wish it could have made a comeback.

As far as the property is concerned, it is owned by the Martinettis, who also own The Gateway Inn as well as Lanes and Games. I am pretty sure there is a zoning issue with the Faces property that has put the Martinettis in contention with the city of Cambridge. I believe they have told the city that they will leave the place as an eyesore until they get the concessions they need over the zoning issue.

I also think DUI enforcement had a lot to do with the demise of the club, as many people would drive down the Concord Turnpike (Rt 2) to the club. Imagine the field day Staties and city cops would have nabbing people driving out of there

In 1984, the year I turned twenty, there were three or four clubs that you had to go to. One was Faces then there was the Metro on Lansdowne Street, Narcissus in Kenmore square and The Palace in Saugus. The second tier was 9 Lansdowne, Aquarius in Quincy and the Paradise in Allston.

I never understood why Faces could not make a comeback. When you consider it’s large parking area, that Meadow on the Belmont side of the building was all Gravel parking spaces, and it’s proximity to major highways and the T you would think that you could make a go of it. The Martinetti’s owned the club back in the day and when it was open it seemed like they had invested some money in it. It had four separate dance floors separated by a few steps, three smaller floors in “wells” and one central floor. There were at least three bars in the place as well. Music videos were big then and Faces had three screens that dropped out of the ceiling with projection systems to show videos with the song they were playing. I remember some time around 85 it was closed for six months for remodeling and was even hotter when it reopened.

I’m guessing part of it is that the Martinetti’s are probably at least in their 60’s now and perhaps older. If so they probably don’t have the energy or the interest in reopening in addition to the fact that the last time I was down that way the building looked structurally unsound. The family also owns (I think) Martinetti’s Liquors which at least was a pretty successful outfit.

All I know is that Luigi and I had a blast going there back when we were two youts but now we are just two forty somethings with wives, mortgages and 6 kids between us. In fact my oldest would be old enough to get in Faces if it were still open.

By the way, the red tile roof on the side was the entrance to The Forbidden City Chinese Restaurant. There was also a bar in the front right corner called Kings Pub. In the early seventies Faces was the original Aku Aku Polynesian restaurant. They had a huge fire and moved from there to where Jasper Whites Summer Shack is (was? I don’t get to Cambridge much anymore) When the building was rebuilt it became Faces. My guess is that was 1971 or 72 because my brother was home from Vietnam and drove me over to watch the fire.