There was a time in Plymouth when Saturday night meant dressing up, heading out and dancing until your feet hurt.
“Clubbing” was booming, live bands filled nightclubs, and from 1979 to 1993, one of the places to be on the South Shore was the Inn for All Seasons at 97 Warren Ave. There were weddings and parties, dinners tucked into the little rooms and nooks of the former inn, nights spent dancing to the house band, On the Rocks, and, apparently, enough memorable regulars to fill the walls with their faces.
Twenty-seven faces from that era have suddenly reappeared.
They are staring out from a collection of caricatures now on display at the Plymouth Public Library, 132 South St. There are no names attached to the drawings, only clues: a boat here, a golf course there, an airplane, a cocktail, a uniform or some other detail that undoubtedly meant something to anyone who knew the person. Now, it seems, no one knows who they are.
But decades ago, plenty of people did.
The Inn for All Seasons, operated by brothers Mark, Ron and Robin Papa, was a popular South Shore restaurant, nightclub and function venue known for weddings, local events, live entertainment and its Papa brothers house band. The building is now a nursing home, but memories of the Inn live on.
“When the place opened in 1979, it was the biggest hot spot on the South Shore. People came from all over,” said Kevin Hynes, owner and president of Hynes Restaurant Group, which owns and operates 71 West and 42 North. “They really prided themselves on the food, and people danced all night there.”
The caricatures, drawn by the late local artist Evelyn Dunbar, once hung in the bar at the Inn, which was a popular Plymouth gathering place where generations of locals danced, drank, dined, celebrated weddings and, in more than one case, met the person they would marry.
According to Hynes, “When the place first opened, they had a caricature artist there for several weeks. People would sit for a caricature and then they were hung around the bar. People who are in those caricatures are probably the locals who went there frequently, and most are probably now in their ’70s and ’80s.”
The Inn had something for everyone, even an underage dance night. Many who grew up during the ’80s remember it: “Back in the ’80s, I was a teenager and every Sunday evening, they had a DJ night where kids under 18 would go in and dance. It was great because it was a place where kids could go and hang out, dance and be safe. As a kid I loved that place. We’d dress up, go dancing, and it was welcoming,” said longtime Plymouth resident Michelle Wilkinson.
“Eating dinner there was also really cool because they had all these tiny rooms – some of them only sat six people since it was a former inn. It was a really nice place to go – lighthearted and youthful energy,” she said.
The drawings are currently displayed in cases near the library’s reading room, where visitors are invited to look closely and see whether they recognize anyone.
Library volunteers believe clues in one caricature suggest the subjects might have been a dentist or dental hygienist. Others depict people boating, golfing, flying or serving drinks. Who they were and what the jokes embedded in their portraits meant have largely been lost. The library hopes to change that.
For anyone who lived in Plymouth during the Inn for All Seasons years, the setting needs little introduction.
Recollections abound of Trivia Night, of the food, the atmosphere, and the house band starring Ron, Mark and Robin Papa.
“They were a fantastic band,” said Hynes. “They even played at my wedding!” Their cuisine was well known and respected, especially the veal Oscar special they would offer from time to time.
The artist Evelyn Dunbar was a longtime Kingston resident and art teacher at Sacred Heart Elementary School. Unfortunately, she is no longer here to answer the pressing questions: Were the subjects customers, employees, friends, business owners or local personalities? The answers could solve a mystery that has been sitting quietly in the Plymouth Public Library for years.
The caricatures resurfaced as the library staff was working its way through a backlog of historical material accumulated over decades. They were found in a storage area appropriately nicknamed the “Treasure Room,” where 195 boxes of documents, photographs, maps, letters, prints, pamphlets and assorted objects are being inventoried as part of an effort to organize and preserve the library’s local history collection.
The caricatures were a surprise.
“We said, ‘These are fun – perhaps we could put them on display,’” said Judy Fosdick, president of the Plymouth Public Library Board of Trustees. “Let’s see whether people know who they are. In fact, one of them might even be someone I know.”
According to library board member Patti Anklam, the drawings took a circuitous route back into public view. A letter accompanying them says they were discovered at a yard sale in Middleborough, where someone from town picked them up and subsequently donated them to the library – 20 years ago.
Now, instead of trying to solve all 27 mysteries themselves, library officials are crowdsourcing the job.
It may be particularly appropriate for drawings that once decorated a place remembered less for its architecture than for the people who gathered there, and for the Papa family that ran it. “They were welcoming,” said Hynes, who admitted he may have gotten up from time to time to sing along with the band. “It was that kind of place.”
The restaurant was a true sibling-driven family affair. Owned and operated by the Papa brothers—Mark, Ronald and Robin—it was a collaborative business where all of the siblings and extended family members pitched in, whether in the kitchen, front of house, or on stage. The family – and by extension the Inn – was known as much for its energetic charm as for its food.
They built deep personal relationships with their guests, turning standard restaurant patrons into lifelong family friends. So, it is fitting that the library’s display showcases the people of the Inn and its unique time frame and history in Plymouth.
The library hopes visitors’ guesses eventually turn into names.
“We’re hoping we might get some information,” Anklam said. “Once the identities are established, the library could label the drawings and potentially use them again in future exhibits.”
For now, though, the guessing may be half the fun.
Twenty-seven people who were recognizable enough in Plymouth to earn a place on the wall of the Inn for All Seasons are back on public display.
All they need are their names. “We invite the public to come in and peruse the drawings, to fill out a slip as to who they believe these people are,” Fosdick said, who encourages anyone who might have been there during its heyday to come in, play detective and walk down memory lane.
Perhaps that is the most fitting way to bring a little piece of the Inn for All Seasons back: one familiar face, one remembered story and maybe even one long-ago night on the dance floor at a time.
Julia Marie Davis can be reached at julia@plymouthindependent.org.