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| 1877 | 31 |
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1,080 stories matching saloon
- The Gambler’s Shield: How Seattle Saloon Keepers Dodged Mayor Moras’ Purge
When Chief Justice Burke urged the city to revoke liquor licenses from gambling dens, the Common Council refused—citing legal technicalities and protecting the very establishments the mayor wanted shut down.
- The Judge Who Gambled Away His Office: Soderberg’s Dramatic Resignation
After the grand jury returned five indictments for extortion and malfeasance in office, District Attorney Joseph Soderberg walked into court, tendered his resignation, and declared he would repay every illegal fee to the county treasury.
- The Pastor, the Saloon, and the Pulpit Campaign in Newport
Rev. F. R. Margetts calls Rev. William A. Wasson a hired saloon advocate and announces a Sunday rebuttal at the Congregational church ahead of Newport’s September 7, 1909 liquor-license election.
- Knockout Drops at the Standard Saloon
A Tacoma man swears he was drugged, fleeced of $210, and knocked toothless—then asks the city to revoke the saloon's license.
- The Dries Sweep Stevens County—and 39 Saloons Get Their Notice
A local-option election gives the dries a 677-vote majority, closes 39 saloons, and leaves Newport's saloonkeepers pinning their hopes on a court challenge.
- The Mayor’s Gambit: Humes Defers to Council as Seattle Sweeps Away Its Gambling dens
In a rare moment of unified reform, the City Council has ordered the closure of all gambling houses and restricted saloons in the business district. Mayor Humes, citing legal ambiguity over the saloon ordinance but promising strict enforcement against lotteries, leaves the fate of Seattle’s vice industry to the police chief.
- The Anti-Saloon League Tells Tacoma's Churchgoers to Get Their Hands Dirty
A packed house at the First Presbyterian church heard the national superintendent of the Anti-Saloon League argue that pious voters who stay out of politics are the reason the saloons stay open — and that the worst anarchist in town is the official who picks which laws to enforce.
- Single Tax vs. the Saloon: A Seattle Debate on Land, Liquor, and Power
At Freed's Hall, Henry George's followers and Prohibitionists argued over whether taxing land or banning drink could break the grip of monopoly and the whisky trust.
- Newport's New Council Takes On Sunday Liquor—and the Saloon Back Door
At its first meeting, the council rejected a Union Street saloon license, ordered barroom windows stripped of frosted glass so police could see Sunday drinking, and barred interior doors that let patrons slip between saloon and building.
- The Mayor's War on 'Black Chapel'
Mayor J. T. Ronald vetoes a saloon license in a notorious district, decrying the density of vice in a three-hundred-foot square.
- Ballard's Post Office Moves Next Door to a Saloon—And Residents Are Furious
When the post office relocated to a building owned by saloonkeepers Cors & Wegner, Ballard citizens cried foul, accusing the mayor and postmaster of putting a public office in a den of vice.
- Newport Votes Itself Dry by Sixteen Votes
A local-option election on Sept. 7, 1909, ended licensed liquor sales in Newport, 110 to 94, after challenged voters, an illegal-registration arrest and a hard-fought badge campaign. The saloons were set to close Dec. 6, with a countywide vote still to come.
- Ballard's Saloon War: A Dry Sunday and a Hornet's Nest
A petition to shutter Ballard's saloons on the Sabbath, an ordinance to strip them of blinds and screens, and defiant barkeeps threatening to resist — the young city's first big temperance fight comes to a head in the council rooms.
- The Saloon Wars: How Seattle’s Council Killed the Fight to Ban Bars from Residential Streets
In a heated March 1904 council meeting, reformers fought to keep saloons off streets where wives and children walked. The measure failed, revealing deep corruption and the powerful grip of liquor interests on city government.
- Seattle Slams the 'Ladies' Entrance' on Saloons
After a 2,500-name petition, the city council orders saloons to keep one street entrance and bars the screened side doors and signs that drew women in.
- The 'Blasher' Walks: A Razor Fight in a Seattle Saloon Ends in Acquittal
William Robinson, known to police for carrying two or three razors, was cleared of slashing Alander Strom outside the Mint saloon—after witnesses convinced a jury he was the one being thrown out.
- Newport Saloons Lose the First Round in the Dry Fight
A Spokane judge upheld the town's local-option election, forcing saloon owners to amend their challenge—while the anti-saloon league plotted a dry Washington.
- Seattle's War on the Saloon 'Ladies' Entrance'
Aldermen want every drinker—and every woman—to come through the front door, arguing side doors lure respectable girls into saloon wine rooms.
- The Mayor Moves to Shut the Dives and Gambling Rooms
A sweeping message from the mayor demands that the council revoke the licenses of saloons and music halls where girls sell liquor and gamblers run their games—passed in full by the aldermen even as auditors report a $27,000 hole in the street-improvement funds.
- One Vote Shy: Washington’s Local Option Bill Goes Down in the Senate
A 17–16 roll call, one absent senator and a promised reconsideration left Washington’s saloon-regulation fight hanging by a thread.
- Newport Goes Dry on December 7 — and the Town Has to Refund the Saloons' Licenses
Local option, voted in September, shuts every saloon on the Washington side of the river next Tuesday. The council will borrow against the treasury to hand back about $900 in unearned license money, and warns bootleggers that blind pigs will be dealt with severely. Drinkers need only cross to Idaho.
- A Razor and a Riot in Seattle's Tenderloin
A crowded Italian saloon at Third and Washington erupted into a free-for-all that took a squad of police to break up—and left the neighborhood talking.
- The Mint Saloon Loses Its License—and City Hall Braces for Court
The council confirmed a new police commissioner, reappointed officials, revoked the Mint Saloon's license over loud legal objections, and set Pike Street on the road to vitrified brick.
- The Copper Chief Saloon Killing Goes to the Jury
After days of testimony, a Seattle jury weighed James Murphy’s fate as an eleventh-hour bootblack witness contradicted the state’s star in the 1894 saloon shooting of Phil J. Dawes.
- Stevens County Sets a Date to Vote the Saloons Out
With the petition deadlines cleared, the county auditor orders a Nov. 9 local-option election — and the dry forces, organized out of Colville, are predicting the small-town saloons are finished.
Also about this, in other words
- The Cosmopolitan Saloon: A Fixture of 1870s Snohomish
A look inside the frontier-era watering holes that once defined the social and economic landscape of the Snohomish River valley.
- The Pride of the Frontier Saloon
An 1877 profile of a Snohomish establishment boasting a polished maple bar and 'quiet, gentlemanly' service.
- The Social Pulse of Snohomish City
A look inside W.B. Stevens’ saloon, a cornerstone of daily commerce and community life in 19th-century Snohomish.
- The Cosmopolitan Saloon: A Front-Row Seat to 1870s Snohomish
Before the city was a quiet hub, the Cosmopolitan Saloon on First Street offered respite, spirits, and 'noble whisky' to the growing crowds of the Washington Territory.
- Saloon Brawl Ends in Hospitalization
An evening of drinking on Pacific Avenue turns violent, leading to one man's arrest and another's injury.
- The Saloon at the State Fair: A Temperance Warning from Yakima
An impassioned editorial condemns the state fair commission for auctioning saloon rights, warning that liquor will corrupt young men and tarnish the fair's educational mission.
- The Tavern Named After a Scandal
In a frontier Seattle row of saloons and steamers, one establishment adopted a moniker that flirted with the risqué.
- A Saloon Showdown in Tacoma
A complicated dispute over a local watering hole descends into a flurry of mutual arrests and legal maneuvering.