Goodbye, Faces (hello, Davis Square crime)

I had the misfortune of being referred to the Cambridge Gateway last weekend for 3 long nights….They should tear that place down along with Faces. Faces became the joke of our trip. We went and looked in one of the windows where paint had chipped off enough that we could see in a hallway. It still had some sort of cheesy wallpaper and red carpet. There were pylons, garbage and old power tools littering the inside. We asked every cab driver that brought us back to the hotel about Faces. We received a different answer each time. One guy said it closed in the 60′s. One said the 70′s. One told us he moved here in 89 and that’s when it closed. They all told us it was quite the happening place. When we inquired why it wasn’t tore down, we were told there were people fighting over who owned it. There was some sort of green mildew-y stuff on the outside walls by the roof and it was actually eating away the concrete.
By the way, if you’re ever in the Arlington area, don’t stay at the Cambridge Gateway. It’s gross. Our room had carpet burns everywhere, the bathroom was gross and there were families living there. One cabby we had told us it was a “flophouse”. We’ll have to look into our accomodations a little better next time. Yuk.

does anyone know what exactly it used to be? I’ve seen some speculation and the first post mentioned it was nightclub at some point? I’d love to know what it was before it was closed and began decomposing…

Back in the seventies and early eighties Faces was one of the premier dance clubs in the Boston area. I started hanging out there on friday nights in about 84 but by 87 they started having problems with their liquor permits due to underage drinking. They had started running under twenty nights on sundays in 85 or 86 but when that started spilling over into 20+ nights they got in trouble. They had some limited success after that as an under 20 club but that was eventually undermined by gang fights. There was a brief rebirth as a regular nightclub in the early nineties but it never regained the popularity of earlier times and eventually closed for good.

In 1984, the year I turned twenty, there were three or four clubs that you had to go to. One was Faces then there was the Metro on Lansdowne Street, Narcissus in Kenmore square and The Palace in Saugus. The second tier was 9 Lansdowne, Aquarius in Quincy and the Paradise in Allston.

I never understood why Faces could not make a comeback. When you consider it’s large parking area, that Meadow on the Belmont side of the building was all Gravel parking spaces, and it’s proximity to major highways and the T you would think that you could make a go of it. The Martinetti’s owned the club back in the day and when it was open it seemed like they had invested some money in it. It had four separate dance floors separated by a few steps, three smaller floors in “wells” and one central floor. There were at least three bars in the place as well. Music videos were big then and Faces had three screens that dropped out of the ceiling with projection systems to show videos with the song they were playing. I remember some time around 85 it was closed for six months for remodeling and was even hotter when it reopened.

I’m guessing part of it is that the Martinetti’s are probably at least in their 60′s now and perhaps older. If so they probably don’t have the energy or the interest in reopening in addition to the fact that the last time I was down that way the building looked structurally unsound. The family also owns (I think) Martinetti’s Liquors which at least was a pretty successful outfit.

All I know is that Luigi and I had a blast going there back when we were two youts but now we are just two forty somethings with wives, mortgages and 6 kids between us. In fact my oldest would be old enough to get in Faces if it were still open.

By the way, the red tile roof on the side was the entrance to The Forbidden City Chinese Restaurant. There was also a bar in the front right corner called Kings Pub. In the early seventies Faces was the original Aku Aku Polynesian restaurant. They had a huge fire and moved from there to where Jasper Whites Summer Shack is (was? I don’t get to Cambridge much anymore) When the building was rebuilt it became Faces. My guess is that was 1971 or 72 because my brother was home from Vietnam and drove me over to watch the fire.

Faces was a great club, back in the late 70′s early 80′s

wish it could have made a comeback.

Faces has always fascinated me. I asked my cousin who is almost 40 what it was like, she always was there in the 80s ripping it up on the weekends, and she and her friends would all pile in one car bomb out from Everett and dance. She told me that it was a shame it shut down, she was a regular there, as well as Lanes and Games, so she knows both Tony and Joe. Joe can still be found at the bowling alley, I happened to notice him tonight while there shooting the breeze with some league players, and yes they do own Martinetti liquors as well…I just wish Faces would either come back, or get turned into something else…I drive by there on my way to work in Medford every morning and it fascinates me ever darn day!!

It’s sad, as old, cheesy and decrepit as it was, it was a time capsule. I would have loved to visit it (and heck, even make an offer on the property). Where else can you almost literally step-back in time??

I started going to faces when it opened. Thursday’s had the dance contests and the place would be packed with the best dancers in Boston.

The place was a little out of the way, being in Boston and being able to go from club to club, was a better choice. The owners, especially Danny, took pleasure in beating up on the patrons. One time they beat up the wrong person. The place closed and the lawsuits and liens made it impossible to sell the building.