Hindus find a Friendly's home

Keshav Sharan, president of the Braj Center, plays a drum during a Kirtan, which is a devotional form of yoga. (John Tlumacki/Globe Staff)

HOLBROOK - Where there used to be burgers and frappes, peace will soon reign.

The brick building on South Franklin Street in Holbrook that housed a Friendly's restaurant until 2005 is undergoing renovations and expected to reopen in the spring as the Braj Center, a Hindu temple dedicated to a goddess.

There will be a large hall with sinks for washing hands and feet at the entrance, and an altar with gold and bronze statues of Lord Krishna and his wife, Radha, in colorful robes.

The couple, whose union symbolizes absolute love, will stand in a gazebo. Around them will be vines and plants imitating an outdoor garden - and the ceiling may be painted a shade of blue to look like the sky. Songs will echo between the walls, and devotees in the kitchen will prepare vegetarian meals, with spices from the temple's garden.

Lynn Bolton, a spokeswoman for Friendly's, said she's never heard of any of the company's former restaurants being turned into temples. Usually, the buildings are transformed into other restaurants or banks, she said.

Rita Shah, president of the India Association of Greater Boston, said she also never heard of a temple in a building that had been a restaurant - but, she said, good thoughts can make any place spiritual.

"If you really believe, you can really turn any space into a temple," she said. "It doesn't matter what kind of place it was before."

She added that the temple is much needed by Hindus on the South Shore, particularly Quincy, where the Indian immigrant population increased significantly in the past 20 years. According to the 2000 census, there are 1,127 Asian Indian people residing in the city, and the nearest Hindu temple currently is the Vedanta Center in Cohasset. "I'm really glad that there'll be a place on the South Shore where people will be able to get together," she said. "The North Shore has a whole bunch of temples, but the South Shore only has one."

The Sri Lakshmi Temple in Ashland, which opened in 1986, is one of the area's largest. Hindus from all over Greater Boston flock there for holidays.

The Vrindavana Preservation Society, a Quincy-based Indian cultural organization, purchased the Holbrook building for $290,000 in September.

The society's president, Keshav Sharan, said the organization had rented space from the City of Quincy for cultural events because it did not have the money to buy a place of its own.

Its agreement with the city restricted the Preservation society to cultural activities, but religious ceremonies could not be held in city buildings, said former society vice president Nicholas Cavallo.

This year, when the organization's membership reached 1,800 people, the society was able to buy a building, with a down payment of 50 percent, Sharan said. The down payment was large because the organization didn't have any collateral, he said.