Courier Article - Evidence of speak-easies abounds downtown
By JOHN MOLSEED, john.molseed@wcfcourier.com
WATERLOO — The 18th Amendment banned the sale, manufacture and distribution of alcohol. It did not stop the flow of liquor in most cities.
Waterloo was no exception: Dozens of underground bars and speak-easies — a place where alcoholic drinks were sold illegally — sprang up during Prohibition.
Evidence of the era lingers in downtown buildings — some spaces empty for up to 50 years.
In a former meeting hall of the Ancient Order of United Workmen at 320A E. Fourth St. above Cu Restaurant, a common feature of a speak-easy still stands guard. Entrance doors to such places usually featured a peep window proprietors used to identify patrons.
“People would come up, knock, and a guard would open the little door,” said Jim Walsh, who leads JSA Development, peering through the metal-framed hole. “If the guy didn’t know you, he wouldn’t let you in.”
When Prohibition was repealed in 1933, bars returned to street level.
The former fraternal hall and night club has been vacant for decades. Inside, the hardwood floor buckled from water damage, though Walsh believes he can restore it.
“I want to preserve this room as a single area,” he said.
An empty jar of olives from the 1940s sits on a counter in a kitchenette off the main hall. A pile of wood is stacked against a nearby wall, salvaged during renovation of the building’s basement and first floor.
Constructed in 1902, the building was home to several grocery stores. Osco Drug occupied the first floor until 1956. After that,
Lincoln Office Supplies took over the space. The second floor is listed as vacant in city directories going back to the 1940s.
Mike and Joni Hollen bought and rehabbed the building in 1998.
The arched windows provide enough light to see the daunting task Walsh has ahead. Details like the speak-easy door keep him going.
“It restores my energy to work on these old buildings when you discover something like that,” he said.
Down the block, the International Order of Odd Fellows building, 310 E. Fourth St., was built in 1890. It offers a more pristine glimpse into the past. Attitudes by Aimee students use the studio dance floor, and tin ceilings and wall valances remain intact.
“This one we were lucky enough to keep original,” Walsh said. “This is still substantially the way it was when the Odd Fellows were here.”
A speak-easy door hints at the building’s nefarious past.
“You see those in a number of downtown doors,” Walsh said. “This whole Fourth Street area had just as many bars during prohibition as there are now.”
The first floor, now home to Jameson’s, housed Larry’s Clothiers until 1958. The second floor was renovated with hardwood floors and rehabilitated woodwork. Former business office names are etched in black on glass doors. All are unoccupied except for the Attitudes by Aimee office.
Down the block, the second floor of another of Walsh’s properties above Darning Pixels, 208 E. Fourth St., also yielded an unexpected find. Two chalkboards list a business’ earnings and employment statistics from 1956 to 1962.
“I don’t think Jim had even been through there when he bought the building,” said Andrew Van Fleet, president of Darning Pixels.
Van Fleet suggested they take a tour upstairs.
“I immediately thought, ‘historical artifact,’” Walsh said of the find. “I don’t think anyone has been up here in 47 years.”
The boards leave few clues about what business the numbers track. According to Van Fleet’s research, the last business to occupy the upper level was Corwin Real Estate and Insurance. The numbers on the board show that the seven years listed were good to whatever enterprise being tracked. Employment rose from 162 employees in 1956 to 377 in 1962.
The lack of upkeep took a toll on the second floor. Light fixtures dangle from the ceiling. Plaster peeled away from walls and much of the wooded floor has rotted toward the rear of the building.
Despite the decay, the two green chalkboards and writing survived. Walsh is researching a way to ensure they endure.
The building was built in 1892 by William Pierce. The first floor was occupied by John Drees’ grocery store. The storefront was later Tenenbaum’s Jewelers and later Zales. Darning Pixels moved in 2003 .
Walsh plans to convert the upstairs into office space for Darning to expand and rent the first floor as retail space. The plan is to open a wall to the neighboring building.
Wielding a flashlight to navigate stairs leading to a second-floor hallway, Walsh shines a beam to reveal a boarded-up skylight through holes in a drop ceiling.
Walsh plans to use these properties to help revamp the east side of downtown Waterloo. He plans renovations that would provide more commercial space and up to 60 apartments. The hurdles are time — the damage it has visited on the buildings and the amount it will take to do the work — and capital.
He believes the end result will be worth the effort, especially if a piece of history can be preserved that would otherwise be lost.
“These buildings that are in bad shape are just going to keep deteriorating unless someone is willing to risk the capital,” he said. “People bought the buildings cheap and then just let them rot.”
Walsh has headed other downtown renovation projects, including the Fowler Building and the Walker Building. Keeping the historic flavor of the buildings and making them attractive to tenants is a balancing act, he said.
“The east end is more interesting to me historically,” he said. “We don’t want to change it, just modernize it.”