In the first quarter of the 20th century, the buildings that nestled on the triangle of land between North Union Avenue and St. John Street were those of a restaurant, livery and stable, and at least one small house, just south of the Harford House Hotel. That small house (since demolished) is thought to have been the place where the infamous Hattie Stone murdered members of her family in the late 1920s by poisoning them (see 352 Bourbon Street for more information).

In 1943, James C. “Jimmy” Vancherie, Sr. (1898-1972) purchased this one-story building from local attorney, Michael W. Fahey (1897-1947), and opened Vancherie’s Café, “a favorite family restaurant since 1948.” Jimmy had originally immigrated from Italy and was a WWI veteran. He and his wife, Jessie Fadeley Vancherie, along with their son James Jr. “Jim” and his wife, Gussie, operated Vancherie’s Café here for 62 years. James C. Vancherie, Sr., also owned and operated the Inter-County Bus Lines from South Adams Street, which he began in the 1940s, and he was elected Mayor from 1961-1965.

Vancherie’s was a very popular eating place where Harry Mitchell of Mitchell’s Auto Sales often ate. Gladys Stone (unrelated to Hattie Stone) worked there from 1969 until 1993 and says Gussie and Jim were “like a second set of parents” to her; Alonzo Walker says Gussie was “a great lady.” Many people remember the pinball machine just inside the door—and the black raspberry ice cream. Lena Taylor-Roxberry says she spent most of her childhood in Vancherie’s, where her mother, Blanche Taylor, worked and she did also as a teenager. And many locals remember when Jim or Gussie were the drivers of their school buses. Jim Jr. and Gussie were married for 69 years when Gussie died in July 2013; Jim Jr. died just four months later. After Vancherie’s Café closed, this became Quiros’ Burritos for a short time in 2014.

In 2015, Margie Coakley of Coakley’s Pub purchased this property to make it the “Cornerstone,” a retail liquor store and adjunct of the Coakley’s Pub business on St. John Street. Also in the purchase was the open space that stretched from behind Vancherie’s and the wall on St. John Street on which an underwater fish mural had been painted. In July 2018 the Cornerstone liquor store opened in the former Vancherie’s space here. The open space behind the store was later developed by Coakley’s Pub as a further extension of the Coakley’s Pub business and is called “Coakley’s Pub Next Door.” It opened in July 2018 with outdoor seating and live music in the space between the Cornerstone and Coakley’s Pub Next Door.

All of the Coakley’s property is now listed in Harford County records under 416 St. John Street, although the Cornerstone’s street address is 419 North Union Avenue.

County Records
Built 1930. 3556 sq ft, commercial retail store, 9722 sq ft lot.