
Reprinted from Sept. 24, 2008
In more recent years the students can leave school just about anytime they want and hang out in nearby alleys, in West Park, and on front porches that aren't theirs. No doubt some swell times and fond memories result from these opportunities to escape to the confines of classrooms and related scholastic activities. Of course their aren't any official student related neighborhood businesses such as you had back in the sixties but clearly entrepreneurship is common place among the students and non students drawn to the neighborhood to engage in trade with the students. Lots of fun is also found with the road show races that routinely happen on nearby streets. Clearly this is all really cool because no one in authority sees all this as a problem. In fact, it seems to be encouraged by the anything goes policy of the school district, and city leaders.
ReplyDeleteWhen the lunch staff at Allen went on strike,we went to the Ritz.
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