An earlier essay in this series dealt with the colorful history at the northwest corner of Mississippi and Park Avenue. https://lafayettesquarearchives.com/1951-an-anchor-on-the-corner-in-lafayette-square/. Next door is a large and deep three story brick home on a double lot. To its immediate west is another distinctive home, so close as to nearly adjoin. There is a backstory to both, although this essay focuses on 2007 Park Avenue.
Another successful Germanic immigrant
A native of Austria, William Skrainka moved to St. Louis as a young man and became both a stone merchant and quarry owner. As early as 1870, his business appeared in Goulds Business Directory at the NW corner of Dillon and Park Avenue.
By 1875, Skrainka was in the building materials business with partner Claus Veiths, at 501 N. Levee Street. That year, William began construction on a house at 2007 Park Avenue in Lafayette Square. The family moved in during April of 1876.
An 1878 business directory found the Skrainka firm under the topic “stone contractors” at the northwest corner of Locust and 6th Street. The listing has William living with his wife Mary and son Fred at 2007 Park Avenue.
William and Mary Skrainka
He and his wife controlled the properties at 2007 and 2011 Park Avenue from 1876 through 1912.
The Skrainkas at home
In 1883, in addition to a Skrainka location at Locust and 6th, a Gould directory places his business at South 18th Street and Gratiot. This quarry, an easy reach from Lafayette Square, features in the 1875 Compton Dry Pictorial Map. The family also owned a large diabase (an igneous form of basalt useful for building foundations and roadbeds) quarry near Fredericktown, Missouri.
From Compton and Dry; 1876. As 2007 Park was built that year, it does not appear, but 2oo1 and 2011 Park are both present on the map.
By 1888, Wm. Skrainka and Company included sons Morris, Frederick and Louis. The family enterprise at that time engaged in “grading, curbing, guttering, macadamizing and crosswalks.” Its business address was 404 Market St, Rm 308, and the residence for William, Mary and Fred remained at 2007 Park Avenue.
By 1892, the Gould Blue Book, which located the family at 2007 Park the year before, had nothing on any of them. G.J. and Lina Helmerichs owned 2007 Park Avenue and it was home to them and a Miss C. Kleinschmidt. This remained the situation through 1894.
Skrainkas on the move
The new resident was owner of G.J. Helmerichs Leaf Tobacco Company at 56 Chestnut and 67 Market Streets. His trade was nearly exclusive with the heavily German folk of South St. Louis, as shown by frequent advertising in German American papers like this 1859 Westliche Post:
In 1893, William, Mary and Fred lived at 3100 Pine Street. A year later, William died in St. Louis of Bright’s disease at the age of 79.
Two years later, Mrs. William Skrainka and Frederick resided at the Hotel Beers. This was a swanky establishment on the corner of Grand Avenue and Olive Street. It burned down in 1931, and is today the site of the Kranzburg Arts Center
Beers Hotel; E. Boehl photo; undated
2007 Park was then occupied by just Mrs. Helmerich and Miss Kleinschmidt, and they remained through 1897.
The Skrainkas kept moving. In 1897, Fred, Louis and Morris Skrainka were all listed at 319 N. 4th Street, and two years after that, Fred resided at the West End Hotel, staying there through 1912.
In the 1904 Gould Business Directory, Skrainka Construction Company listed Louis as President, Frederick as Vice President and Morris as Secretary. Their mother Mary Skrainka lived at the West End Hotel.
On Dec 19, 1906, Mary Skrainka died in Berlin, to where she had travelled in search of medical therapy.
Not Mr. Vanderbilt; Dr.Vanderbeck.
A well known maternity physician, Cornelius C. Vanderbeck moved to St. Louis from Philadelphia, where he edited and published The Philadelphia Druggist and Chemist periodical. In 1890, he authored The Ladies New Medical Guide – An Instructor, Counselor and Friend. Vanderbeck ran a sanitarium on Franklin Avenue in St Louis by 1898, and was a frequent lecturer on health topics in the city.
In 1908, Dr. Vanderbeck established a private infirmary and maternity hospital at 2007 Park Avenue.
Let ’em know you care – send them a post card from the hospital. This, from 1909.
2011 Park Avenue, next door to 2007, was originally built in the late 1860’s for Johannes Ludewig, a wholesale furrier. It was home a decade later to George Muller, longtime owner of a saloon on North Third Street. His upscale watering hole was a favored meeting place for politicians and retired “colonels” over a generation.
In 1912, Vanderbeck sold 2007 Park Avenue and then rented it back. He used the proceeds to expand operations to 2011 Park Avenue. Vanderbeck bought that three story home from jeweler F.W. Drosten for $8,000. Now Vanderbeck’s offices, clinic and residence were in 2007 Park, and a a fifteen bed “private infirmary” operated next door. This arrangement lasted until 1920. The two buildings connected by a second floor breezeway. Evidence of the passage still remains in both houses.
From 1908 Sanborn fire insurance map.
It can be inferred that much of Vanderbeck’s work was charitable on behalf of unwed mothers. Frequent want ads in the papers advertised both for nurses and adoptive parents.
From maternity to eternity
Allen and Bessie McLaughlin bought 2011 Park Avenue in February of 1920. Their family ran a funeral home at 2007 Park Avenue until 1922. When C.C. Vanderbeck died in 1932, with funeral arrangements handled by McLaughlin Funeral Home. Next door, 2011 Park Avenue later converted to a hotel operated by B.C. McLaughlin.
Obit from 1922. Funeral at 2007 Park Avenue.
When the McLaughlin Funeral Home moved to 2301 Lafayette Avenue, 2007 Park Avenue became, like many large residential properties there, a rooming house. At one time it hosted a beauty parlor on the first floor. A faint image of the words ‘Beauty Shop’ are still visible occasionally in one of the original front windows.
A climb back to respectability
2007 Park languished as a rooming house from the 1940s through the 1960s. It’s good that the exterior was built for the long term, as that may have proven its saving grace. It sat before the main gates of beautiful Lafayette Park, but the neighborhood itself had fallen far from its Victorian glory.
St. Louis Globe-Democrat; March 1962, from an article entitled, “Neighborhoods of Distinction.” In the background are 2011, 2007 and 2003 Park Avenue.
Doug and Carol McDaniel moved into 2007 Park Avenue in 1973, and stayed for two decades. They cleared and landscaped the lot next door, overhauled the house, reconfigured walls and removed bathroom fixtures and a couple of kitchens.
May, 1975, with 2003 Park Avenue torn down and lot ready for improvement. Gates to Lafayette Park in background.
A small house at 2003 Park Ave was demolished and merged into the adjoining lot to create 2005 Park Avenue. Although extensively improved, it remains a legally buildable lot.
Undated photo showing 2003 Park Avenue, between 2007 and 2001 Park.
Rooming house to B&B and back to home
When Mike and Kathy Petetit purchased the house in 1997, they set about converting it to the Park Avenue Mansion B&B. It was a popular spot for weddings, receptions, honeymoons and neighborhood card tournaments for the following two decades. They sold the property in 2018 and retired to a single story home with pool in the Arizona desert.
When Mike and Patricia Jones bought 2007 Park Avenue that year, they did what people do with the big old rambling historical buildings in the Square. They tore apart and redesigned the kitchen, a bedroom and a bathroom. No matter how much one puts in, more is always indicated. A growing need for tuck pointing, rebuild of the fish pond and a new roof combined with Covid to keep the property from visitors and guests. This conspired to send the Joneses westward, into a new single story home in 2022.
2007 Park Avenue remains a key building among the mansions fronting Lafayette Park. The park dates to 1836, and the homes surrounding it mostly went up in the 1870s and 1880s. French Second Empire details like the mansard roof, tall arched windows, double sets of doors and extensive use of iron remain prevalent here, as in the immediate area.
Like the Lafayette Square neighborhood that surrounds it, 2007 Park Avenue is rich in history and protected as both a city and national historic district. Through generations of dedication to it, the home has kept with the times while maintaining its heritage.
During nearly eighty years of underground mining, Butte, Montana operated independent of sunlight. The need for metal outstripped the town’s desire for a normal cadence. Three shifts per day kept the city awake around the clock. Twentieth century Butte was served by its uptown businesses, many of which also ran on no particular time schedule. Into the 21st century, one could climb up into the Pekin Noodle Parlor for dinner at 2 a.m. The M&M bar and Green’s, both on Main near Park, famously had no locks on their front doors, as they fed the hungry and nursed the thirsty at all hours.
Bar boom to bust
Butte had saloons aplenty. In terms of bars per capita, its only competitor was Anaconda, twenty-five miles west and equally provident to its blue-collar smelter men.
The Mining City once quenched its thirst through the efforts of four breweries. Of the Tivoli, Centennial, Olympia, and Butte breweries, only the lattermost survived the Prohibition era (see note #1). Butte drank in bulk, and kids were sometimes dispatched to the nearest bar for a 64 ounce growler of lager to bring back home.
In 1910, the Butte Evening News reported:
“on warm afternoons in the summer many a barefooted little girl walks into the saloon and deposits her 15 cents, unconscious of the contaminating atmosphere. (As) her mother entertains a group of housewives, debating the latest scandal, the amber fluid takes the place of the afternoon tea of their more pretentious society cousins. And the little barefooted girl drinks her share.”
Twenty years after its incorporation in 1867, Butte claimed over 100 saloons. Byron E. Cooney of the Montana American counted 247 bars at the moment Prohibition began. Adding unlicensed venues, there were probably more than 300 taverns in the area. By the mid 1960s, Butte had settled considerably, and the number dwindled to fewer than 100. Closure of the underground mines and exodus of miners left the city with around eighty bars in 1994. That still seems like a healthy number of watering holes for a town of about 30,000. A map from 2008 showing the predominance of bars (red) to groceries (yellow) shows that western Montana continues holding to its historical priorities.
Without the miners, Butte was in a quandary as to how it might continue supporting so many watering holes. The Montana Standard reported on March 23, 1994 that a police sting caught fifty bars in the act of serving underage customers. The sheriff was “extremely disappointed,” as only 26 of the 76 bars checked were in compliance with the “under 21” law. This operation lasted for only a month. A later juvenile task force composed of undercover officers in 1996 discovered drinkers as young as 13-15 in Butte bars.
The law of unintended consequences
Prohibition of alcohol began with passage of the 18th amendment in 1920. Six years later, a federal judge simultaneously shut down 55 Butte drinking establishments, including roadhouses, soft drink parlors, groceries and even private residences. The law had, up to this point, turned a blind eye toward miners’ widows for whom alcohol sales provided their sole means of support.
Outlawing liquor simply made drinking more clandestine, and stimulated production from illegal stills. Butte Italians welcomed shipments of grapes by the actual boxcar load. Roadhouses and speakeasies thrived. These alternate gathering places proved welcoming to customers of both sexes, whereas bars before prohibition were nearly an exclusive men’s domain. Breaking the law in this way developed a kind of thrilling cachet. Butte bars often recast themselves as soda fountains, keeping their more potent products out of sight but available to regulars. Everyone seemed to get by.
Naming names
A cursory survey of prominent Butte bars over the past century includes 4 North Main, M&M, Club 13, Friendly Tavern, Scandia Bar, Vals Alpine, Klapan’s Corner, Met Tavern, Five Mile Bar, Fountain, Mug Saloon, Star Saloon, Alley Cat, Pay Day, Frozen Inn, The Beer Can, Phileen’s, the Sump, ElMar Lounge, Collar and Elbow, Elite Saloon, Alibi Inn, 101 Bar, the Q.T., Tip Top Tavern, Bismarck, Classic Bar, Wigwam, Vegas Club, U&I, Shillelagh Tavern, Big Butte Tavern, House of Fong, Tivoli Saloon, Helsinki, Bucket of Blood, Cesspool, Atlantic, California, Midget, Thistle, Shanty, DeLuxe, Half-way House, Board of Trade, Silver Tip, Dry Gulch Saloon, New Deal, Speedway, South Side Athletic Club, Mom’s Cellar
Calusa Bar; World Museum of Mining.
Loading Zone, Club Inn, Cabin, Peppermint Lounge, Combination, Cote’s, Tracy’s, Casne’s, Northern, Oscar’s, Scoop, Jack Parker’s, Eagle, Pacific, Montana, New Arizona Bar, Maloney’s Bar, Acoma Lounge, Boyles, Barrel House, Harringtons, Sam’s Place, McGrath’s Tavern, Pissers Palace, Pine Tree, Big 4, C.O.D., Ocean Bar, Irish Times, Clifford’s, Main Street Lounge, Shooters Pub, Rumpus Room, Swiss Home, Cheery Lounge, Cave Bar, Palm Garden,
M& M and Arcade Lounge; ca.1939
Lost Week Inn, VuVilla, Pair A Dice Bar, Cavalier Lounge, Centennial, Pittsmont, Green’s, Tivoli, Leggat, Stockman, Copper King, Rube’s Tavern, Fitchen’s Exchange, J &M, Luigis, Orpheum, ABC and Burke’s. The latter two were in Butte’s red light district. A 1910 article described them:
“At Burke’s and the ABC dancing lasts until morning. The girls are very homely and badly painted. Most of the men wear hob-nailed shoes and jumpers and need a bath.”
The Atlantic claimed the longest (92 foot) bar in America, and the Midget had the shortest (14 foot) in Silver Bow County. Regardless of bar length, men stood shoulder to shoulder at many of these establishments. (See note #2)
Feeding a thirsty spirit
Bars could be hybrid places too. Several of the seedier joints had a space in the back known as a pass out room. There, a patron could sleep off part of his bender while his friends continued their revelry. Many saloons sold cigars and candy along with liquor, helping men soften their reception at home after leaving the bar.
By Western tradition, the saloon keeper wore many hats, including counselor and bookie. Among the first public buildings constructed in the 1860s and 70s, the saloon served as city hall, casino, fraternal lodge, dance floor, theater, bank, post office, employment agency and cafe to boot.
Free Butte saloon lunches 1901, 1905, 1908
Many of the uptown bars in Butte offered free lunches. They were popular enough for the Butte Miner of Christmas Day 1913 to observe that churches were beginning to adopt the practice. The Miner suggested “a little something to wash it down with” would speed adoption of a Sunday smorgasbord by congregations.
Indeed, the free lunch had a checkered history with curious offerings and occasional mishaps.
Butte Miner; Mar 29,1908
Butte Daily Post; August 17,1906
The Depression era Montana Writers Project wrote in Copper Camp that a complimentary meal was standard saloon practice at that time. “A help yourself arrangement and everything was free. The only requisite was that the diner purchase a glass of beer.”
If not completely gratis, some of the drink/food offerings were compelling. The Arcade bar on Utah Street, advertised “a plate of soup and a schooner of beer” for 12 1/2 cents. With that, “owner Emil Weinberg will get you a speckled cigar to aid digestion. He gives the boys a lunch that is equal to a dinner.”
Of course, the expression “there is no free lunch,” is rooted in fact. The idea was to feed you cheap and pour you dear. A man with a full stomach doesn’t have as much incentive to head home after a drink with the boys. This riled up the women’s temperance movement, and in 1912 they lobbied the Butte city council to prohibit free food. The ladies claimed their men went to have lunch at the bar, and began drinking while there. The day then tended to slip away.
A clever barkeeper countered that,
“A man on the down and out, hungry and desperate, will go into a saloon, eat a free lunch and satisfy his hunger. With this satisfaction disappears all incentive for going out and holding up someone, which in many cases results in murder.”
This caused the council to delay decision for a week in order to investigate further. Free lunch fell somewhere between a social evil and a crime preventive.
The John O’Farrell
The John (Shawn, if you prefer) O’Farrell is a drink also known as a boilermaker, served and billed in a manner peculiar to Butte. Perhaps the name was a form of tribute to copper king Marcus Daly’s son-in-law of that name, an early partner in the Alice mine operation. O’Farrell died in 1903, and Daly honored him with an elaborately sad tombstone at St. Patrick’s Cemetery.
An early reference appears in the Butte Evening News of July 21, 1909. It is described as “a drink of whiskey followed by a full glass of beer, sold only to miners coming off shift.” It was prevalent within the bars north of Broadway. The John O’Farrell became a hard rock miner’s staple; two drinks for the price of one. He qualified for it by virtue of the dirty miner’s clothes he wore and the lunch box he carried.
“The drink combination possesses a uniquely reviving effect on a man just emerging from eight hours of incarceration” in the mine. At the time, the paper estimated that 90 percent of men returning from the tunnels would take one John O’Farrell – and only one.
A year later, the Butte Evening News reported on the odd protocol surrounding the John O’Farrell:
“The bartender often speaks no word; the customers say nothing and no money changes hands. A whiskey bottle is set out and a big 16 ounce glass of beer is drawn. The man takes a drink of whiskey, drains the glass of beer and walks out. Probably 1,000 miners in Butte drink one John O’Farrell every 24 hours.”
Today, the paired drink is better and more widely known as a boilermaker. So is a Purdue University student, but for a more occupational reason. It’s also variously called a Sean O’Farrell or Shawn O’Farrell, but early newspaper references stick with “John.” Even a webpage for National Boilermaker Day credits its origin to Butte, Montana.
When the men leave, now fortified for the evening ahead, “the bartender turns and charges up the drinks on little tabs.” One barkeep said, “that man drank a John O’Farrell in my house every day for seven years without ever putting a cent on the bar. He has never missed a pay day, and always takes up his tabs”
Picking up the tabs
A ‘bit,’ as in “two bits, four bits, six bits a dollar” came down from when the Spanish real was a widespread currency. The real was worth an eighth of a dollar, as in pieces of eight. Eight reals, or bits made a Spanish dollar. Therefore, an eighth, or bit was worth 12.5 cents. In Butte, there were bars where a 16 ounce draft beer cost two bits. These were the ones that tended towards the free lunch and professional clientele. The one bit bars generally catered to the drinker unconcerned about much beyond the bottom of his mug.
Splitting the difference, Walker’s Bar devised a cost tactic that proved popular. In addition to a generous free lunch, Walker would charge 12.5 cents for a man’s first beer, giving him 2.5 cents credit toward his next drink. That made a bargain of the second schooner at a mere ten cents. Two bit treatment for a single bit beer guaranteed a longer stay at the inn.
Games of chance and politics
With reduced inhibitions, risky behavior doesn’t seem so inappropriate. This is why the red light district of cities was generally amid a load of saloons, and why bars sometimes made easy money from gambling on the premises. The M&M in Butte had a long back room running poker games. There was also keno, a chinese bingo/lottery game first adapted to American players by the Lydon brothers of Butte’s Crown Cigar Store. Betting on baseball games and prizefights while in progress was also popular. Several bars used stock tickers to update rounds and scores, tracking updates on mounted chalkboards.
Many operations existed for separating men from money in this wide open town. The working definition of ‘wide open town’ in the West was a place where a man could hire a prostitute, get a drink, or place a bet at any hour. Butte’s WPA city guide from 1937 stated that one could easily find a game of faro-bank, roulette, craps, poker, panguingue, blackjack, keno (popular with ladies as skill ball or fascination.) There were also punchboards available on request from behind the bar.
Every so often, a brief reform spirit would mobilize the Butte police into a series of raids, with local politicians expressing surprise at the extent of the problem. Bar owners were cited, fines were paid, and the games resumed when the heat cooled.
Back room of the M&M in Butte
Saloons were also popular spots for the delivery of political speeches. No-one, apparently, picked up his own bar tab on election day. The machine kept its faithful voters well oiled.
Walker’s Bar; April 8, 1933, slightly before the Prohibition law changed to allow 3.2% beer.
Dale Williams, director of the World Museum of Mining in 1974, pointed out that the only Butte mayor ever impeached was Lewis Duncan, Butte’s lone Socialist party mayor. The grounds were that Duncan wanted to close all the city’s bars and houses of prostitution.
Running the joint
Frank Hock worked in the mines until he developed lung disease. He survived this, plus Omaha Beach on D-Day – a tough guy. He said of his time in the tavern business, “You made good money running a bar, but you had to stay about half-drunk to do it.”
Bars were prone to altercations between and occasionally among customers. The barkeeper had to act quickly to clear out the combatants and limit property damage. Saloons were also prone to hold ups, especially if they had a set closing time. Around 1910 the Pine Tree Tavern gained a reputation for being robbed of small amounts several times a year. A long-time customer later complained, “We don’t get held up much any more. This town ain’t what it used to be.”
It took a tough guy to run a rough place. Butte was heavily Irish, and those folks worked hard and drank the same. Mary Murphy in her social examination of Butte wrote that the ‘Sean O’Farrell’ served two purposes: the whiskey cut the rock dust from an Irish miner’s lungs, and the beer slaked the thirst of eight hours labor in a hot drift. “Two of them made a new man of the miner, and called for a third for the new man.”
Butte kicks up its heels
The 18th amendment prohibited alcohol sales. and led in short order to the 19th, giving women the vote and changing the course of male-dominated America. This was a double whammy to the clubhouse atmosphere of saloons.
Prior to this, taverns were generally, and often officially male only enterprises. It was one thing to be busted for gambling, but another to be an uncompensated host to prostitution. Women drank, but less publicly at home, with the children often running to the pub for a growler to go.
As Prohibition made all drinkers technical law breakers, gender no longer mattered as much, and women began filtering into the speakeasies and roadhouses around Butte. The preexisting bars rebranded themselves as supper clubs, continuing to serve drinks under a more refined cover. Others became soda fountains or cigar stores; still serving, but more discretely from under the counter. There were payoffs for police and politicians willing to turn a blind eye. Sales of grapes and yeast enjoyed an unprecedented boom, and never recovered once prohibition ended.
Modifications to bar policy came quick on the heels of the 21st amendment, which vetoed the 18th. Many bars resumed operations as equal opportunity clubs, and music ruled. Out came the accordions, to strike up the Butte Polka. This from the Montana Standard of February 13, 1943:
Into the 1970s
Montana’s legal drinking age fell from 21 to 19 years during the summer of 1971. That November, an op-ed titled “Cheers” quoted judge of the police court John Salon, who said that “lowering the drinking age has gotten a lot of Butte kids off the streets and into the bars.” The implication was that the normally heavy court caseload of underage drinking was eased by the culprits becoming legal age, thus reducing his court load.
So Butte was able to sustain its many bars with new recruits. Enough so that according to a state quota law for retail liquor licenses, there should have been 876 watering holes in Montana. In fact, at that time there were 1,340. Butte led the way, being 73 taverns over quota, more than twice the overage of any other town in the state.
An argument for the neighborhood bar is that it fosters local community and fellowship. It is also true that one is more likely to injure oneself or others from behind a steering wheel than from atop a barstool.
Notes
Note #1: Centennial Brewing Company opened in 1876. It closed for Prohibition and never reopened. It was on what is now Centennial Avenue. Centennial founder Leopold Schmidt later (1896) started the Olympia Brewing Company in Tumwater, Washington. The Tivoli Brewery was near Centennial and started up around 1900, as did Silver Bow Brewing. Butte Brewing Company was founded in 1885. It operated through 1965 and enjoyed a loyal following. Located on North Wyoming, where the Capri Motel stands. The fifth local brewery was the Olympia, about where the Met Tavern sits today.
Note #2: Alan Goddard for the Montana Standard claimed that the Atlantic kept twelve bartenders busy on a usual Saturday night, pouring out an average of 12,000 glasses of beer. (September 3, 1978)
Resources
Highly recommend Mining Cultures: Men, Women and Leisure in Butte 1914 – 1941; Mary Murphy; 1997;University of Illinois Press for an extensive overview of the changing roles of men and women in early 20th century Butte.
Growler culture is well-covered in a long-form article from the Butte Evening News of February, 20, 1910. The piece is named, Thirst Fountains Of Butte And Peculiarites Which Distinguish Them.
Ad for lunch special at the Arcade; Butte Mining Journal; December 3, 1887.
Closure of bars during prohibition from the Butte Miner of May 19, 1926
Short description and picture of Joe Laden dealing keno appears in Champagne In A Tin Cup; George Everett; 1995; Babcock Ventures
1996 police sting of Butte bars from the Montana Standard of Jun 15, 1996
Photo of M&M and Arcade Lounge from Arthur Rothstein for Farm Security Administration; 1939
Description of Butte red light district bars from the Montana Standard of June 26, 1994.
Quote from bar owner Frank Hock appeared in the Montana Standard of November 9. 2022)
Quote from Dale Williams; Montana Standard; August 4, 1974
Photo of Calusa Bar (undated) and Walker’s Bar (1933) from World Museum of Mining in Butte.
Quote from Judge John Salon from the Montana Standard of November 22, 1971
More resources
Story and quotes about the WCTU and free lunch from the Butte Miner of July 6, 1912.
Quote about the ubiquity of free lunch from Copper Camp; Montana Writer’s Project; 1934.
The liquor license quota system in Montana is discussed in the Montana Standard of July 28, 1973.
Staff writer Tracy Thornton gave an outstanding short overview of the history of Butte bars for the Montana Standard on June 2, 1994.
A longform review of the ethnic and class distinctions among the saloons of Butte came from “The Fountains Of Butte and Peculiarities Which Distinguish Them.” It is the source for my information on the tab system. This was an article in the Butte Evening News of February 20, 1910.
Sure, we should all eat dessert first, for life is short and uncertain. Even in our time as humans, we get many chances to delay some gratification for later enjoyment. It’s called discipline, or maybe virtue. It’s not universal, but I can think of two life forms that make us look like lifelong party animals. Meet the mayapples and cicadas.
The prevailing economy in 1914 caused many tight purse strings around Lafayette Square. For the winter holiday season, someone decided to take the frugal approach. He or she procured a Christmas goose from the apparent bounty of Lafayette Park.
Nature is wonderful stuff. I delight in watching the shifting strength of various woodland plants as they compete through the summer. I got to studying the mayapples of late spring, when the forest floor is covered with them. Each plant labors to create a single drooping fruit. Roots, shoots, fruits and all are mostly gone by July.
Mayapples in MayMayapple fruit
Introducing White Snakeroot
There isn’t much that first blossoms around here in September, but two exceptions are the goldenrod and white snakeroot. Both of these have the run of the place right into October, lining the edge of woods and walking paths. Their tiny flowers serve the vital function of providing late season nourishment to bees, butterflies and moths. The only other reason to deliberately plant it might be that its bitter taste deters deer and rabbits.
In July of 1896, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch published a handy reference, meant to remind the city’s young women of their social and personal safety rules. Interesting that they all began with the word “don’t.”
Lafayette Square’s ‘Sherwood Forest’, inaccessible for years and enclosed by chain link fence topped with barbed wire, never looked particularly friendly. In fact, there was a slow evolution going on in there, that played out over the years.
Here’s the tale of three interlinked German-American newspapermen. They’re featured at the statue of The Naked Truth at Grand and Russell, and all three lived in Lafayette Square.
Hi, thanks for dropping in. This blog serves as a distribution and sharing tool for my historical diggings. The Lafayette Square neighborhood is the center of concentric interests including St Louis, Missouri, and the American West.
