#56 Earliest Places of Business……Guess what they were !

   Before Virginia City was Virginia City, or even Virginia or Virginia Town, it was the Washoe Diggings.  As men surged to the area to seek their fortunes there was need for the three basic staples of life.  Food, water and spirits, or whiskey as it were.  They often brought their initial food with them, hunted for rabbits or deer as needed, found water in creeks, springs and streams in the area.  That left the need for strong drink, whiskey of all sorts.  So, in the natural course of venturing into new areas of the west, so came the proverbial saloon.  It was 1859 and life here was hard.  Charlie Sturm set up his saloon in a tent believed to have been on the corner of A and Sutton Streets as Virginia began to form into a community.

   Some of the earliest saloons on the Comstock were establishments that rapidly developed reputations for service to the miners.  Hennessey & Breen saloon, The Sazarac, Pat Lynch's Place, The Crystal Saloon and the Delta.  The Sawdust Corner, The Old 62, and Wertheimers. Many of them served food or snacks.

   Some of the earliest of saloons still exist in one fashion or another or may have changed locations in town.

   The Crystal Bar (saloon) started out in the late 1800s in the location where the Washoe Club stands today.  It moved to the NW corner of Taylor and C in about 1936.  The Crystal was famous for switching its outward appearance to an ice cream parlor during the prohibition era.  There was a trap door behind the bar that opened to the basement so they could drop the booze into a sand pile in the basement when the feds showed up in town.

    The Delta Saloon was rebuilt after the Great Fire of 1875 and has continued to exist since that time. 

   The Comstock House was a very popular hangout for many of the miners but it no longer exists under that name. 

   The Old 62 located next to the current Post Office was a more upscale location named for its address.

   The Sharon House, which was located upstairs of the current Ponderosa Saloon thrived more as a dinner house in the 1900's.  It became most well known during the 1950s as a Chinese restaurant owned by Lynn Leong.

   The Brass Rail Saloon (now the Roasting House) started out on the West Side of the street before it was eventually moved over to the East side.  It was popular in the 1950s for selling hamburgers and hotdogs out the window onto C Street.  The school kids would often purchase their lunches at the Brass Rail.

   The Union Brewery was originally an actual brewery and saloon with their own brand of beer. 

In the 1980s the owner championed the legislation to allow microbreweries in Nevada.

   Another old timer was the Great Western Saloon which boasted one of the longest bars in the West and constant piano entertainment.

   The Sazarac Saloon comes from the name of a famous strong whiskey.  The Old Washoe Club inhabited the location from which the Crystal Saloon moved.  Its name comes from the fact that the Washoe Club Men's Club was in the upstairs of the (Douglass) building after the Great Fire of 1875.

We can explore more of the old saloons in a later column.

 

See ya on the hill !                                               

C.L. Yearzago