Whiskey Rows
Frontier Saloons from The Palace in Prescott to The Exchange in Helena.
Categories: History , Photo Gallery
By: Meghan Saar 08/01/2008
At 47, merchant Philip Drachman teamed his freight overland from Yuma, Arizona, by mule train before the Southern Pacific reached his home base in Tucson in 1880.
His partner Isaac Goldberg owned the “...first bar in Prescott,” reported the Courier on December 30, 1877. It opened in 1864 on a dirt street that would become Montezuma Street, which all Old West saloon lovers affectionately know as Whiskey Row.
The Palace was the name of Goldberg’s saloon. No one knows if this is the same Palace Saloon you can still visit today. The 1883 fire that destroyed most of Montezuma, including the Palace, also destroyed records that could have helped track down ownership. But the twist in the story here is that it seems possible that Drachman and Goldberg might have been responsible for bringing the famous Brunswick back bar to the Palace Saloon that was rebuilt in 1883 by new owner Robert Brow.
One Bar's Journey
Brunswick-Balke-Collender in Chicago added bar fixtures and furniture to its billiard table line in 1878 and sold its back bars up to 1912, the advent of prohibition, Brunswick spokesperson Daniel Kubera says.
From its manufacturing plant in Dubuque, Iowa, German craftsmen manufactured back bars measuring 16 to 30 feet in length that were fitted with beveled glass mirrors and a brass foot rail (you would never see a bar stool out West; real men drank their liquor standing up).
We’re not sure when the order for the Palace bar was placed, but the 24-foot-long, 12-foot-high bar went on quite a journey to get to Prescott. Freight shipped from the East rounded Cape Horn to San Francisco, California, then it was hauled to Lower California and dropped off near Puerta Isabel, Sonora. Paddle steamers transported the freight up the Colorado River to Yuma. Perhaps the order was placed while Philip was still running his mule train business. Yuma is where he would have loaded the cargo onto his mule team—popularly known back then as Arizona Schooners—and hauled the freight to Tucson and other points north.
He and Isaac had opened up their store in Tucson in 1870 and also supplied the citizens of Prescott with their merchandise. A newspaper advertisement reveals the wares they offered: “Dry Goods consisting of Hats and Caps of every description.... Cloaks, Shawls, Boots, Shoes.... A large stock of old Rye Whiskey and the best California Wine and Brandy.... A large stock of groceries, Butter, honey, Cheese, and Dried Fruits which we offer for sale; wholesale and retail.”
That rye whiskey and California wine and brandy were likely enjoyed by patrons at the Palace and other saloons on Whiskey Row.
When the Southern Pacific Railroad reached Tucson in 1880 though, Philip knew his freight days were over. He himself went into the saloon business, opening the Post Office Exchange on the corner of Congress and Church Streets in 1881.
So did Philip transport the bar before he retired? Perhaps his partner Isaac bought it for his “Palace” saloon and it had survived the fire to find a new home in the rebuilt Palace. Stranger things have happened.
Brunswick itself has no records of the Prescott order, falling victim first to the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 and then later to a 100-year flood in Virginia where, ironically, business records had been sent in hopes of avoiding another loss.
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