For those whose idea of fun doesn't include being jabbed in the arm with a needle, there are other divertissements. For years there used to be a tall, cadaverous man standing in front of Jack's Lighthouse whose hobby was matching single men with single women. He wore a black suit and tie and a high stove-pipe hat that held a sign labeling him "The Mayor of Scollay Square."
His Honor has retired from his spot as doorman and his avocation as match-maker. He is now happily married to a former WAC, and is living on a chicken farm in New Hampshire. They say he is very happy, but occasionally he returns to the Lighthouse to say hello and to look around.
Other inhabitants of the Square have disappeared too, but for different reasons. The mammoth lady bouncer at the New Ritz isn't seen any more, since the place is now closed down.
To balance the ledger, this past winter also witnessed one of the brighter events in Scollay Square's recent history. The Rialto Theatre, which had been closed and out of repair for a year recently reopened as the only all-night movie house in Greater Boston. If you're lonesome, you'd be surprised how much of an old friend "Rocky" Lane can be toward 4 a.m.
Can't Compete with Rialto
Upstairs in the same building is the Calvary Rescue Mission. The Mission does its best as a refuge, but it can't compete with the Rialto by staying open all day and night. Consequently most people with nowhere to go end up at the Rialto, which seldom turns away a man who has a quarter.
Another type of refuge is provided by the Boston Police for breakers of the law and offenders of public etiquette. Scollay Square is a quiet place, and seldom does anything really to get out of hand. Most bars are well behaved; nevertheless the proprietor of perhaps the best-behaved tavern in the Square estimates that the law is broken in his place about twenty-five times every night.
The Salvation Army, not to be outdone by the Calvary Rescue Mission, holds occasional serenades, but not many people in Scollay Square are interested in the redemption of their souls. So the Army plays for a while and then goes away.
Across the street, where Epstein's Drugstore now stands, was an inn that housed President George Washington during his visit to Joan Hancock, Harvard 1754. Later Daniel Webster opened his law office in another building on the same site.
Scollay Square was named after Colnel William Scollay, Class of 1804. Scollay was Chairman of the Board of Selectmen of Boston and his family was one of the first in the city commercially, socially, and civically. The Scollays were a dignified and staid family, but are now extinct in Boston. It is just as well