Congratulations to Pete Comeau for being the first student to tweet a selfie (actually he took a video while riding his bike…with his helmet on! #prouddean) from the February 23rd #FindMeFriday location!
A little about this week’s location:
Taking a break from all your worries, sure would help a lot.
Wouldn’t you like to get away?
Sometimes you want to go
Where everybody knows your name,
and they’re always glad you came.
You wanna be where you can see,
our troubles are all the same
You wanna be where everybody knows
Your name.
Without fail, every time I pass 84 Beacon Street, I find myself singing the theme song to Cheers, a television show about a fictional bar located in Beacon Hill. The television series ran from September 30, 1982, to May 20, 1993, but the actual neighborhood pub has been running for 48 years. Thomas A. Kershaw opened the Bull & Finch Pub in 1969. It was named after Boston-born architect Charles Bulfinch, who designed many other buildings, including the U.S. Capitol and Massachusetts State House.
The Bull & Finch Pub/Cheers is located in the basement of the Hampshire House, built in 1910 by society architect Ogden Codman. It is located directly across from the Boston Public Garden and is one of the most famous tourist spots in Boston. While the front of the building is exact shot used in all 275 episodes of Cheers, people are often disappointment when they enter the Bull & Finch and realize it looks nothing like the bar Sam, Diane, Norm, Cliff, Woody, and Fraiser gathered around. Because of the popularity of the television show, the real owner opened a Cheers gift shop and also created a miniature replica of the Cheers bar for fans to enjoy.
When the final episode of Cheers aired on May 20, 1993, the entire cast, along with Jay Leno from the Tonight Show, watched it together from inside the bar. While that was 25 years ago, with syndication and Netflix, the show remains popular and the Cheers’ flag still hangs outside of 84 Beacon Street for the thousands of tourists and fans who want to go where everybody knows your name and they’re always glad you came.
Cheers to Boston!