As part of its effort to petition the City of Boston to establish Doyle’s as a historic Landmark, the Save Doyle’s Team spent months researching and documenting this story. They have graciously offered to share it here.

Doyle’s role in history goes far beyond its Boston roots. The story of Doyle’s is the story of Irish and other immigrants in America. It is the story of beer in America from the days of the early American breweries to the modern craft beer movement.

Doyle’s and Irish/ Immigrant History - Then and Now

As the country’s most Irish state, Massachusetts, and by extension, Boston, plays a special role in the history of Irish Americans. In the late 1800’s, Dennis Doyle opened his tavern to serve the growing population of Irish immigrants who worked at the breweries located along the Stony Brook in Jamaica Plain. Doyle’s often served as the first stop for immigrants arriving from Ireland seeking work, and later in their lives it became the place where they cashed and spent their paychecks alongside fellow immigrants from the old country.

The Doyle family was close to the Burkes, the family that would eventually take over the operation of the bar. When William Burke first emigrated from Galway in 1897, he was told to go “straight to Doyle’s Cafe” to look for work. The bar had already established its reputation as a “workingman’s pub” where an Irishman would be welcomed and given the opportunity to find employment in one of the neighboring factories and breweries. By 1902, William Burke had bought his own bar, John Sheehan’s Tavern, only about a block away from Doyle’s. Despite their business rivalry, the Doyle and Burke families would become close friends as members of the Ancient and Honorable Hibernians, Division 4.

Because of prejudice against Irish immigrants, this community had to come together to survive. Doyle’s became a social hub, a bank, employment and rental office, and a center of political organizing. Eventually, the Irish political organizations in Boston helped launch the careers of such politicians such as James Michael Curley and the Kennedy family. With their expanding population, group loyalty, and block-by-block political organization, the Irish eventually took political control of the city, leaving the Yankee Brahmin class in charge of finance, business, and higher education.

The Kennedy family in particular had a close relationship with Doyle’s. An urban legend rumors this connection to go back to bootlegging operations during prohibition. From formal campaign stops to just hanging out on a barstool, members of the Kennedy clan came frequently to the bar to hold sway and build connections. So strong was the connection that on St. Patrick’s Day in 1988, Senator Ted Kennedy helped dedicate a new room at Doyle’s to his maternal grandfather, John F. Fitzgerald. This backroom went on to become a place for the community to hold political and social meetings, carrying forward the traditions of the past.

Doyle’s also has a strong historical connection to the Boston Police Department. From the early days of the BPD in the 1800’s, Doyle’s served as a place for officers to gather and organize. By the time’s the bar was flourishing, the force was largely Irish-American, and while the Boston Police Strike of 1919 greatly reduced their numbers, they were able to re-establish their presence and continue their successful union. The Boston Police Gaelic Column of Pipes & Drums was founded in 1992 at the pub. The Column is an independent, non-profit organization consisting of both BPD officers as well as law enforcement officers from the greater Boston area. They performed at Doyle’s Annual Five Mile Run as well as on St. Patrick’s Day and other events.

It wasn’t just the working class that found their way to Doyle’s, but also Irish celebrities like John L. Sullivan, the famous Irish American bare-knuckle boxer, known as “the Boston Strongboy”. Sullivan became one of the first celebrity sports figures, when he won the US heavyweight championship in 1882 and the world championship in 1888. Another regular was Mike Kelly, the first Irish baseball hero, who played for the Boston Beaneaters in the late 1800s. Their pictures would long hang on the wall of Doyle’s.

In the 20th century, prominent Boston-based Irish American businessmen with strong connections to Doyle’s included Jack Connors, the last “king” of Boston and founder of the ad agency, Arnold Advertising. Another regular was Billy Sullivan, considered the father of the New England Patriots football franchise.

Doyle’s Brewery History

Brewing was one of the largest manufacturing sectors in the United States in the 19th century. Boston has a special place in the history of brewers and beer drinking, and Jamaica Plain has had an outsized role in that history. “Boston’s first large brewery was opened in the late eighteenth century, and by the late nineteenth century there were more than twenty-six breweries operating in the City of Boston. This gave Boston the highest number of breweries per capita in the United States, and these breweries were mostly concentrated in the Jamaica Plain area, which was just outside the city proper.” [1] At its peak, Boston was home to as many as 48 breweries.

Among the factors driving such a concentration of breweries in Jamaica Plain was the location of freshwater (necessary for brewing) in the Stony Brook that ran through the eastern part of the neighborhood. The Stony Brook originates in Hyde Park and runs to the Muddy River in the Fenway, including right under what became Doyle’s bar and dining area rooms. Another critical factor was the influx of immigrants from Ireland and Germany, bringing beer making and drinking cultures to the area.

Breweries and Bars: A Symbiotic Relationship

In the late nineteenth century large breweries were regional enterprises. Jamaica Plain’s breweries depended on local saloons for the distribution and consumption of their beer. Relations of economic interdependence developed among bars and breweries. Breweries assured the loyalty of their ‘distributors’ in part by lending money to the saloons for start-up or ongoing costs. Then, as now, Boston stringently controlled the number of liquor licenses bestowed, and hence they were at a premium, increasing the cost of establishing a bar.

The Doyle family began purchasing land along the Stony Brook area in the early 1880s. There are records of loans to them by the Haffenreffer Brewery of Jamaica Plain using their land as collateral. The Haffenreffer Brewery was started by Rudolf Haffenreffer, a German immigrant, in 1871. It was the largest of the 24 breweries located along the Stony Brook. Haffenreffer eventually produced as much as half million barrels of beer per year and employed 250 workers - most of whom were newly arrived German and Irish immigrants. Haffenreffer was one of several breweries including the Roessle, the Suffolk, and the Boylston Breweries that joined together to form the New England Brewery Company. The NEBC was bought by an English syndicate of investors in 1890.[2]

According to the oral history shared by Doyle’s last owner, Eddie Burke, the building that houses Doyle’s was built by the New England Brewery Company. The record of historical documents for Doyle’s for the years prior to 1970, including building permits, are missing from the Boston Inspectional Services Department. As a result there is not existing documentation of this historical detail. However, it is consistent with the trend of breweries investing in saloons through loans and other forms of support to ensure these businesses were able to continue serving as both customers and ‘distributors’ of their product[3].

Surviving Prohibition: Sticking Together

From the late 19th century into the first decades of the 20th century, breweries and saloons alike prospered, given the popularity of beer and the new German lagers. This popularity is not surprising, since by 1898 no less than 250,000 of Boston’s inhabitants—or 50 percent of the total population—visited a bar every day.[4] Business also prospered at the Doyle’s bar and cafe after the elevated train was extended to Forest Hills Station in 1910. Having the El come through Jamaica Plain brought more people to the area . Residents who could commute on this new transportation and live in a greener neighborhood. Doyle’s was well situated at the end of the transportation line.

Still the pressures of the Temperance movement were building. The era officially ended in 1919 with the ratification of the 18th Amendment criminalizing the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages in the United States. The Doyles were forced to close the bar and rely on their general store for business. The survival of the business was another instance of the bond between the Burke and Doyle families paying off.

Image courtesy of the Library of Congress

After Prohibition began, Burke turned his tavern into a shop selling candy and other notions. Doyle’s nominally remained open as a restaurant. But behind the locked doors of Doyle’s Cafe was a thriving speakeasy – stocked by bootlegged liquor made at William Burke’s store a block away. The friendship and illicit business relationship would help both families weather the economic downturn that impacted much of the area, including most of the breweries and other saloons.

When Prohibition ended in 1933, it’s said that Mayor James Michael Curley himself presented Doyle’s with their reinstated liquor license. The Haffenreffer Brewery also survived Prohibition, finally closing in 1965, the last of the area’s breweries to do so. The Brewery complex’s transformation by the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corporation (JPNDC) into a thriving center of neighborhood restaurants, businesses and nonprofits, has been a great success.

Doyle’s Role in Supporting the Return of Local Breweries: Sam Adams and the Craft Beer Movement

In 1984 Doyle’s was to play a key role in the origins of the revival of the local brewery and craft beer movement. Creating an updated version of the interdependence between bars and breweries in Jamaica Plain. Gerry Burke Sr, the manager of Doyle’s at the time, was approached by Jim Koch, a new small business brewer. His business was located in the renovated Haffenreffer Brewery complex on Amory Street. Jim was looking for bars to sell the new beer being produced by his fledgling Boston Beer Company. Burke agreed to do so and Doyle’s became one of the early accounts for the Company. It was the first establishment to sell Samual Adams Lager on tap.[5] Thus began a close relationship between the new local brewery and Doyle’s; Jamaica Plain’s most widely visited tourist destination is the Sam Adams Brewery, which could always be followed by a trolly ride to Doyle’s for drinks.

The Boston Beer Company's significance to the rebirth of craft beer and brewery companies was recognized by Forbes Magazine, who described Jim Koch as a ‘founding father of the craft brewery movement.” [6]

New Deal Era Murals

The murals along the walls of Doyle’s front room (where the bar was located) were painted by a local artist during the early 1930s. Doyle’s murals depict scenes from Massachusetts history. The artist was a German immigrant named Max Beichel who lived with his family in Jamaica Plain on Sheridan Street. He had immigrated through Ellis Island in the mid 1920s and was a certified master artisan in Germany, a third-generation artist. He applied to and was listed as an artist by the Civil Works Administration. He began to work for their Public Works of Art Project, the initial program to support out-of-work artists as part of the New Deal[7].
This program was active from December 1933 through June 1934.. It allowed writers and artists to receive federal funding for producing civic-oriented art. Artists around the country were awarded financing for painting murals. These murals were primarily located in civic buildings such as libraries and schools, but also occasionally in other kinds of places, such as nightclubs.[8] It is unusual for such paintings to be located in a bar and cafe. Doyle’s unofficial historian Gerry Burke Sr, has been quoted as saying that Boston’s Mayor James Michael Curley (then in his third term) had something to do with the murals being located at Doyle’s. This statement has not been confirmed yet. Max Beichel also did decorative work in a Jamaica Plain restaurant named the Alpine House, as well as in Jamaica Plain’s Church of the Blessed Sacrament..[9]

Modern Politics and Notable Individuals

Boston historian Thomas O’Connor has noted that bars like Doyle’s have historic and political significance as places where “party leaders recruited new voters, indoctrinated inexperienced ward-heelers, and prepared newcomers for eventual citizenship.”[10] From its inception as a working class tavern for Irish and German immigrants, to its recent role as a space for local advocacy groups, Doyle’s has launched and supported numerous political causes and careers.

Doyle’s has been visited by many national and local political figures. Mayors from James Michael Curley, to John F. "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald to Thomas Menino, the city’s first Italian American major had their picture taken in the bar. More recent visitors include Ayanna Pressley, the first African American woman to represent Massachusetts in Congress, and Senator Elizabeth Warren, the first woman senator from Massachusetts.

Doyle’s is more than a local tavern. As a 2006 article in the Boston Irish Reporter put it, over the years, Doyle’s has served “enough governors, state reps and senators, media, political junkies, and Irish loyalists to fill a convention center.” The late Congressman Joe Moakley had his own table. Former Mayor Ray Flynn sometimes tended bar and came so often to Doyle’s that it was referred to as “City Hall West.” One nook at Doyle’s held a collection of autographed photos: Governors Endicott "Chub" Peabody (1963-65), Francis Sargent (1969-1975), Michael Dukakis (1975-79 and 1983-1991), William Weld (1991-1997) and Paul Cellucci (1997-2001). In another photo, Mayor Flynn was pictured with former Mayor Kevin White, along with then City Council President Tom Menino. Doyle’s national significance was perhaps most visible in the Kennedy room. That room came about when an aide to Senator Teddy Kennedy came in and said, “I really like this place, is there any chance that the Senator would get a good reception here?” Not only did Doyle’s hold a reception, they named the back room after “Honey Fitz” and Senator Kennedy was on hand to dedicate the room to his late grandfather.

Senators, mayors, governors, ambassadors, cardinals, presidential candidates and presidents(Bill Clinton as well as Irish Presidents Michael Higgins and Mary Robinson) have come to Doyle’s. As Ray Flynn, the former Mayor of Boston and Ambassador to the Vatican described it, “I brought Bill Clinton over there on a Sunday morning for brunch for a short while. It was a feeling of good will. And that’s what we need more of in our city. Not just some big, high-rise office buildings.’’

Ray Flynn perfectly captures Doyle’s importance to Boston politics and political history. At Doyle’s, said Ray Flynn, “you could learn more about Boston politics than you could at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.’’ More than just welcoming local and national political figures looking for a photo opportunity, Doyle’s has been the place where new political careers started. It was also a place where average citizens could come and learn about a candidate.

Doyle’s was a place of refuge for individuals from all walks of life, from construction workers to retired war heroes. One of the Doyle’s regulars was Major General Charles “Chuck” Sweeney, an officer in the US Air Force during World War II who flew the plane that carried the bomb on the Japanese city of Nagasaki. He signed a picture of the Bockscar plane that hung near his corner stool at the bar in the front room.

Popular Culture at Doyle’s

Given its historic look and atmosphere, Doyle’s was used as a location in several Hollywood films and television series. The bar was used for scenes in Mystic River and a local bartender, Jimmy Sullivan, who appeared in that movie eventually moved to California to pursue acting. Shots of the exterior of the building were used in the television series Boston Public. The pub also appeared in the movies 21, Patriot’s Day, The Brink’s Job, and Celtic Pride. Doyle’s Cafe was frequented by Dane Cook’s character in the movie My Best Friend’s Girl.

From 1882 to 2020

The last pint of the Doyle’s was hoisted on Oct. 28, 2019, yet Doyle’s remains alive. A post on their Facebook page that last day reminded everyone: “Although we gave our last last call last night, the spirit and soul of Doyle’s is very much still alive and beating. Doyle’s will live on through all of us and our memories. Take them with you wherever you end up.”

The story of Doyle’s is a story of survival. Over 137 years, Doyle’s Cafe faced many challenges: anti-Irish prejudice, Prohibition, wars, economic recession, and gentrification. We hope this history will help to ensure that the memory of Doyle’s lives on. More, we hope it will inspire a future in which “the spirit and soul” of Doyle’s Café survives in a new form.

Other resources are available:

You can scroll through a timeline history of the Doyle and Burke families and their beloved Cafe that was known by many names, from Bernard F. Doyle’s Liquors, to the Braddock Cafe, to its most recent name: Doyle’s Café at this website: https://tinyurl.com/doylestimeline (Note: the recommendation is to switch over to the list view option – in the lower right).

You can enjoy the Digital Commonwealth gallery of digitized images of the memorabilia that once decorated the walls of Doyle’s here: https://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/collections/commonwealth:vt150v91x

You can also provide comments to add any of your memories that correspond to these images at the Boston Public Library’s Flickr page here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/boston_public_library/

Footnotes

[1] Nowak, Zachery. “Something Brewing in Boston: A Study of Forward Integration in American Breweries at the Turn of the Twentieth Century”. Enterprise & Society, Vol 18, 2l June 2017, pp. 324--359.

[2] Nowak, Zachery. “Something Brewing in Boston: A Study of Forward Integration in American Breweries at the Turn of the Twentieth Century”. Enterprise & Society, Vol 18, 2l June 2017, pp. 324--359.

[3] In fact, another alcohol company, this time the Braddock Rye Whisky firm based in Maryland, agreed to help put a new front on Doyle’s existing building which had fallen into disrepair during Prohibition and the Depression. The Braddock people installed new brickwork, a new window and paid for new signage. In exchange Doyle’s owner agreed to especially promote Braddock's product. In 1939 the business’ name was officially changed to “F.J. Doyle and Company, dba Braddock Café.”

[4] Op cit. . Nowak., Something Brewing.

[5] Letter of support on behalf of Save Doyle’s campaign from The Boston Beer Company Director of Partnerships, Jennifer Glanville, October 23, 2019.

[6] https://www.forbes.com/profile/jim-koch/#6f6ce4f823d9

[7] Report of Public Works Art Project Region 1 New England States exclusive of Urban Connecticut. Begun on December 8, 1933 and ended June 30, 1934. Final report from the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury to the Federal Emergency Relief Administrator page 23; Acceptance letter to Max Beichel from chairman of Public Works of Art dated 1934. Sourced from descendants of the artist, West Roxbury residents (see letter here: https://tinyurl.com/maxbeichelletter).

[8] For the People: American Mural Drawings of the 1930s and 1940s, Patricia E. Phagan. http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/8aa/8aa75.htm.

[9] Author’s interview with Helen Beichel, granddaughter of Max, September, 2019.

[10] Thomas H. O'Connor, "South Boston: The History of an Ethnic Neighborhood," p. 45 (Northeastern University Press, 1994)

Doyle’s: The Story of American Beer, Politics, and Community