It’s always funny to laugh about coffee shops on every corner, or a Starbucks inside of a Starbucks. But when you think about it, Columbus has had many bars next to each other. In fact, it’s pretty much always been that way. Columbus has a rich history of taverns, most that are gone, and some that are still a part of our city today.
Tom Betti and Doreen Uhas Sauer have written a delightful telling of our city’s boozy past in Historic Columbus Taverns, The Capital City’s Most Storied Saloons. The book is comprised of research the pair has compiled for their Tavern Tours they offer through the Columbus Landmarks Foundation. They have been leading the tours for a little over three years.
The two both serve on the board for the Columbus Landmarks Foundation with Betti chairing the Education Committee.
“We were trying to find a fun way for people to learn about the history of our city and its landmarks while also being entertained,” says Betti. “It turns out the tours were a huge hit and are almost always sold out.” They also lead private tours.
“When our publisher The History Press, signed us on to write a book, we had a little over 30 days to bring everything together and expand,” says Uhas Sauer. “We have amassed much research over the years that we were able to dust off and polish. It was a marathon to meet the deadline and we still are still a little surprised we pulled it off.”
The introduction notes that the book is also written for Elise Lathrope, an historian who penned Early American Inns and Taverns in 1926, which went on to become “an old standard on the history of such establishments.” Unfortunately, when it came to discussing our dear Columbus, she only gave the city one measly mention and misspelled the tavern’s name.
Historic Columbus Taverns takes you from the very beginning to when Columbus was founded, to the 1940s when the Depression was fading. Early on, there are many names mentioned, but they are shared in a fun way and weaved into stories.
While doing the research for the book, Uhas Sauer was surprised by just how many taverns there were in the early history of Columbus. “Not just that there were 480 or more in the present-day Downtown area in the 1890s, but there had been so many in the very early days of Franklinton,” she says.
Because Franklinton was settled earlier than Columbus, it does get the recognition of having the first local tavern, although it is a bit uncertain whose was first. According to the book, some taverns were well known and some had actual licenses:
Historians differ, and many families’ log dwellings became de facto early taverns, altered to handle overnight guests or to provide food and drink.
Soon enough, nearly every other building in Columbus was a tavern. Many early taverns were named after animals – the Red Lion, the Swan Tavern, the Eagle Hotel, and the White Horse. The Eagle Coffee House employed an actual black bear that operated a treadmill to pump water into the public bathhouse. It sometimes escaped!
It’s thought that around the 1830s, the building at 22 East Mound Street, which houses the present-day Jury Room, was built, making the Jury Room the oldest bar that is still around today.
Taverns became even more important in the nineteenth century as the Germans and Irish settled in the town, bringing their respective cultures of beer and whiskey. They also served a beverage much better for drinking than Columbus’ awful water.
When asked what the best part of their research was, Betti and Uhas Sauer both shared the same sentiment:
Discovering how the Taverns were an intrinsic part of life in the daily activities of Columbus culture. During elections, the Taverns were ground zero for hob knobbing before and after the voting. While during a waterborne epidemic such as typhoid, the taverns were considered a safe haven to quench a thirst with refreshment that didn’t need to be boiled.
Betti was surprised to discover just how dirty people could let the water become. “It is surprising how people dealt with garbage back in the early days of our city,” he says. “In 1833, Columbus had a population of approximately 5,000 people and it was without a public garbage collection service as we know it today. Instead, the community relied on the services rendered by actual “Patrolling Hogs” that would devour garbage cast out into the streets.”
The city went through several cholera disasters. The sewer system was designed to handle flooding and drainage, but was also being used for unsanitary purposes and much filth was being dumped into the river. The solution for the public was to drink more beer and that led to the boom of breweries and the rise of Germans in Columbus.
“I found it interesting that the “family business” was more than alive and well in the Columbus brewing community,” says Betti. “It was literally the life blood of the local industry. The Borns, Hosters, Schlegels, Silbernagles, Schlees, Wagners, Moerleins, Zimmermans, and the Blenkers were a cluster of clans in marriage and business.”
Historic Columbus Taverns does cover quite a bit more than just a run down of taverns and who built them, ran them and patronized them. It mentions many of the hotels that housed early Columbus travelers, of which only the Westin Great Southern Hotel remains. When it was built, “it made a statement about the prosperity and importance of the German community, who saw themselves as now being part of the movers and shakers.” Unfortunately, the hotel’s rooftop beer garden is no longer in operation, having closed about sixty years ago.
“I have always loved grand hotels of the early 1900s,” says Betti. “I would have loved to have visited the Deshler, Neil House, Chittenden, Great Southern and Hartman Hotels when they were in their prime around 1898-1920. They must have been stunningly grand; think Downton Abby and Titanic over-the-top elegance.”
It is sad more of these special places are not with us today. Uhas Sauer elaborates on the ones she remembers:
Having remembered walking into the Clock in the 1960s with my dad for a dinner (when he drove me back to school from Cleveland), I can tell you that the steaks were, of course, not that cheap–but what I do miss are the old haunts of Columbus nightlife–perhaps the bars like Andy Capps on High Street or even the Sugar Shack on 4th, or the old old Library bar on North High and Lane–but also the more gathering place (but not loud) bars like the Ohio Stater Inn and the swanky ones like the Jai Lai, the Clarmont, Benny Kleins, and the Maramor. But I really miss the clock of the Clock Restaurant with its cartoon like face and utensils in its hand–the clock that stood on High Street outside the restaurant even had a little seat built into the base for people waiting for the bus.
The Clock Restaurant was established in 1925 and was in operation until 1979. Betti also reminisces about the day one “could walk into the Clock Restaurant and order a hormone free, mouth watering medium-rare porterhouse steak for 90 cents.”
The Clock was inside of the Larrimer Building. An extravagant electric sign on the building’s front advertised the Bott Brothers’ pool hall. What a shame the elaborate exterior signs are no longer, but the gorgeous bar lives on inside of The Elevator Brewery & Draught House.
If you want to learn more about the wonderful history of Columbus’ Taverns, Historic Columbus Taverns, The Capital City’s Most Storied Saloons is available for purchase at columbuslandmarks.org for $20 shipped, or for $15 if you’d like to pick it up.
Tom Betti will be hosting a book signing on Saturday, October 13, 2012 at 11:00 AM at the Barnes and Noble in Upper Arlington, 3280 Tremont Road, Columbus, OH 43221.
For more information on the tours offered through Columbus Landmarks Foundation, visit them at columbuslandmarks.org.
Photo by Chris Walker Photography.