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Soapy
Smith considered himself a businessman and opened several saloon, gambling, and cigar establishments in his life-time. Most
of these dens served alcohol and games of chance. All were in operation to take in as much money as possible using any means
necessary, just short of outright robbery. Some of these establishments were well known and reported within the pages of newspapers,
while other resorts are known only by small hints and references. Photographs show he adorned his saloons with US flags and
red, white, and blue bunting on the outsides. Only Jeff Smith's Parlor has known photographs of the interior and there
are patriotic embellishments inside that location as well as the exterior.
The Tivoli Club and The Silver
Club
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| Later Tivoli Sample Room card (Geri Murphy Col.) |
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| The Tivoli Club (left), circa 1890 (Jeff Smith Col.) |
The Tivoli Club opened its doors in 1888 with partner and well known Denver crime boss," "Big Ed" Chase
at 1337-1339 Seventeenth Street on the south-east corner at Market Street in a two story building. The downstairs held the
saloon while faro and roulette tables and a poker room could be found upstairs. Legend states that Soapy had a sign hung at
the bottom of the stairway for legal purposes that read, Caveat Emptor, a Latin phrase
for "Let the buyer beware." Soapy is known to have used the court defense that the Tivoli
Club was an educational institution for the cure of the gambling habit.
The Rocky Mountain News dubbed it, "the slaughter
pen" due to the violence that occurred there.
The Tivoli appears briefly as the Silver Club in 1890. Perhaps a ploy
to separate the two businesses and Soapy's involvement with the gambling end of the business. Soapy tried hard as the
years passed to appear (on paper) not to be associated with the club but few, including the newspapers, believed him and he
continued to be listed as the owner. Amazing, considering all the gunfights and brawls that took place within its walls, future
owners, after 1896, kept the notorious name.
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| 1890 Denver Sanborn map, 17th & Market streets |
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| The Tivoli Club and Soapy's office |
The following Sanborn
map for 1890 shows the location (A) of the Tivoli Club and all its escape routes. (B) show the Chever block where Jeff had
an upstairs office as well as later, the Midway Club. (C) Old Sanborn maps listed brothels as "Female Boarding."
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| The Midway Club card (Geri Murphy Col.) |
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| The Midway saloon (red "X") (Denver Lib. Col.) |
Little
is known of the Midway saloon located inside the Chever block at 1703 Larimer Street. A business card from the saloon was
among the other business artifacts in the Smith family collection.
COLFAX, COLORADO
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The White Front saloon
Little is known of this gambling resort
resort except that it was part of a mass exodus by the saloon and gaming fraternity in Denver due to reforms against their
businesses. Plans were made to make Colfax the "Monte Carlo of Colorado" and this idea was welcomed by the city
council In the beginning the little city soon changed their minds.
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| The Orleans Club, 1892 (Creede Hist. Soc.) |
Opened
in February of 1892 the Orleans Club was said to have been opened nearly 24-hours-a-day for gambling and drinking. It was
located on Main Street, also known as Creede Avenue. Like the Tivoli Club in Denver, the Orleans Club had its share of violence
associated with it. Several poems written at the time include the goings on inside the infamous den. The Orleans Club lasted
a mere four months when the great Creede fire of June 5, 1892 destroyed the building, along with most of the business district.
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The Klondike Saloon
The
Klondike Saloon was located on the northeast corner of Broadway and McKinney Streets (later named 5th Ave.). In late 1897
it is believed that Soapy owned an interest in the saloon and gambling hall with partners Ira Coslett and a man
named Ward. In December the saloon moved into a two story structure on Broadway and Holly Streets (later named 6th Ave.) where
a music hall was advertised with the business. It is believed Frank Reid, one of the men who shot Soapy during the Shootout
on Juneau Wharf, worked for him as a bartender.
Clancy and Company
Music Hall and Clubrooms
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| Clancy and Co. business card (Jeff Smith Col.) |
The next saloon interest
Soapy invested with was with Clancy's Place operated by two brothers, John and Frank Clancy who added "and Company"
to the business name. Runnals and Shoup Streets (later named 7th and State Streets)
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| Jeff Smith's Parlor, 1898 (Cynthia Brackett Col.) |
No doubt the most famous of Soapy's saloons is Jeff Smith's Parlor. It is also the
only one still standing. The only one known not to allow gambling inside, advertising as much.
In the Spring of 1898 Soapy
purchased the building that held the First Bank of Skaguay, a false-fronted, single-story wood building located at 317 Holly
Street (Block 3, lot 12), just a few doors west of Broadway on the north side. The Parlor, sometimes called "Jeff's
place," was known as "the real city hall." The city had a local government that met elsewhere, but many important
decisions regarding how business would be conducted within the city were actually made inside the small office of this little
saloon.
Soapy Smith obtained
the building with partner John Clancy. City records are not clear as to who actually owned the saloon, but the reality is
that Soapy controlled the place. Changes made to the bank building included moving the front entrance from the middle of the
front facade to the far right in order to accommodate the bar. Two widows were moved from each side of the entrance to the
left side. A large sign was hung just below the cornice that read, JEFF SMITH'S PARLOR. There is little doubt that Soapy
ran the place his way.
| May 1898 |
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| Soapy and John Bowers in doorway of the Parlor |
After
Soapy was killed at the Shootout on Juneau Wharf of July 8, 1898, his partner John Clancy became the owner of the building.
In quick order, his brother Frank Clancy opened up the Parlor building as The Mirror Saloon. John soon renamed the Parlor
Clancy's Cafe and advertised it as a "gentleman's resort." In 1899, under new management, it became The
Sans Souci (bastard French for "Without a care"). In its advertisements, this restaurant included an oyster bar.
It appears the restaurant did not survive very long into the new century. Photographs indicate that the building changed very
little during this period.
In December
of 1900 the city's Fire and Water Committee was given use of the building rent free for its Hook and Ladder Company. In
January of 1901 the city was given a bill of $69 for altering the Parlor to fit the needs of the Volunteer Fire Department.
The Parlor became a Hook & Ladder and Hose Shed.
| Soapy Smith automatron |
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| Martin Itjen inside Parlor Museum (NPS Col.) |
The
Parlor was moved in 1916 from their location on the north side to the south side of Holly (renamed Sixth Street). In 1935
Martin Itjen obtained at least five buildings along Sixth Street, including the Hose Company building and the old Parlor.
He remodeled the front to very closely resemble the look of the original building when it was Jeff Smith's Parlor and
opened up a Soapy Smith museum. Martin is said to have obtained Soapy's original bar and reinstalled it in the Parlor.
In later years additions were known be attached to the Parlor while it was a museum. The Jeff
Smith's Parlor museum was one of the main destinations in Itjen's Skagway Streetcar Tour, until his death in 1942.
After World War II Jack Grelsbach
re-opened the museum until his health failed in 1950. In 1945 George Rapuzzi (born in Skagway, 1899) took over paying taxes
on the building and kept the museum closed after 1950 for lack of time and funds to repair the building.
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| Soapy Smith Museum (NPS photo) |
In 1963,
George Rapuzzi moved the Parlor from Sixth Street to the south side of Second Avenue, just west of Broadway (Block 37, Lot
2) where it now stands. A few years later George re-opened the museum to the public for a number of years and suddenly closed
it in the early 1970s. Jeff Smith and his family met Rapuzzi in 1974, after the Parlor had closed to the public. George
gave the Smiths a grand private tour.
In 2007 the Parlor was sold to the Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Park. It will go through a decade of restoration
before it is opened to the public but little expense will be denied to bring the building, inside and out, to it's original
state. Unfortunatly the "original state" will be the time period that Martin Itjen operated the museum 37 years
after Soapy stood at its bar. The most important fact is that the building is saved from furthur distruction.
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| How the saloon looks pre-restoration |
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| Jeff Smith's Parlor reproduction |
There is a reproduction of Jeff Smith's Parlor located at the "Auria"
Gold Village in Tankavaara, Sodankylä, Finland. The idea was to reproduce one building from the main gold rushes
in history. The Parlor was proudly chosen to represent the Klondike gold rush.
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You
can read all about these saloons and gambling halls in the book, ALIAS SOAPY SMITH: THE LIFE
AND DEATH OF A SCOUNDREL by Jeff Smith. This page only touches on the many details and facts that are to be had in
the book.
No images
or text may be used without prior written consent.
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