Glenn Crawford suggests meeting in the parking lot between Staples and the Book Bazaar at the Corner of Bank Street and Gladstone Avenue.
It seems like a rather mundane place to start a historical walking tour. But Crawford, the research and project leader of the Village Legacy Project, assures that this newly paved lot is a storied space. Notorious, even. In this location there was once an upscale cinema called The Rialto, which opened in 1931. But it became increasingly seedy. By the 1950s and ’60s, it was known as the “Rat Hole” and was a gay cruising area. Later, the building that is now home to the Book Bazaar had a basement bar called Bottom’s Up.