Hugh E. Bir Cafe’s 59th birthday is June 8 in New Albany
Whether it was the historic downtown bar in his family’s possession since 1966, or the soft-spoken man himself, the name Hugh E. Bir has been synonymous with New Albany for so very long that most of this city’s residents probably think he came here with the founding Scribner family in the early 1800s.
Of course, that’s assuming most residents know who the Scribners were. For many of us, it makes for a far better story to conclude that Hugh E. Bir Jr. founded New Albany, and leave it at that. When local photographer David Modica documented New Albany for a bicentennial exhibition in 2013, Hugh was there.
Hugh’s passing on Friday has prompted not so much mourning as an outpouring of pure and unabashed affection, uniting people across all the silly arbitrary boundaries that customarily divide us. It’s because Hugh was gentle, generous and genuine. The bar was his living room, and music an expression of his soul…