Lost Charlottesville: W.W. O’Toole’s
by Hawes Spencer
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Here’s another “Lost Charlottesville” dispatch, and this time it’s W.W. O’Toole’s. Located at 333 W. Main Street, this place was Bull Alley when I got here in 1989, then W.W. O’Tooles, then Mingles (the town’s first Karaoke bar), then Awful Arthur’s, and now West Main. While taking a break from beer-fueled Mingles’ singing, I purchased this hand-carved, gilt-covered sign from a certain Inauguration-happy Mingles manager and Kool Kat named Ray for $100. Flash forward to last August, and the sign’s collecting dust, so I sold it at the Consignment House for $160. That brought me a check for $96, so it only cost me $4 to enjoy it all these years.
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So, Hawes, was this the old Inge’s Grocery? It’s an historic building, one of the last of the old Vinegar Hill neighborhood. Vinegar Hill was an Irish until the late 19th century, when several black families began to acquire property through a really interesting association of black investors (ask Scot French in the history department at U. Va.).
I’m curious about the O’Toole’s moniker. There was an Irish protrait artist named Toole (sometimes “O’Toole”) connected with the Vinegar Hill neighborhood. Vinegar Hill was, of course, named after the Battle of Vinegar Hill in Ulster back in the late 18th century, and there were several Irish refugees, mostly United Irish republican nationalists who saw Jefferson as a hero, who landed in Charlottesville. The Emmets (think Emmet Street) were famous United Irish revolutionaries and martyrs.
What do you know about “W.W. O’Toole?”?
Boy this is important news.
Thanks Douglas, I for one love learning local history. Does anyone know if Ray and the Kool Kats are one and the same band that played at Little Richard’s on 29 South way back when ?
I don’t know a thing except that this restaurant/pub opened some time around December 1989 and closed in less than a year. (Sorry if the other person is bored; that’s why I stick these little “Lost Charlottesville” dispatches in our “Asides” column.)–Hawes Spencer, Hook editor
Don’t have any info to add, but must say that I’m certainly enjoying the comically skeptical expression on O’Toole’s golden face. Must be fun having that sign hanging around!
Ray and the Cool Cats play here, there, and in Vegas, and will play for the Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic “Black, White, and Read All Over” Ball on 30 January 2009. Dancing at the new Boar’s Head Pavillion with benefit for students who need recorded textbooks for “Learning thur Listening”.
rfbd.org
Ya’ll come!
Douglas,
The building was the location of Inge’s Store: http://www.charlottesville.org/Index.aspx?page=1985
Here is a little bit of history:
Mr. Inge joined with Charlottesville Republicans in fighting the demolition of the Vinegar Hill neighborhood. He even paid for radio ads out of his own pocket. The demolition supporters, led by Francis Fife and with the support of the managing editor of the Daily Progress, Lindsay Mount, won and the referendum passed by about 30 votes. Unlike Mr. Inge, most of the African-American leaders in Charlottesville supported the demolition.
Cordially,
Kevin Cox