During the first half of the 1900s, Morton Newmeyer ran a very popular bowling alley here on the first floor, where boys, including Mitch Mitchell, set up the pins. Following Newmeyer, Muriel and Harry Diamond ran the bowling alley in the 1950s. However, it was also well known that there was a busy bookie operation in the basement at the height of the gambling and horse-racing era (1920s-1940s). It had a large blackboard for listing horses and their odds along with a lot of telephones. A “pool parlor” is marked in this location on the 1921 Sanborn Insurance Map. The bowling alley and the bookie operation closed in the early 1950s before this became a Montgomery Ward retail store for several years (although the blackboard with names of horses and their odds remained in the basement). Mark Hemler got his first job here after school, moving appliances and cleaning the shop. Kev Lynch has shared an amusing story told by his aunt, Joan Hayes, who worked in Montgomery Ward’s. One day a man came into the store to return an item; when she asked why he was returning it he told her, “I’ve turned every knob and switch on it, and I can’t get the darn TV to come one.” Joan, as politely as she could, responded “Sir, this is a microwave.”

Around 1994, this became a Fortunato Bros. pizza restaurant. But in 2001 the ground floor began a new life operating as La Cucina under Gino and Antonella Coppola. They had arrived in the United States from their hometown near Naples Italy, and honed their kitchen skills in New York and New Jersey restaurants before moving to Havre de Grace in summer 2001. With the help of their children, Nikki, Maico, and Rosanna, all Havre de Grace High School graduates, they opened La Cucina and have been serving authentic Italian food ever since. Family members live in the apartments above the restaurant.

County Records
Built 1930. 8400 sq ft restaurant, 5180 sq ft lot.