When Connor Delaney purchased the Greenwood Lounge, he knew he had to approach its restoration with a certain amount of reverence and respect if he was going to retain its history and keep the regulars coming back.

Delaney bought the bar in early January and signed what he described as a long-term lease with the building’s owner, the Lee family. The bar, a popular thread of the Ingersoll neighborhood fabric since 1933, needed some work and instead of a complete overhaul; he wanted to refresh it while maintaining the experience for its customers.

After closing for 40 days to make improvements, the Greenwood Lounge reopened for business in early March.

What made the Greenwood an intriguing investment for Delaney, known for other restoration projects including the Ingersoll Dinner Theater next door and the French Way Cleaners building in the Highland Park Neighborhood?

“It was my uncle’s favorite bar,” Delaney said. “He started hanging out there in 1979.”

Delaney also explained that his uncle’s friend, Bill Landis, still tends bar at the Greenwood.

The bar first opened in late December 1933 when Prohibition was ending, Delaney said.

Before that, the building housed an ice cream shop and later a general store, he said.

In doing the refresh, Delaney discovered some of the building’s history hidden behind old drywall or in dark corners, and he tried to save and incorporate as much as possible in his work to restore the Greenwood.

“It’s fun looking at something that hasn’t seen the light of day in such a long period of time,” he said. 

Some of those items include vintage beer bottles from the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s, a pack of cigarettes found in an old cigarette machine, old signs, advertisements — including an old glass Squirt soda sign — and old newspapers.

Behind old drywall near the back of the bar Delaney found turn-of-the-century (1900s), mirrored ice chests from when it was an ice cream shop. He compared covering the ice chests with drywall to “putting nail polish on a Stradivarius violin.”

“The thing is spectacular,” Delaney said.

Above the bar it says “Johnnie’s,” the name of a former owner who lost his beer license in 1951 for serving whiskey, Delaney said, citing newspaper articles from the time. The bar was licensed for beer only. Johnnie’s name was covered up and not discovered again for more than 50 years. Today, it is proudly displayed and lighted as one of many nods to the bar’s past.

On the mirror behind the bar are stenciled the words “No Spiking,” a warning to customers from the beer-only days who were tempted to bring in their own liquor to add to a soda.

The wall opposite the bar has two pieces of wallpaper art. One shows dogs standing at a bar. The other shows dogs dancing. They’ve been on the wall since the 1950s, and over the years people have etched their names in the paper, letting those who followed know that they had been there, or messages from couples professing their love. 

On the walls of the newly refurbished men’s bathroom are panels that show all the original graffiti — not all of it family-friendly — that was scribbled on the bathroom walls over the years.

The chandelier overhead in the bar once had plastic crystals adorning it. Those have been replaced with what Delaney described as “period crystals.” After a good scrubbing at a car wash and the addition of new, period-appropriate light bulbs, the chandelier casts a warm glow over the bar.

Even higher, if you look closely, are the faces of dolls peering down from the ceiling, where they have been placed over the years.

It all remains along with other treasures that were uncovered, such as lighting elements that with the addition of some LED lights take the bar back to what it looked like in the 1950s, Delaney said.

The color of the lights can be changed to match the season or occasion, he said.

“It just has such a rich history, and so much of it is still intact, so much of the historic fabric,” Delaney said.

Also found was a sign advertising 25-cent beer, an old — and heavily patinaed and rusted — Pabst Blue Ribbon sign, and at least $80 in loose change that was found under the bar’s footrail.

Delaney said the change includes coins from the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s.

While some of the items are on display in the Greenwood Lounge, many are stored off site, he said.

Another piece of that history, as Delaney tells it, is the story of a one-time bar owner who decided to sleep on the pool table one night because someone had been breaking in after hours. He woke up one night and met the intruder at the door, shooting him dead. What Delaney said is a bullet hole can still be seen in the wall just inside the front door.

Another improvement Delaney made is opening up the back room where the pool table is, to create more seating for people who want to be away from the hustle and bustle, and live music, in the main bar.

The bar’s employees had a say in what improvements were made, and had veto power over some ideas, Delaney said.

He also hints that he is considering opening the bar on Sundays. Being next door to the newly restored Ingersoll Dinner Theater creates a “symbiosis” that could benefit the Greenwood Lounge, he said.

Delaney said it’s important to try to retain the historical character of a building while modernizing it for the future. After all, he doesn’t want to disappoint the regulars who have been coming to the bar for decades, Delaney said.

“Patience is important,” he said. “And then thinking about what an optimal use is or what maybe the bulk of people in the community are going to appreciate, and what nostalgia exists, and then try to be patient and get it right.”

And he feels that he got it right with the Greenwood Lounge, helping restore the bar to what long-time customers remember from days past. 

“The amount of emotion and nostalgia and memories that people have here,” he said. “It’s experiences and the way that things make you feel that you remember.”