Faces Nightclub Makes Its Final Exit

Few stories have been as fun for me to report as the one I wrote about Faces nightclub this past spring.

I had no idea that talking to people about a 1970s disco would be so, well, moving. While there were typical tales of sex, drugs, and brawling, what I came to learn was that for many people — especially those who worked there — Faces was like a second home.

“I was one of those people who grew up at Faces,” Mark DeAngelis, a former manager, told me.

He wasn’t the only one. Everyone I reached had a story — some met their husbands or wives there. Some discovered a passion for music and dancing. Many saw their youth inextricably tied to the place and cherished the memories of the time they spent there.

As Eileen Doherty, a Faces die-hard, told me:

“It was such a carefree time. I don’t think people have that kind of fun going out now. We’d get all dolled up, with our dark eyes and dark lips and lots of glitter and sheen and our stilettos and clutch bags. My girlfriends would come to pick me up and they’d toot out in front of my house at midnight and my mother would flip out. But that was the thing. It was a total ‘scene’ disco. You walked in late. You made an entrance.”

And, today, the Boston Globe reports, Faces — the glittering disco turned dilapidated relic, the place we’ve loved and hated all these years — makes its final exit. The towering sign will be the first to go, with the demolition of the building beginning in two weeks.

And with that, we bid our formal adieu. So long, Faces. And thanks for the memories.