Old Sully’s Boarded Up, Looks to be Closed for Good

By Seth Daniel

One of the local watering holes in the Town with major Hollywood connections may have have served its last Budweiser.

The bar, officially Sullivan’s and operated by the Sullivan family, was one of the typical old-time Boston bars with only small windows and not even having an official sign – the kind of bar that used to be very prevalent, but is now seen as something from the past.

It served generations of Charlestown families and some famous folks from the other side of the law as well.

This week, Old Sully’s was boarded up on Union Street, and many reports in the Town and out of the Town suggested that the bar had finally closed for good.

Signs on the plywood over the windows said, ‘No Trespassing’ and ‘Private Property.’

No one from Old Sully’s could be contacted for comment on the story.

The Boston Licensing Commission was looking into the bar’s official status, but did not return multiple phone calls.

Old Sully’s was first announced to be closed in the Patriot-Bridge and other outlets back in March. Some in the ownership had decided to sell the liquor license to a Spanish restaurant in Roslindale, and the beer and wine license to a coffee shop downtown.

However, all of that came to a halt in March when not all of the owners of the bar had agreed to the dissolution. Now, it appears that has been resolved and the doors have finally closed on a piece of major history in the Town.

Nationally, the bar became somewhat of a famous locale for tourists who watched characters from Ben Affleck’s ‘The Town’ movie ruminate in Old Sully’s over beers while displaying heinous Boston accents.

Locally, the bar was the unofficial home of the Bunker Hillbillies.

“‘Old Sully’s will always be an institution for ‘Townies’ as a common man wet-the-whistle stopover,” said Kevin Kelly of the Bunker Hillbillies. “The ownership always accommodated the Bunker Hillbillies and I have nothing but the highest regard for the Sullivan family. Several generations will have to rely on waxing nostalgic about their time spent at Sully’s.”

One of its most famous contributions to the Town, however, would be its status as a stop on the Battle of Bunker Hill Day Parade. Generations of politicians and Parade Marshals – including John F. Kennedy – stopped the Parade in its tracks for 10 to 15 minutes every year to have a “cold one” in Old Sully’s. Once the beers had been downed, the parade was free to start again and proceed to the Monument.

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