File:Eugene V. Debs Hall - fmr John Kucharski tavern, Joe's Grille, Al's Place et al. - Buffalo, New York - 20220803.jpg

English: Eugene V. Debs Hall, 483 Peckham Street at Clark Street, Buffalo, New York, August 2022. Among the last remnants of the original building stock of this section of the Broadway-Fillmore neighborhood of Buffalo's East Side - once one of the most densely populated districts of the city, but lately laid to waste by the insidious creep of disinvestment, blight, demolition, and the encroachment of urban prairie - this is an excellent example not only of what's known locally as a "Buffalo double" (a type of two-unit, industrial-vernacular structure common to Buffalo's built environment of the era, taking advantage of the then-new technique of "balloon framing" whereby modular elements were mass-produced in a central factory, transported to the site, and assembled like puzzle pieces, making for a much faster construction process while still maintaining decent structural quality) but also of the Foursquare style of architecture, an Arts and Crafts-derived aesthetic that, with its boxy dimensions, stripped-down decor scheme, and wood-frame structure, lent itself particularly well to such prefabrication. The building dates to 1899 and served originally as one of the many "workers' cottages" that lined the streets of this traditionally Polish-American stronghold, but the Foursquare aesthetic - along with the conversion of the ground floor to nonresidential use - dates to a 1914 expansion of the building by its then-owner, Anthony Schreiber, owner of the eponymous Schreiber Brewing Company on nearby Fillmore Avenue. Local barkeep John Kucharski was enlisted to take over the space, where he poured Schreiber's full line of "Manru" lagers and ales while living with his family in the upstairs apartment, a common enough arrangement for East Side tavern owners of the era. Kucharski retired in 1945, and as neither of his two children had survived to adulthood, the property was then sold to Joseph Andrzejewski, whose namesake Joe's Grille was in business in the 1950s and '60s. Last known as Al's Place, the barroom had been vacant for almost three decades by the time local urban planner, industrial history buff, and preservation aficionado Chris Hawley purchased it in 2020. After a top-to-bottom renovation chronicled in the Proud Places webseries Peckham & Clark, the following year saw the opening of Eugene V. Debs Hall, a nonprofit social club whose dedication to the history of organized labor at the local and national level is reflected in its choice of namesake, a railroad laborer turned union leader turned five-time Socialist Party presidential candidate. With a brimming event schedule, Debs Hall is quickly becoming a nexus for the Western New York syndicalist and leftist community.