Wally's Cafe

History

Wally’s Cafe, located on 427 Massachusetts Avenue in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S., originally opened across the street on January 1, 1947, by Joseph L. Walcott. Formerly Wally’s Paradise, the institution is recognized as one of Boston’s oldest and longest-operating jazz clubs. Through the 1950s, Wally’s stage offered a home to a reliable core of local jazz musicians, including the likes of Fat Man Robinson, Bunny Campbell, Art Foxall, Herbie and Roland Lee, Joe Perry, Stanley Trotman, Sabby Lewis, and Mabel Robinson. Outliving all the neighboring jazz institutions, Wally’s Cafe was given the ‘historic’ label in 1997 by the City of Boston’s Business Heritage Project for staying in business for