This Brookline Village storefront, in one of the town’s oldest commercial spaces, has been home to many businesses since it first opened in the 1870s. Charles E. Schmalz’s barber shop had the longest tenure, from 1897 to 1943. Another long-term occupant of the space was the municipal credit union, serving town employees, in the 1940s and ‘50s. Since 1995, the space has been the location of a series of Japanese restaurants, including Yokohama, Migaku Noodle House, and the current tenant, Sapporo Ramen.
The building, 236-242 Washington Street at the corner of Davis Avenue, was constructed by Scottish immigrant John Panter who named it the St. Andrew Building after Scotland’s patron saint. It was built with and still has stores on the ground floor with three stories of apartments above. Panter was responsible for many of the brick commercial and residential buildings of the 1870s and 1880s that still stand in Brookline Village today.
Ken Liss is the president of the Brookline Historical Society.