Spokane City Council Cracks Down on 'Box' Saloons
In a move against the private partitioned rooms often associated with vice, the city council refuses to renew liquor licenses for establishments keeping doors on their booths.
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Spokane—The city council at its last meeting held up Dan A. Darling's application for a renewal of his Fountain saloon liquor licenses because he has boxes in his saloon which have doors attached to them. This is the first step in the anti-box crusade and the action of the council was unanimous. Darling's place is at the corner of Sprague avenue and Monroe street. When liquor licenses were reached, the first one taken up was that of the Manhattan saloon, at 502 Sprague avenue. It came in with a favorable report from the license committee. Councilman Burch demanded to know if the Manhattan saloon did not have boxes in it. He called attention to the fact that the Pratt resolution, passed some months ago, provided that no licenses should be granted to saloons having boxes in them. Chairman Funk of the license committee said that the Pratt resolution did not cover boxes which had neither curtains nor doors, and the Manhattan had neither. The license was granted without further objection. When Darling's application came in with a favorable report, Mr. Funk said he had no desire to mislead the council. He said that Darling's boxes had doors on them. Mr. Hand declared that in that event the license should not be granted. Mr. Funk, in justification of the committee's favorable report, said that the police said there was no complaint against Darling's place. Mr. Hand said there had been a report of girls being in a box there. Mr. Lindsley declared that the committee should not have reported favorably on a license which was in conflict with the Pratt resolution. He moved that the license be referred back to the committee to see if Darling was willing to remove the doors from his boxes. The motion carried without further discussion.
“This is the first step in the anti-box crusade and the action of the council was unanimous.”
The 'box' saloon was a common feature of the late 19th-century urban landscape, serving as a semi-private space that regulators and reformers associated with moral decay and exploitation. This early 20th-century push to mandate visibility in public houses prefigures modern zoning and licensing debates about what constitutes 'appropriate' public space.
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