"Music is everything," Johnny Ray told the Swampscott Tides on the night he opened the Swampscott Center for the Performing Arts. "The opportunity to have a beautiful music venue at this location with this kind of a view was an offer I couldn't refuse."
That night was September 5. Guests walked past a red carpet and a velvet rope into the former Hawthorne-by-the-Sea at 153 Humphrey Street while the sun went down over the water. Four weeks later, the building has a stage, a pizza oven and a fall calendar. It also has a lease with a fixed end date, because the town that owns the property is still deciding what the site should become. Those two facts go together. This season is the clearest look Swampscott has had at the use residents asked for in planning meetings, and it is running on a schedule the town set.
A lease written to cover the bills
The town has owned this stretch of Humphrey Street for four years. At a Special Town Meeting in June 2022, voters authorized the Select Board to acquire 149–169 Humphrey Street for municipal use, 214 to 3. Long-term planning has been slow. Last December, Town Meeting members let the Select Board lease the former restaurant for up to 30 months "to limit carrying costs and protect a key community asset while long-term planning continues."
The Select Board approved the center's entertainment, common victualler and liquor licenses. Its occupancy runs to the end of June 2028. The venue was licensed as an interim tenant from the start. It fills a building the town owns while the town works out the long-term plan.
That makes the room unusual on Humphrey Street. Earlier in the planning process, the Hawthorne Re-Use Advisory Committee held two community meetings. Residents there talked about creating "a place to go," putting pedestrians ahead of cars, and the short lifespan of businesses on Humphrey Street. Other ideas included food courts, cafés, artisans and events. The interim lease has brought several of those uses to the site at once, years before any permanent plan could be built.
What 153 Humphrey looks like inside now
Ray owns and operates the center. It is his fourth business on the North Shore. He has divided the old restaurant into rooms with their own names:
- The Flamingo Lounge comes first. It is pastel pink and blue, named partly for its ocean views. Featured cocktails were $15 at opening, and wines and spritzes ran $11 to $14.
- The Dory sits past an open-concept entrance. A bar with colorful couches leads into a darker blue dining room with a large carpeted stage and a buffet alongside it.
- Renzo's Pizza now bakes inside the building. It serves 16-inch New York-style thin-crust pies Tuesday through Sunday, from 5 p.m. until close.
Renzo's got there by chance. Owner Mike Gajewski and his son Brendan, whom he calls "the pizza guy," had run Renzo's in Salem, most recently on Essex Street. When that location ended, they had to find a new spot for their ovens, store them or sell them. Then Ray offered them space. "I used to come here for dinner and a drink. Now we're able to make pizza in this place," Gajewski said. "People can come here for pizza and a view. It doesn't get much better." The Tides reports he hopes to expand the menu and hours.
Opening night was put together by local people, sound system included. The first act was the debut of Fats Arnold and His Midnight Hot Dogs, led by husband and wife Matthew Arnold and Holly Cameron, who are both professionally trained opera singers. They played Sam & Dave and Etta James from 8:30 to 11:30 p.m. When the sound system started feeding back, several local sound professionals stepped in to fix it.
The calendar through early November
The venue's site says it is open Tuesday through Sunday. It does not list daily hours or show-by-show ticket prices, so check with the Swampscott Center for the Performing Arts before you go. The Swampscott Tides events calendar lists these dates:
- Friday, October 9, 8–11 p.m. Banging 88's: The Dueling Piano Show.
- Friday, October 16, 7–11 p.m. New York Comedy Night.
- Saturday, October 31, 7–11 p.m. The Thriller Halloween Party.
- Friday, November 6, 5–9 p.m. Fats Arnold and His Midnight Hot Dogs return, this time with an earlier start than their opening-night set.
- Saturday, November 7, 5–11 p.m. The Lisa Love Experience.
The lineup mixes piano, comedy, a costume night and local bands. That fits a room still in its first season. Ray has described a bigger goal. "Five years from now we have national and international acts who are seeking an intimate music venue to entertain," he said on opening night. His five-year timeline runs past June 2028, when his contract with the town ends.
The clock on the building
The town's work on the long-term plan has continued while the center opened. On August 5, the Select Board voted 3 to 2 to oppose residential development at the Hawthorne property, which could keep housing out of the long-term request for proposals. Vice Chair Danielle Leonard and members Mary Ellen Fletcher and Wayne Spritz voted in favor. Chair Katie Phelan and member Ted Dooley voted against. Town staff are now drafting the RFP, and Phelan suggested the board will review it over at least two meetings. June planning coverage set a fall 2026 target for the RFP. As of the latest reporting, it is still being drafted and has not been issued.
Two other pieces are still open. The town is exploring a possible purchase of the St. John's Church parking lot next door, which officials say could "unlock the full potential of the site" with a mix of green space, parking and businesses that bring in revenue. The Re-Use Advisory Committee's preferred concept, called Plan G1, shows two rows of buildings. That works out to about 25,000 square feet at two stories, with a 40-foot opening between the rows and roughly 28 parking spaces. It is a committee recommendation and has not been approved.
The town's open-space committees have argued for a different use. In July, the chairs of the Open Space and Recreation Plan Committee, Climate Action and Resilience Committee, Conservation Commission, Tree Committee and Swampscott Conservancy sent the Select Board a 14-page letter supporting a mostly open-space plan. Tania Lillak, who chairs the Open Space Committee, put it this way at a Select Board meeting:
"This is an opportunity for a beautiful waterfront park, a gateway jewel to our town."
Earlier town input pointed the same way. A survey presented to the Select Board on April 3, 2024 found that residents ranked a public park and open space as the most important use. Waterfront access ranked as important, revenue generation less so, and off-street public parking "not important." Vice Chair Leonard said in July that she believes the old restaurant building should be torn down.
That puts the Flamingo Lounge and The Dory in a building that several town officials and committees expect to replace. Each show this fall happens in a room whose long-term future is under public debate.
The next fixed date is Town Meeting. Under a state law signed this year, Swampscott's annual fall Town Meeting takes place on the first Monday in December, which this year is December 7, 2026.
The rest of Humphrey Street
The center's first season comes as other businesses on this part of Humphrey Street are adding seats and evening hours. Across the street at 128 Humphrey, Pomona Cafe & Wine Bar opened an additional bar and dining room this year. In September, the Select Board approved its entertainment license. At 149 Humphrey, Maria's Gourmet Café from Marblehead is planned. As of July, the project was in early stages with no opening date or menu announced.
So two venues on the same block now hold entertainment licenses from the same board, and a third business is preparing to open a few doors down. Residents named the short lifespan of Humphrey Street businesses as a concern in the planning meetings. The tenant in the town's own building already knows its end date. The music at 153 Humphrey runs Tuesday through Sunday until June 2028, unless the town's long-term plan sets a different date.
For owners of historic and waterfront homes near Humphrey Street, decisions like the Hawthorne RFP shape the blocks around them as much as any single sale does. Michael Selbst follows those decisions from the Select Board agenda to the finished building, and is glad to talk through how the Hawthorne plan may affect your part of Swampscott. Schedule a Consultation.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
