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Gleason Hotel
Bar in the Gleason Hotel
L. O. Gianniny
F. G. Hicks
Wilkins & Co.'s Fine Wine Rooms
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Saloons, Local Option, and the Coming of Prohibition Located in proximity to the Union Railroad Station and a block from the Opera House on the 600 block of West Main Street, the Gleason Hotel attracted a large clientele. Connected to the Gleason Hotel was a bar that included a pool hall and a ten-pin alley, run by German immigrant, Caroline Hase. Such a combination of vices became illegal in 1907, when the Local Option precluded “any form of entertainment whatsoever in connection with a dealership in intoxicating liquors." W.S. Wilkins Fine Wine Rooms sold jugs of wine in their front room behind which was the bar for white patrons and behind that was a bar for African-Americans “equally fine and commodious” according to the Daily Progress. But when the 1907 local option required that “the entire interior of any bar has to be visible from the sidewalk”, Wilkins could not continue his allegedly separate but equal facility. Customers from the surrounding counties came to Charlottesville on Saturdays to enjoy a day full of shopping and entertainment. When 15 local bars closed down in 1907, the lights of town dimmed earlier, and business slowed down for many local merchants. Cochran’s grocery store had to paint over this sign in 1907 and move its wine and liquor sales operation to Orange County where it was still legal. But Charlottesville patrons could still mail order their liquor from Joel M. Cochran & Co. of Orange, Virginia. “All orders for Wine and Liquors are shipped the same day as received, with no marks thereon to denote contents”, the business advertised in the Daily Progress of September 12, 1907. In 1907, when it became illegal to sell alcoholic beverages at restaurants, the Log Cabin Bar and Restaurant (below) could not make it as a restaurant alone and was forced to close down. The building at 419 East Market Street was torn down in 1909. Mr. F.G. Hicks sold his bar at 501 East Main Street to C.N. Bolser in the winter of 1907. By summer of 1907, Mr. Bolser, though of “sterling character . . . pluck and energy” (quote from the Daily Progress), with a “fine stock of foreign and domestic wines” was forced to close down when the local option passed. Grocers, such as L.O. Gianniny, could continue to sell alcoholic beverages so long as they were given a doctor’s prescription.
Log Cabin Bar and Restaurant |
Carolyn Hase
Postcards of downtown Charlotttesville, night and day
Saloon-keeper C. N. Bolser
"Cochran's Twentieth Century Grocery Emporium" |
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