Mapocho trams Whereabouts in January 1935 in Bridge Street next to Central Market. The hotel building on the right that housed the bar "Samson" on the first floor and reaches to see his name on the roofs of cars.
researching my book on the history of Barrio Mapocho, soon to be published (I'll see in due course through what mechanism), I have come up with an interesting fact about the business old former Bohemian district of riparian area with a bar-restaurant that virtually no records exist except an aged photo.
not know if it's coincidence that, in addition to an ancient and historical place called "Hercules" in the sector reaching Aillavilú Bandera (frequented by Pablo Neruda Oreste Plath and Luis Emilio Recabarren, among several others), there was another bowling alley called "Samson" to return to General Mackenna Street Bridge, under the premises of the disappeared "Excelsior Hotel" which was located where now is the access to Metro Bridge Cal y Canto with Central Market.
Difficult to answer this question in our day but certainly the similarity of names of these two legendary titans separated by just a quarter block cross Mapocho would not seem such a coincidence.
survive to this day not much data on the bar-restaurant "Samson" located on Bridge street address 860 of the old building back to Aillavilú hotel in its low and where once was also the famous "Guaton Bar", one of the first to bring the bohemian neighborhood character and festive lasted until fifties or so, very popular in the Centennial and when he was near the front of the small railway stations in the market before the construction of the huge building Mapocho Station.
As said earlier, there is little to see today in the footsteps of "Samson" on the block, except an old file photo Chilectra dated in 1935, where you see your place in the front, but hidden behind the tram in motion and in the distance of background levels within the framework focused on a beautiful tram that stops next to Central Market, which also appears back image. The image can be seen on page 89 of the album "Lights of modernity. Photographic Chilectra (Corporate Communication Management Enersis SA, 2001), with the caption : "Plaza Central Market Mapocho to the bottom. Truck with a capacity of 24 seats. January 10, 1935. "
However, there is an interesting detail: this place was a bar and restaurant built on the ground floor of the old and impressive hotel in the neighborhood. As these facilities were a more or less common, according to former neighbors and report according to the testimonies we have consulted, we can assume about the inner aspect of the "Samson" looking at another relic of that time of night owls in Mapocho attraction: the local bar-restaurant "Touring" , popular bar located on the side of General Mackenna and in the same situation on the ground floor of a hotel building (the Central Hotel, in this case). We have already spent a previous post to this site.
If so, we focus on retaining bars look like mapochinos (other cases were "The Clinic" local first "Wonder Bar" and one also in the basement of the now demolished building called The Ship, who was a neighbor the Bristol Hotel ), we can infer about the aesthetics and appearance of the service of "Samson" in the midst of the busy neighborhood that once was full of passengers looking out tickets for the railroad, staying in hotels or visiting environment the cooking places frenzied markets. Would have been appropriate, then, a typical bar and dining room with these places they looked toward the first half of century elegance boasting some real or imaginary, like access windows English bar.
The location of the bar with the name of the biblical strongman magical hair, was the southern end of this elegant building at the end of the street on the corner of the Plaza Venezuela, around the side the famous "Piojera" and the old attic of Corregidor in the same street Zañartu Aillavilú, from which oversaw the construction of the Puente de Cal y Canto in the colony. The hotel was a building drawn with its length north-south axis, with the front facing the west side of Central Market. This position is confirmed by a photograph of the album "Lights of modernity" on page 44.
Was this, perhaps, the bar of course Don Pablo de Rokha used to frequent in the street near the market when I lived in the Bristol Hotel , says the rich oral tradition and legend surrounding the controversial self poet? Well, we have no sure answer to this possibility but we would like to think so.
I read somewhere something about the former presence of another bar called "Samson" in a different place, but within the same Center Santiago, so I would not know if it corresponded to a change of location or a coincidence of names. Anyway, between renovations and renovations later, nothing has been in this shelter mapochino or the elegant building of the "Excelsior Hotel" to give him shelter.
some planners filling the role of Delilah cut his hair this "Samson", perhaps.
