Joe Jesus’s Vision for Downtown New Bedford Went Unfulfilled

Joe Jesus was a visionary, but Joe was able to draw from memories of a different era when Downtown New Bedford was the place to spend a Thursday night.

He reinvented his version of those days with the annual 50s Night celebration, now called Joe Jesus's 50s Night, as a tribute to Joe more than five years after his death.

Joseph J. Jesus was born in New Bedford in 1938. He lived here his entire life. Joe was 17 when he enlisted in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War.

During his life, Joe worked in construction, was a milkman, a restauranteur, a car salesman and a landlord, among other things. Above all else, Joe Jesus was a superfan of his hometown, New Bedford.

In 1980, Joe and his wife Nancy owned the Bristol Building at 740-764 Purchase Street. The two-story Bristol Building, which opened in 1914, housed storefronts on the street level and office space above, much as today.

Joe and Nancy Jesus opened a restaurant, called Jonan's, on the second floor of the Bristol Building. Jonan's Restaurant employed cabaret-style singing waitstaff, but the format didn't catch on, and Jonan's closed before long.

Joe Jesus owned the Bristol Building in 1989 when the Peanut Store moved there from the corner of Purchase and William Street (where No Problemo is today), where it had been since opening in 1937.

Joe and Nancy Jesus also planned a mini-mall consisting of 11 shops on the second floor of the Bristol Building. The project never moved forward, and once Jonan's Restaurant closed, the second floor reverted to office space.

Joe Jesus died on March 10, 2019. He was 81.

Thanks to Jay Avila of Spinner Publications for his research assistance.