1.  Mary’s Place (above) has been evolving.  Is that a historic color?   Note the height relative to the house next door to the right.   This has been described as a single family house with many bedrooms while others think of it as too large and “out of place.”
2.  The Pizza Shoppe at Main Ave. and Pilgrim Pathway is under new management.  They will sell whole large pies, sandwiches, pizza slices and other varied menu options. But they have closed weekdays during the winter because “business is too slow.”  I guess we can’t think of this as a business to serve those who live in the Grove. The tourists are #1.  Meanwhile Nagles on Main Avenue stays open year round.
   

   NAGLE’S. Nagle’s open year round. Great atmosphere inside, and it is ready to go with year round ice cream. All photos by Blogfinger.net ©

   3.  Jesus on Main .   Find Him and his entourage in Firemen’s Park (Main Avenue at Delaware and New Jersey and Mt. Hermon Way.) And if you are  hungry you can go to Cheeses on Main.

   

4.  Excavation at 50 Main Avenue continues:

Looking forward to rebuilding at 50 Main Avenue. Will they continue with framing?   There is a law suit about this project.

5. The story of J:   The purple house at 33 Main Avenue (above).  Some people love the colors while others hate them.  We spoke to J. Cortese about this restoration project which he designed, color consulted and construction managed. J. uses historic colors, but he also enjoys the unexpected, changing over recently to darker “rich” colors in the Grove.  He says that all his colors are approved and chosen from historic color charts. He thinks that darker colors are “more historic” than the typical Victorian pastel colors of the San Francisco “Painted Ladies.”

This house underwent a complete porch restoration with removal of old stucco, revealing clapboard beneath. It was a “vernacular” Victorian that was enlarged into a four square colonial revival  around 1900. J’s palette consists of two shades of green and two shades of “raisin” one of which (the darker) is “beetroot.”  The contractor is Sawbucks.

6. How about a roll in the hay?  We could have hay rides on Main Avenue this time of year.  Did you ever go on a winter hay ride?  I did in high school. It was fun, but the horse was expelling steam back into the wagon.  All the couples burrowed down into the hay, but my date  decided that everyone should sing.  So here is Sutton Foster singing “Roll in the hay” from Mel Brook’s Young Frankenstein.

7. Some stores were closed on Tuesday even though it is Christmas shopping time. But one of the favorite stores in town, April Cornell, was open for shoppers. We also noticed that the Emporium and Comfort Zone were open as was the OG  Flower Shop.  We did not do a complete survey.

Note 12/19: Favorite Things reports that they are open 7 days per week, May through December.

It ain’t exactly Main Avenue, it is Grant Avenue in San Francisco from Flower Drum Song.  (Original London cast )

By Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger