Members of the Downtown Northampton Association hold their board meeting in the public space of Masonic Street Live! as a way to make the space more visible to those passing by. STAFF PHOTO/CAROL LOLLIS

Members of the Downtown Northampton Association hold their board meeting in the public space of Masonic Street Live! as a way to make the space more visible to those passing by. STAFF PHOTO/CAROL LOLLIS

Iconica Social Club, co-owned by Ximena Salmerón and William Swyers, with the Masonic Street Live! space in the background. STAFF PHOTO/CAROL LOLLIS

Ximena Salmerón and William Swyers, co-owners of Iconica Social Club, get ready for business Thursday morning. In front is the chocolate cake made by Salmerón. STAFF PHOTO/CAROL LOLLIS

Ximena Salmerón and William Swyers, co-owners of Iconica Social Club, stand at the entrance with the Masonic Street Live! space behind them. STAFF PHOTO/CAROL LOLLIS

Ximena Salmerón and William Swyers, co-owners of Iconica Social Club, get ready for business Thursday morning. STAFF PHOTO/CAROL LOLLIS

NORTHAMPTON — Last summer, while other restaurants and bars that had managed to withstand the faltering pandemic economy began reopening to masked customers, the owners of Iconica Social Club faced an unforeseen roadblock that threatened to thwart their own plans to return to business.

In their Masonic Street parking lot, an urgent Department of Public Works solution to an outdated sewage system had left a 25-foot crater carved in the ground. A dust plume emanated from the repair and the unmistakable rattling of a jackhammer just below the club’s brunching patrons squashed co-owners Will Swyers and Ximena Salmerón’s dreams of hosting local performers on their doorstep.

As Swyers put it, “it was like a glimmer of sunshine crushed by toilets.”

“Originally, we were very optimistic for a short-lived pandemic,” Swyers explained. “We’re performers, we’re actors, so we’d always dreamed of having a fully functional stage where we could produce our own work, form a theater company, perform and be open to community feedback, to hold open mics.”

“Then, obviously, the pandemic went on for way longer than expected. Follow that with the repair and it just felt like our dreams were being crushed,” said Swyers.

But those dreams are crushed no longer.

Costing its owners only the four parking spaces needed to accommodate a makeshift platform stage, Iconica is set to host local performers through September in partnership with Northampton’s Arts and Culture Department.

Masonic Street Live! will serve as an outdoor venue for free music performances every Friday and Saturday from 6-8 p.m. and for free salsa lessons on Monday evenings. The city will also sponsor Thursday bluegrass nights in the same time and space in partnership with Signature Sounds Parlor House.

In announcing the initiative, Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra said: “I am deeply aware of how important downtown is to our local economy. In order to build on the successes of Summer on Strong, I wanted my team to focus on an upper Main Street location.”

“Iconica Social Club had already established a welcoming spot in the Masonic Street parking lot, so it was the perfect location to expand our vision for outdoor entertainment on this end of the street,” she said.

Swyers and Salmerón also aim to make over the annex and replicate Iconica’s indoor eccentricity outside. The social club’s interior brims with antique tchotchkes and rare estate sale finds — a low circular table dedicated to tarot readings, a faded newspaper from the morning following Lady Diana’s death, a downstairs bathroom plastered top to bottom with authentic (signed and dated) checks from the 1980s, and a golden chandelier dangling beside a skylight in Iconica’s attic kitchen that’s responsible for a handful of the lighting fixture’s precariously warped candles.

Salmerón envisions a handful of picnic tables, potted plants resembling the ones lining Summer on Strong’s outdoor dining strip, and some lighting to liven up the place. But ultimately, she said, Masonic Street Live! partners will strive to defer to community members in stylizing the venue, curating the menu, slating performers, and cultivating a vibrant experience.

“Right now, it kind of just looks like a parking lot, but this could become visually a fantastic space,” said Salmerón. “We’re listening and talking to people and trying to be receptive to the audience and create something that is intellectually crowd sourced.”

So far, Salmerón has found that the visiting crowd enjoys indulging in her triple layer chocolate cake with chocolate cream cheese frosting — no surprise there. Iconica also inaugurated its beer and wine license last week, discovering that, while live musical performances pair well with a pint of beer, dancing salsa with strangers might call for something a little stronger, say, a margarita.

The venue has already hosted two performers, local artist DJ Nightshade and septuagenarian rocker Ray Mason and his 1965 Silvertone guitar. Masonic Street Live!’s performance schedule can be found at www.northamptonartscouncil.org/2022/06/masonic-street-live.html.

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