Toscano Cafe

by Huck

Today

This is a drawing I made of the current Toscano building. I based it off a picture I took from the sidewalk that goes to TD bank. I thought that it was a nice picture that captured the interesting architecture of this building.

Where is Toscano?

Toscano is located at 27 Bridge Street. It is in between the parking lot next to Green Sea and TD Bank, standing out as a little piece of history surrounded by all of the modern advancements.

Vacancy of Toscano

Currently, in 2018, the Toscano building is vacant. It has an interesting appearance, and can make passersby wonder about what this building is and was. The building, even though it's not in use, makes Richmond look more unique, also it gives the town a bit of history that they can talk about and learn about. John and Lucy Fath still own the restaurant, and rent it out to business people for offices. It is good news that the building is still being used and appreciated by the town of Richmond, and hopefully it stands for 100 years more.

1900-1920

The Movie Theater

From 1900 to 1920 there was a silent movie theater where Tuscano is currently. The Richmond Theater got a lot of business because just recently the railroad had been built and tourists were coming in from all over. The movie theater was a very nice place for the tourists to stop in to watch one of the silent movies. If you were to stop in at the time, you would find that the movies were all silent, so to make them more exciting someone would play the piano. You might notice that all of the seats were metal folding chairs and that they had a projection room on the side towards Bridge Street. To get up to it there was a steel ladder. If you had the chance you might meet the man that ran the projector. His name was Jim Gannon.¹

This was an advertisement for the Richmond Theater.

1920-1950

E.E. Fish's Hardware Store

After the silent movie theater there was a store called E.E. Fish’s Hardware. This place was run by Elton and Ernest Fish. This hardware store was unlike the ones you see today. They didn’t only sell hammers and saws and other things. They also sold oil stoves, refrigerators, ice cream freezers, and harnesses for horses.² E.E. Fish's Hardware store was open during the great depression. People couldn't afford to buy new houses and other things, so instead they would fix them. To fix them they might need supplies from the hardware store. Also the railroad had recently been built through Richmond which brought in many tourists but even more importantly, business owners. The population increased from 1,057 in 1900 to 1, 440 in 1920. And the more people living in Richmond, the more houses were being built. Which means the hardware store was getting a lot of business for all the household things like stoves and refrigerators and for building materials like boards and nails. One of the known workers there was named George Thompson. He was a wood cutter and cut boards and planks for house building and repairs.

Another fact about E.E. Fish's Hardware, is that both of the Fish brothers served as state representatives. Elton Fish served from 1937-1938. And Ernest Fish served from 1921-1922.²

This was an advertisement in the Newspaper about Fish's Hardware store. If you look closely it shows what you might be able to find there.

The Livery Stable

The livery stable was next to where Toscano is now. It was said that the livery stable and the Toscano building were not more than two feet apart. The livery stable was run by the Currier family, Mr. Fred and Mrs. Mert Currier.¹ Mert owned a Ford car. This was a rare occurrence because she was the only person in Richmond who had one, and to some people it was especially surprising that she was a woman.⁵ She used to run a taxi from Burlington to Richmond to bring in tourists who wanted to stay in the hotels and visit places. Richmond was a nice tourist destination because of the train that went in and out. Her taxi was the main way from Richmond to Burlington. There was a rumor that Mert used to smuggle alcohol back and forth between Richmond and Burlington because at the time it was prohibited.¹ After the livery stable there was a fire station in that location. The town had voted in 1942 to build it. It was made to cover the fire trucks which had previously been down by the graveyard. Unfortunately in 1969 snow made the fire station's roof collapse.²

This is Mert Currier at the livery stable.

1943-1957

The Shirt Factory

After the hardware store, there was a shirt factory. In 1943, the Richmond Shirt Factory was formed. Ironically, they mainly made dresses even though they were a shirt factory. The factory had nine different sewing machines that all ran on one belt. This belt lead to their power source. Though the shirt factory was not only used for making clothes, at one point there was a holiday sale at the shirt factory. Many people in the town would gather here and look at the work of the artists who would display their work. Two of the many people who worked there were Mrs. Charland (Theresa Charland Stockwell) and Mrs. Harvey. They were seamstresses. All of the seamstresses worked in one big room and they mainly made dresses for young girls. The dresses made there were sold locally to the other people in Richmond, but they were also shipped out to other places to be sold too. Mrs. Charland still thinks that people might be able to find some of the old sewing machines down in the basement of Toscano.

1979- 2003

The Daily Bread Bakery

Jeb and Judy Bush and Betsy Bott

Jeb and Judy were the co owners with Betsy Bott of the Daily Bread Bakery. They first met when there was a holiday sale on December 1976. Judy was an artist who made pottery and wood cuts who was selling her wares there. Betsy was a baker. They began renting the Toscano building to be bakery in January 1979. Unfortunately they had to do a lot of renovations to the building because they couldn't open it for business yet because they had to do a lot of construction to get it up to the health code requirement. Jeb had thought the bakery could be called Daily Bread, and the name caught on. Many of the things in the bakery such as cooling racks, shelf brackets, table bases, and other things he had made. It finally opened for business on April 2, 1979 after having their kick off party on April Fools Day, the day before.

Richmond Times Ink

The Daily Bread Bakery wasn't the only thing in the building. There was a space for rent above them too. It was a newspaper print shop which started in 1984 in November. This was where the Richmond Times Ink began. Some of the people who worked there were named Karen Yaggy, Mary Ann McMaster and Tom McHugh.³

Toscano

Toscano was a restaurant run by John and Lucy Fath. In this restaurant that started in 2003 they served Italian food. It also got a lot of good reviews from visitors and locals. Unfortunately Toscano closed in September of 2017. Now the Toscano building can be rented out for business needs.

^Citations

¹Riggs, Harriet, and Allan Burnett. “Allan Burnett Memories .” Richmond Historical Society.

²Riggs, Harriet wheatley. Richmond, Vermont; A History of More Than 200 Years. Richmond Historical Society , 2007.

³Bott, Betsy. Made from Scratch; Daily Bread Bakery and Cafe. Get a Way Press , 2006.

⁴Riggs, Harriet, and Clarence Call. “Clarence Call Memories .” Richmond Historical Society.

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