The Hofbrau

The Hofbrau was a restaurant and nightclub on Boston Road, then Route 3, in Pinehurst. Jack O'Connell, listed in the directories as John C. O'Connell, ran it in 1940 and 1941, when it advertised in the Howe High School yearbook and had its own telephone, Billerica 2394, and a staff of waitresses; a fire there on October 29, 1940 was one of the year's mutual aid calls of the fire department. In 1942, as the American Hofbrau, it advertised the entertainers Mae Wynn and Raynor Lehr. By 1948 it billed itself as the "Best Show North of Boston." As the Club Hofbrau it was run in 1949 by David Gladstone and in 1951 by Edward Gange and Michael J. Gangi of Woburn, open from 8 a.m. to midnight, catering to banquets and putting on floor shows on Friday and Saturday nights. In 1952 The Copa advertised from Boston Road, Route 3, with the same telephone number, Billerica 2377.

It stood at the corner of Boston Road and Shawsheen Road (now 729 Boston Road), on the lot of the former Olga L. Greenwood House. A state building-inspection card dated October 9, 1941 records a one-story building with a basement on Boston Road, owned by Winifred Mae Turnbull and Zella Lehr, to be used for dining and entertainment; the lot belonged to Grace A. O'Connell from 1937, to Turnbull and Lehr from 1941 and to David Gladstone from 1946. Older residents remember that the building burned in the 1950s, before the lot became a miniature golf course in 1957.

In October 1947 it advertised "Blonde and Beautiful Candy Parker", the femcee and comedienne Primrose Semon and the comedy team Sharples and Naples, with reservations at Billerica 2359. In February 1948 it advertised as the Billerica Hofbrau on Route 3, "The show place of Talent", with the comedians Bobby Glen and Tony Pinto, the singer Rita Allen and the dancer Shirly Hayworth. In April 1948 a dancer billed as Candy Parker and the manager, David Gladstone, were arrested after a show there and charged with presenting an immoral show; at their trial in Middlesex Superior Court in May the jury could not agree on a verdict.