Douglas Tavern c1950
Photograph
Two bartenders and their customers smile at the camera for this photo from inside a tavern. No minors were allowed after 9 pm.
This image was featured as History Mystery #122 with the text: A local bar scene ca 1950.
Name the bar and the people.
The following article appeared in the September 8, 2006 issue of The Commercial Record:
History Mystery junkies can stop scratching heads and searching old photo albums. Last week's mystery featured a bar scene including two bartenders behind a bar of happy customers. The TV set in the corner dated the photo about 1950. Otherwise it was a genuine mystery.
Winning the first "Super Sleuth Award" and an 8x10 historical photo of his choice is Howard Schultz of Pier Cove. Schultz had the inside track because his uncle, Jack Seckel, built the place about 1948. The original name was the Douglas Tavern. Hold on to your hat - today the business lives on - it is Ye Olds Woodshed bar and grill on the Blue Star Highway in Douglas.
Schultz related that Uncle Jack Seckle was a World War II war plant worker in Detroit. After the war, he was badly injured when a tank he was welding exploded. With a fat workers' comp check in his pocket, he came to Douglas with his wife Georgia. Naturally she was a Douglas native and a member of the Chase family. Her uncle, Bill Schultz, owned a small restaurant which Jack bought, obtained a liquor license and built a new place just across the highway about 1948. The Douglas Tavern was in business until about 1970.
Thanks to Florence Ekdahl McCarn who helped to identify the customers, starting with the front left, Jack Seckel, other bartender unknown, Georgia Chase Seckel, unknown man with hat, Robert Dempser and probably Mrs. Dempser next to him, Margery Cartwright, Ralph Cartwright, tall man, unknown man and Larry Monique at the end of the bar.
2023.10.364
Digital scan
Coasta Azul/JoJo's/WoodshedSeckel, John V. "Jack" 1897-1972Cartwright, Ralph N. 1921-2002Monique, Laurence Rufus "Ruf" 1926-1991Dempster, Robert "Bob" James 1914-1986Dempster, Velma L. (Hensley) 1912-1979Riverman
Commercial businesses
Winthers, Sally
Digital data in CatalogIt
These image(s) were copied from the SDHC photo blog [or the Jack Sheridan drive if that was a superior version] in preparation for updating the SDHC website in 2023.
11/05/2023
11/15/2023