Fisher Family in front of their store

(Photo courtesy of Arky Berkal)

The closest I can come to giving you the feeling of what it means is "dining hall" - but it is a little more nuanced than that. The word is generally used in describing a communal or factory dining hall as opposed to a restaurant or tavern.

By way of example, if there was a steel mill in town and there was a cafeteria that was part of company facilities - that would fit as a "valgylkla". The word literally means "a place to eat" but not in the restaurant business sense - think of it more as a description of "this is where you go to eat".

Not having any more than the picture to go by, I would think that it is possible that the Fisher family ran the facility or had the concession for the facility - probably as part of some business operation in the town. I am not saying that it is impossible that is was a stand-alone business open to the general public, just that from the name, that is a less likely possibility.

And this is what "valgykla" translates to according to one dictionary  -

mess    canteen    coffee-room    cookshop    eatery    eating-house
lunchroom    dining-room    refectory    hall    mess-room    commons

Vitalijus Karalius went to the trouble of  going to Uzpaliai and photographing it for us.  His explanation of what he did and found follows.

"I think I found it. No guarantees **, but I am reasonably sure. Astiko Gatvė (St.) 24.  The Archives would have information on the owners back at least to the early twenties.  

**(According to a family member in Israel, the building which was the Fisher family business and home burned down some time ago.)

All the long drawn out theories on the name and location and the end result is what would probably best be described as sort of a "roadhouse" or public dining hall for travelers passing through town. In it's day, probably at the city limits - across the bridge from the center of town and on the road leading out of town towards Svedesai. It's not related to any company or business that I can tell and was a substantial, well built place with a stone and brick foundation and log walls with a basement and a barn in back.

I first tried to find it on my own, and did. At that point, I went hunting for some locals who might confirm where such a place might be based on the use, without telling them what I found or where it was. I got just such confirmation - the first from a woman in her 70's who picked the location rather quickly without difficulty or prompting (without going there) and confirmed that it was the only "valgykla" in town before the war. Now she seems too young to remember much more than the mid to late 30's, but I think that's plenty reliable enough. Across the street from the building, I struck up a conversation with another lady, quite a bit younger. She pointed out the same building and said that after the war (late 40's) it was something of a tavern that also served food - the kind of place wives would have to drag their husbands home from. So from the locals, this seems to be the spot that matches what we knew about the building and its general use. It's in pretty sad shape.

Now the building has had siding put on it over the intervening years, and you cannot really tell if logs had been cut to add windows, move doors etc. But that sort of thing (reconstruction) was normally done by the Soviets. Did not really matter if it made sense, they just did what they wanted, re-used everything due to shortages. So it would not be unusual to see the same doors and windows - but not necessarily in the same spot. The reason I mention this, is that the space between the doors is less than in the picture you sent. The give away though, is the treatment above each door. They are the same, and if someone wants to take the time, I suspect that the proportions of the door on the right, and possibly both doors will match for height vs width. The two doors side by side is also very unusual. The typical house of the period has a single door in the center - and even if there were 2 "apartments" - they would share the entrance. A Jewish merchant of the time would then usually have double doors at one end - where the store would be. This one is different - as is the one in your picture. The older woman said the entrance was from the street, which would certainly make more sense than putting the sign in the back, and also pointed out that the whole building was a dining hall. I understood from that that the owners may not have lived in the same place, although they might have lived in the loft. In the back of the building - from the yard side, there is a similar setup, although the back has been pretty thoroughly "remodeled" and bears little resemblance to the original. I would surmise that the building may have once been home to 2 families, and only later was turned into a dining hall. By the way, we decided that the sign in the upper left of your picture says "Loterijos" - so in addition to food, they sold lottery tickets."