What Was There: 307 Central Avenue
One thing you can say about 307 Central Avenue: it has range. It’s been a butcher shop, a movie house, an ice cream parlor, a furniture store, a nightclub, a karate school, a church and a Vietnamese restaurant. While the original structure was three-story wood building, the current one is story brick. It might have been rebuilt around 1945, at the same time as the adjoining structure.
All dates are approximate, and the vacancies (especially 1979-1986 are unaccounted-for, as are the small businesses on the upper floors.
1869-1873 P. Dings Store, grocer
1876-1884 John B. Stackhouse, butcher
1885-1895 ?
1896-1899 S.W. Shaut, grocer (he also owned livery & boarding stables)
1903-1909 Gardner Brothers, grocers (moved to 379 Central)
1909-1921 The Pearl Theater (owned by grocers Augustus C. & John W. Gardner)
1924-1927 Stahler’s Restaurant & Ice Cream Parlor
1928-1934 E.J. Beckert Furniture
1934 Barney’s children’s furnishings
1935-1940 Trading Port [groceries]
1941 taken over by bank
1943 Murray’s Furniture / Murray’s Liquidation Headquarters
1945-1952 Capitol Hill Bakery
1953-1961 (Bud Fleming’s Central) Hideaway of Celebrities [nightclub]
1962 The New Hideaway
1962-1964 Pillow Talk
1964 Tommy Hakim’s Delabar Lounge
1969 Club Sahara
1969 The New Delabar
1970-1974 Tommy Hakim’s Delabar
1975 Celtic Lounge
1976 Sables Lounge
1977 Sables Disco
1978 Teen Affair
1979-1986 gone
1987-1992 Fred Villari’s Studio of Self-Defense
1993-1995 Masters Self Defense Centers
1996-1998 vacant?
1999-2002 Living Word Tabernacle Church
2003-2005 Restaurant Saigon
2005-present (2017) Van’s Vietnamese Restaurant
Doc Circe Died For Our Sins 
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