Last spring, my wife and I were driving through Keene in the afternoon after spending the morning in Bellows Falls. We came down Washington Street and were astonished to see the new café. So we stopped in for some tea and cookies. Maybe it was the sugar rush, or just my journalistic curiosity, but I decided right then that I was going to research the history of the building and interview the café owners. I came back a month later, spending about five hours in the Historical Society of Cheshire County, at 246 Main Street in Keene. I combed through books, photos, journals and city directories, all graciously provided by director Alan Rumrill.

According to official Massachusetts records on the Internet, Joseph Gardner Warren was born June 4, 1820, in the Worcester County town of Hubbardston, the child of Ebenezer Warren and Hepzibah (Waite) Warren. In 1847, he married Jane Flagg, who soon gave birth to Josephine, his only apparent child. Joseph married a second time, to a Connecticut woman named Nellie. In the 1850 and 1860 US Census, he is living in Worcester, and working as a carpenter. Sometime before 1870, he moved to Keene, the 1870 census showing his occupation as "junk dealer," and in 1880, as "building trades."

According to Upper Ashuelot, a History of Keene, New Hampshire, by the Keene History Committee, the lot at 26-28 Washington Street was sold in 1793 by Josiah Richardson, to the town of Keene, where they built a two-story brick school. In 1844, the town sold it to Eliphalet Briggs, who owned a nearby cabinet shop. Two years later, Briggs lost the building to a fire. The lot remained vacant for 19 years, until it was purchased by Mr. Warren, who completed the present building in 1873. At that time, the official street address was 8 Washington St, but it was renumbered in 1891.

According to various Keene records, Joseph G. Warren died in Keene on October 23, 1897, leaving wife Nellie, daughter Josephine (then Herrick), and two grandchildren, Gertrude and Florence Herrick. Nellie died apparently around 1920, and Josephine sold the property soon after to the Libbares family. She died in 1934. Among her survivors were daughter Gertrude (then Mrs. Frank Slocombe), and 16-year-old granddaughter Princella Slocombe. I was unable to trace the descendants from that point.

I took a lunch break between sessions at the Historical Society and walked up to Kristin's, where I enjoyed a very tasty sandwich and side salad at a small table near one of the two front windows. Customers were coming in and out frequently, exchanging hellos, and it seemed that the servers behind the counter knew the first names of almost everyone who walked in. I wanted to soak up the atmosphere and local color, but it was back to work looking at stacks of city directories. Here’s some of what I found.

The first occupant of the street-level space was Foster & White, who were listed as tailors and clothiers. Several years later, William M. Gray opened the Boston Branch Grocery. My research indicates that there were stores by that name at one time in Marblehead and Martha's Vineyard, Mass., so it may be that Mr. Gray was under contract with a wholesaler who supplied exclusively to stores with their name. I doubt it was a so-called chain store. As early as 1891, Flavel Beal became the proprietor; and in 1909, John A. Smith ran it.

It should be noted that a 2003 article in the Keene Sentinel indicated that the city's library was housed on the second floor from 1877 to 1881.