The Riverside Bar's Final Night
After a series of ownership changes and a police attachment, the Riverside bar is stripped of its stock and shuttered for good.
The Riverside bar, originally started by McGoogan Murchison and later owned by Chas. Gholson, has again changed hands, the last purchaser being a man named Linstead. The new owner came to Newport last week and, after looking over the ground, decided that it was not fertile and left for some other point on Sunday. On Monday night, somebody made away with nearly all of the wines and whiskies in the bar, leaving only some soft drinks and beer. It is understood that the new owner will not return, and that a new license will not be taken out when the present one expires on Friday of this week. Furthermore, the Northern Idaho Montana Power Co. filed an attachment against the property contained in the Riverside bar for unpaid electricity. Constable Cleland attached the piano, cash register, and some furniture and took them from the building. It is understood that the owners of the property are also delinquent in their ground rent.
“The new owner came to Newport last week and, after looking over the ground, decided that it was not fertile and left for some other point on Sunday.”
The rapid turnover of small businesses and the struggle to pay commercial rent are as much a part of Newport's history as they are its present. This account captures the messy, unglamorous end of a local establishment during the town's early boom years.
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