The Columbian Café – a glimpse of Taree in the Great Depression

In 1931 John Foster opened a new business, the Columbian Café and Accommodation House, in Victoria Street, Taree. Less than a year later the business was taken over by Alphonsus Patrick Kennedy.¹

In the Depression many unemployed left their home towns seeking work. One such was Otto Leunberger who visited the café in October 1932 and ordered six hot pies. He left without paying. The café owner followed and confronted him, refusing his friend’s offer of a pair of cufflinks in payment. Otto was sentenced to seven days gaol having been convicted of stealing men’s apparel in Lismore the previous year (his defence then being that he was about to be married and had nothing to wear).²

Ironically, Mr Kennedy was known for his charity and would have given food freely if asked.³

In October 1937, another drifter, Frank George Simmonds, who had convictions for being drunk and disorderly,⁴ was socialising with friends in rooms above the café. Alcohol was consumed together with a light meal. In the early hours of the next morning, Mrs Humphries spied Frank’s body sprawled on the concrete at the rear of the building. An inquest found that he had suffered a bout of vomiting and toppled over the balcony railing.⁵

In August 1938, Mr Kennedy relinquished the business which was then renamed the “Paragon Café”.⁶

Author: Penny Teerman