By Marge Hoskin
Posted Jul. 6, 2010 @ 12:01 am
Friends describe the former Shaboo Inn nightclub in Willimantic (actually in Mansfield behind today’s Eastbrook Mall) as “crowded,” “noisy” and “THE place to be” to hear and dance to great music during the 1970s.
Foster was only 19 when he and his partners founded Shaboo Inn. An impressive list of performers appeared there from 1971-1982, including B.B. King, Aerosmith, the Count Basie Orchestra, Bonnie Raitt and the others listed at www.wili-am.com/shaboo.htm. Construction of the list was a collaborative effort by Foster and WILI staffers John Tuite and Wayne Norman.
Building’s past
The inn building itself had an interesting history. According to the Mansfield Historical Society, Joseph Conant built a silk mill on the site in 1853 that eventually was doubled in size. The Max Pollack Co. produced silk thread in the mill from 1900 until the 1940s. Then it became a dance palace (Pollack’s Park), a chicken farm, the All Day Motel (Mansfield’s first “wet” establishment) and finally, the Shaboo Inn. The inn closed in May 1982 and was gutted by fire that same year.
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