Peter Post and Jonas King opened the Old Kentucky Saloon in Lakeview, Ore., in 1896. When a fire destroyed the building and most of the town four years later, Post and King decided to rebuild, using brick rather than lumber.
The exterior of the building was moderately attractive, but the handsome interior rivaled any other bar on the Pacific Coast. It featured several crystal chandeliers, an oak and mahogany bar with a large mirror, several card and billiard tables, and three slot machines. The second floor had an elaborate dance hall.
As a popular gathering place for locals, both cattlemen and sheepherders, the saloon was right out of the old Western movies, including constant arguments and fights between the two livestock camps.
During Prohibition, the building became a restaurant and boarding house, with a clandestine second-floor supply of bootlegged liquor. It was said that the so-called boarding house served more liquor than it had when it was a saloon.
The building housed several different restaurants and taverns in the 1940s, but fell vacant until 2006 when it was restored and occupied by the Lakeview branch of the South Valley Bank and Trust.
Sources: “Nomination Form.” National Registry of Historic Places. National Park Service. 5 Jan. 1977. Web. 7 Mar. 2015; “Post and King Saloon.” Waymarking. National Register of Historic Places on Waymarking.com. 12 Nov. 2007. Web. 7 Mar. 2015.
