Post #286325 by Volcano Girl on Sat, Feb 17, 2007 9:35 PM

Hi, to all! I got a few questions answered by my Mom. There's a lot she remembers, and a lot that's rusty. She's going to dig around and see what she can pull out from the attic where she has some of this stuff. I don't know how long it will be to get that accomplished, so we'll just have to be patient. Mom still hasn't seen the photos from these posts, but I will get them to her over the weekend. She doesn't use the computer at all, so it will be Monday evening at the earliest before I get any response. She'll wait until my sister or brother can help her with it.

Gator Rob, we are thinking you are pretty much right about the dilapidated A-frame building. We think it could possibly be the remains of the lounge/nightclub building, which is what you see in the postcard. The restaurant is not visible in that scene, but would be to the left of the volcano and further away, if it were in view. She has little expectation that much of the effects of the place are in existence, but there is the possibility that some of it was recovered by someone, we just don't know any information. She doesn't remember any glasses or mugs, but said her memory is sketchy about that sort of thing. She recommended that I keep talking with my other siblings, especially the older three, who were high school to college age at the time.

Still, she remembered much that may help us track other things down. One was that my grandfather did own all the property that encompassed that block when he had the house built in the early 40's, but began selling off parcels around 1959 or 1960 to some group (she didn't know what group), which eventually turned those things into the "Haven Hotel", Nick Rubas'(?) Greek place (which she said was originally on Park St), the Continental Can Company, possibly a drugstore, as well as someone else who began to turn Dad's former home into a restaurant. Apparently, whoever it was who started with the restaurant theme defaulted on the loan before renovation was completed, and the lot with the restaurant/house on it returned to my grandfather's possession. It was at this point that my father became involved in continuing in the effort to transform his old home into the Volcano (1967?). I don't know how long he spent in the planning stages, but Mom says she thinks they may have officially opened in early 1968, possibly January, but possibly a few months later. She said that the name was Dad's brainchild, because she remembers him thinking a lot about how to market a restaurant when it wasn't his expertise at the time. She does think that he traveled around to some places where there was a Polynesian theme, and she is sure that he had seen the place in Ft. Lauderdale at some point.

The front porch of Dad's home (which faced north) became the bar/lounge/lanai. There were bedrooms on the second floor, she thought maybe there were 4-5 bedrooms on either side of a central hall, and a bathroom on one end. Apparently Chinese Joe (real name of Joe Huey) was the only boarder at the restaurant, the other former bedrooms were used for storage. She reminded me that the women's restroom was spectacular in that it had giant-sized actual clam or oyster shells for the sinks, with pretty pinkish shell insides, and coral-pink cloth hand towels, with some sort of exotic plant as an embellishment. The ladies' room was located directly across from the hostess station which was to the left of the area where the Bora-Bora statue was. The coat room was behind the cashier which was near the hostess station. She said that the far wall of the restaurant (most eastern portion, closest to 6th St) was made completely of dark rocks (maybe even to the ceiling?), and that there was a waterfall feature located there.

She remembers some other interesting things that I thought you might enjoy hearing about. One was a story about the bamboo-beaded curtains for the windows in the lanai (as she called it, I think she was talking about the bar part of the restaurant). Shortly before restaurant's official opening, the bamboo curtains that Dad ordered came in, but they were about a foot too short for the big windows. So Dad bought some extra beads and string and he and Mom and two of their friends worked around the clock and through the night adding a foot of bamboo beads to each of the lengths of curtains!

She said that one of the Red Sox players that she remembers coming was Carl Ystremski (sp?), and someone else named Cornell Wilde (I have no idea who that is). She reminded me that Chinese Joe was a really good man, and was more concerned about his nieces and nephews back in China (he was Cantonese) than he was about himself. Almost every penny he made, he sent back to his old home, to help provide for their education. He even would give us children a few coins in a small envelope at the Chinese New Year, which was apparently a tradition of his. She said that she was only in the kitchen a handful of times, but she remembers one time that Joe took her over to where he was preparing food for the evening meals, and showed her a big huge pot filled with boiling water, and said, "Lot-ta duck!" and something about the big crowd they expected that evening.

OK, this is all for now. I will get back as soon as I hear any more from anyone!