Thirsty For Something Stronger Than a Sarsaparilla? — 1890
by Paula Bosse
“Remember Frank’s Place When Thirsty”
by Paula Bosse
According to the 1890 city directory, Dallas had roughly 145 saloons. That seems like a lot when the city’s population was only 38,000. That would be one bar for every 262 people — and this is before you take out all the residents who wouldn’t have been allowed in saloons, like African-Americans, Hispanics, women, children, etc. (and I’m sure there MUST have been a few adult white men who didn’t drink…). And there were probably a lot more than 145 bars — this doesn’t include private clubs or “unlicensed” holes in the wall (I’m not sure how heavily enforced “licensing” was back then). So it could have been more like one bar for every 50 imbibing Dallasites. Call me crazy, but this seems like a disproportionate ratio of bars to customers. But depending where you fall on the how-many-bars-is-too-many spectrum, it might have been just the perfect number. It fact it might have been a veritable paradise.
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Here are a few of the “popular resorts” of the day into which a white man could mosey and slake his big Texas thirst.
- Meisterhans’ Garden
- Mayer’s Garden
- Glen Lea
- Planters House
- Pat’s Place
- Frank’s Place
- Ord’s Place
- Two Johns
- Two Brothers
- Louis
- Bohny’s Hall
- New Idea
- U Bet
- Walhalla
- Coney Island
- Butchers’ and Drovers’
- Q. T.
- Eureka
- Gem
- The Wonder
- Sample Room
- Monarch
- Casino
- Little Casino
- Red Front
- Blue Front
- Blue Corner
- Buck Horn Corner
- Sharp Corner
- Mikado
- Apollo Hall
- Mammoth Cave
- Headlight
- Green Tree
- Live Oak
- Moss Rose
- Sunny South
- White House
- Cabinet
- Senate
- Postoffice
- Board of Trade
- First and Last Chance
- Turf
- Black Elephant
- Jockey
- Union Depot
- 9-45
- Dallas Club
- Wichita Exchange
- City Hall Exchange
- Ross’ Exchange
- Mechanics’ Exchange
That’s a whole lot of places to get drunk in.
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Saloon ad from the 1899/1890 edition of Morrison & Fourmy’s Dallas City Directory.
See the complete list of saloons, with addresses and proprietors’ names, here.
Street names and addresses have changed over the years. Plot the location of your favorite bar by referring to an 1890s map, here.
In the nineteenth century, the word “resort” often denoted places a bit more unsavory than, say, Puerto Vallarta. A list of similar establishments might include “tippling houses, gaming houses, bawdy houses, billiard saloons, lager beer saloons, and other places of public resort” (source here).
I’m wondering if “respectable” women were allowed as customers in the larger beer gardens in Dallas at this time? If anyone has info on this, I’d love to know.
Was drunkenness a goldmine-like source of city revenue? Oh yeah. See my previous post “Police Blotter — 1880s,” here. Building a greater Dallas, five bucks at a time.
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Copyright © 2015 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.
Flashback : Dallas 
Well at least on the 600th anniversary of Swiss independence in July 1891 Charles Meisterhans entertained entire families at his pavilion to celebrate this notable event. This is from Jim Wheat’s online archive.
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Thanks, Bob. It seems like I’ve seen a photo of Meisterhans’ beer garden with women in it, but I wasn’t sure if they would have been welcomed in 1890. Outdoor beer gardens seem like more of a social/cultural gathering place than saloons.
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The Portal to Texas History has the 1889 Dallas City Code and I couldn’t find an ordinance that prohibited respectable women from going into a place that sells beer. However, there was one that prohibited not respectable women from going into one. See article 34 here: http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth610714/m1/31/sizes/xl/ Of course that doesn’t mean it was socially acceptable. Oddly enough it was prohibited for women to be ushers or waiters in a variety theater. See article 496 here: http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth610714/m1/136/sizes/xl/
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This is a story some years ago Jim Wheat wanted to do on early Soda Pop which is what this is,which is the carbanation of waters, ha…..then again all Saloons as you have here served this delight as they also did with Bitters and Nassau Mineral waters…
.And in recent years the artifacts of this era came up in bottles that have been lost in time while Beer is the most popular artifact to of been recovered,
Again a great story for the present and like so many articles that have come up here, these are the Gems of Dallas history never discussed….this is a one of a kind….
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