Our StoryWhile the Alley Bar may be small, our history is not. The Alley Bar we know and love has proudly been around since 1977, but it has been a bar for much longer than that! Our earliest records show that the building was a saloon as far back as 1877 according to a Sanborn map of the area. We do have some other evidence of this such as a bricked-up doorway in the alley that was used to accept beer deliveries from horse drawn carriages. The wooden beer kegs were rolled off wagons and onto the bar top where they were tapped and served warm. Thankfully that is no longer the case! The building was eventually converted into a barber shop in 1906, run by Pleasant Evans and his son Maurice until 1960. Afterwards, the building was purchased by Joe Roman and Mike Rabold. Rabold was once the captain for the Indiana University football team and went on to play in the NFL for the Chicago Bears. The duo converted the location back to a bar and named it the Sportsman’s Lodge. During this time, the Lodge was known to host high stakes poker tournaments in the basement. In 1975, Joe Roman moved the liquor license across town to open the Office Lounge along with Larry Arthur. Once again, the location had a face lift and became a secondhand children's clothing store. This was very short-lived as the establishment was then purchased by Eulia Chitwood, or Boodles as she was more affectionally known, and finally the Alley Bar was opened. Boodles ran the Alley as a third shift bar and served many of our local night shifters. She also started selling our favorite pull tab game, 13's, which is a tradition we proudly continue to this day. Chitwood ran the Alley Bar until 2004 when it was purchased by our current owners. After so many years, the building needed major renovations, so the bar closed for about 6 months while various projects were completed. The carpet that had previously been there was replaced with hardwood flooring, our large backbar was built, and a walk-in cooler was installed. Eventually the bar was reopened around September of 2004 and proceeded to serve only beer and wine until 2017 when a new license was purchased, and the Alley Bar began to serve liquor. This brings us up to date as we now continue to serve our wonderful patrons to this day! |
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