1881: Walter Brewing builds a tied house

In 1881 the Walter Brewing Company put up a building on East Madison Street and opened a bar in it. It was a tied house: the brewery owned the room, and the room could sell only Walter's beer. That was the arrangement all over the state then. A brewery built the tavern, stocked it, and kept it. The bartender poured what he was sent. The photograph is the oldest one we have. The word SALOON runs the width of the front, the glass goes nearly to the sidewalk, and the crew has stepped out to be counted: a dozen men in hats and one woman in a white apron, pails in hand, a dog at the end of the line. Nobody is smiling, because nobody smiled for a camera in those days, but they are standing in front of their place. The building is the same one you walk into today.