Bordellos and Saloons

Silverton Magazine - Silverton, Colorado
Notorious Blair Street	Burke's Custom Tours for Photographers & Artists	Silverton Magazine Home Page

Story by Bev Rich
All content © San Juan Publishing Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
Historic images courtesy San Juan County Historical Society. All rights reserved

WHAT WAS SILVERTON'S largest industry after mining? That’s right—saloons. In fact, in a three block area on Blair Street, there were thirty-four saloons and bawdy houses. Hundreds of men worked in the mines high in the hills above town and most were young and single. If they had any spare time they spent it in the saloons—and with the “Ladies of the Night” who plied their trade on what became forever known as “Notorious Blair Street.

Thomas Blair arrived in 1871 and was one of the early prospectors in the San Juans. He and pioneers F. M. Snowden and Dempsey Reese platted the new town called Silverton and named the streets after themselves.

A walk down Blair Street from 13th Street to 10th takes you past many bordellos and saloons. The building now known as the Crewel Elephant used to be the Standard Bottling Works. It was built by Peter Orella in 1907. Beer and soda pop were bottled here.

The Villa Dallavalle, on the corner of 13th and Blair, was built by John Dallavalle and was the most substantial building on Blair Street for many years. For nearly half a century, it housed a saloon and boardinghouse, then in the late 1940s it was converted into a grocery store run by Dallavalle’s grandson Gerald Swanson for forty years. (Today it is a bed-and-breakfast inn.)

The Bent Elbow (today a restaurant, saloon and hotel) was originally the Zanoni-Padroni Saloon. The original Bent Elbow was right next door, but it burned down in 1968. The current “Bent” operated as the Monte Carlo Saloon, and then, in the advent of tourism in the 1950s, as the Monte Carlo Mercantile. Directly north of the saloons were three little “cribs” that also burned in the fire.

On the corner is the Shady Lady Saloon. The front section of the building was a “crib” operated by Kate Starr and Mamie Murphy for many years. But the best known madam was “Jew Fanny,” who was considered a good friend by people from all walks of life. Across the street is the “crib” of “Nigger Lola” and her sister Freda. It is now Chautauqua Artisasan.

The left hand portion of Natalia’s (now a coffee house) was built in 1883 and was known as the infamous 557, one of the first dens of iniquity on Blair Street. It was enlarged in 1886, and the ornate right section was added in 1909. The saloon was known as Mattie’s Place, and later, the Welcome Saloon.

The Old Arcade Trading Company, one of the newest buildings on Blair, was erected in 1929. It has been at various times a pool hall, a saloon and a gambling house. The Bellvue Saloon was built in 1929. “Big Tilly” Tattor (Henny Matilda Wedin Tattor) ran the “house” upstairs. It has a false wall in the basement that reportedly stored hooch during prohibition.

Although gambling and bordellos were illegal, as long as the activity stayed on the east side of Greene Street, most people accepted it as part of life on the frontier.

Photographs
Top: Interior of old saloon on Blair Street, early 1900s.

The Silverton Magazine. Copyright 2000-2010
Published by San Juan Publishing Group, Inc., Colorado
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