By TEDDYE SNELL
Depending on the decade, or sometimes even the year, the business at 413 N. Muskogee Ave. has hosted myriad monikers.
The building may be best known these days for sharing space with the now-famous Sam and Ella’s Chicken Palace (thanks, Carrie Underwood) and NDN Art Gallery. One of its most recognizable features is the balcony that runs above what’s once again a tavern, evoking images of something out of an old-time western.
To longtime Tahlequah residents, the spot is remembered as Guthrie’s Bakery, or Walters Grocery. Some locals have heard the upstairs may have once been a brothel.
The parents of lifelong resident Pat Frank had a grocery store across the street from the building in the 1940s, and remembers the Walters family, who owned it.
“If that building was ever a brothel, it had to have been in the ‘20s or ‘30s,” said Frank. “I knew all the Walters kids in the 1940s – Floyd, Charles, Patricia and Barbara. I knew Barbara the best, though, because I went to school with her.”
According to Frank, the Walterses had a grocery store in the first unit on the south side of the space. One of the two adjoining spaces to the north was rented to a man who opened a recreation room for teenagers.
“My folks wouldn’t let me go in there, even though we had the grocery store right across the street,” said Frank.
Beth Herrington, another longtime local resident and historian, also remembered the Walters family occupying the building.
“The upstairs on the south side was a large apartment where the Walterses lived,” said Herrington. “Across the hall, north of their apartment were rooms and apartments that the Walters family rented. Mostly, they were rented by young, married college students.”
Herrington said the Walters family is well-known in the community, and that the elder Mr. Walters, who owned the building, was married twice.
“His first wife was Osage, and there were children from that marriage,” she said. “One of the sons, Floyd, was a businessman in this community for probably 50 years. He owned trucks and did moving, transfer and storage. His wife was Cherokee and their grandchildren and great-grandchildren still live in the community.”
Herrington remembers the first tavern to occupy the space being named The Coyote.
“It was under the management of one of Floyd Walters’ sons,” said Herrington.
Herrington also believed local resident Nita Murchison’s parents had a variety store in the space at one time, but was mistaken, according to Murchison.
“No, my parents had Northside Variety Store a block down from there, where the NSU Continuing Education office is,” said Murchison. “There was a bar in the building when I was growing up, but I don’t remember the name. I just remember having to walk past it and always turning my head because it frightened me. It also always smelled like beer.”
Pam Moore remembers the building housing a store that never opened.
“That bar used to be – circa 1970s – what looked like an antique or junk shop,” said Moore. “I say looked like because I never was in there because it never opened. I heard that it was owned by ‘Friendly Jim’ [Murray]. It was interesting in that you could not get in to buy anything, and it seemed like it was that way for a long time.”
Area resident Kathy Tibbits thinks the building may have been a hotel prior to statehood.
“I think, at one point in Indian Territory days, that fine building was the National Hotel, maybe,” said Tibbits. “In the late 1800s, a bad fire began in the middle of town where Meigs Jewelry is now and also burned the pharmacy across the street. That was when all of downtown was wooden buildings.”
Tibbits said when she moved back to the area in 1983, the building was home to a frame shop.
“I believe Dennis and Claudia Smith had a frame shop there,” said Tibbits. “Dennis went on to become a museum curator in Anadarko. Long ago, when I was a little kid, it was the shop of Friendly Jim Murray who, at some point, was the mayor of Tahlequah.”
Anyone who moved to Tahlequah after, say, 1980, will remember the building used as a series of bars and taverns. What’s now known as The Crow Bar has also been Ye Olde Pub, Buster’s, the Cubbyhole, the Big Whiskey, and The Alibi, to name a few.
Longtime area resident April Stone, granddaughter of the late, great artist Willard Stone, celebrated her 21st birthday at the tavern, then called Buster’s.
“I made up fliers and hung them all over town, because I had a pretty widespread group of friends there in Tahlequah at the time,” said Stone. “The flier told everyone it was my ‘21st Birthday Bash at Buster’s.’”
Stone, now 37, said the party took place roughly 15 years ago.
“It was a Monday night, so the bar had its regular Monday Night Football stuff going on, which made my party better,” said Stone. “I can’t remember the manager’s name, but I let him know about my plans, and they had huge food table set up with all kinds of goodies for the crowd to eat, plus they gave away cool stuff all night long, like sunglasses, ballcaps and T-shirts.”
Stone, who was working at the Daily Press at the time, said some of her co-workers attended the party, along with then-City Councilor Bennett Guthrie, who wished her well and bought her a drink. What held special significance, though, was the fact that her sister and brother-in-law showed up.
“My sister and her husband were moving back to town from Wyoming that same day, and came straight to my party to wish me happy birthday and tell me she was pregnant with her first child,” said Stone. “I don’t have a clue who was playing football that Monday night, but I can remember everything else pretty well. It was a blast; we all had fun, and I don’t think I’ve been back since that night. It’s a night I’ll remember for a long time to come.”
Johnny Winkle, former NSU student and drummer for the Muskogee Wild Card Band, played the venue when it was The Big Whiskey Saloon, but remembers Ye Olde Pub from the 1980s.
“It’s always been kind of a rough place,” said Winkle. “It was always kind of cobbled together, and needed some professional touches to get it where I think it should have been [for a good musical venue].”
While many may remember the bar – or bars - being dark and dingy, with a less-than-welcoming exterior, today The Crow Bar has a brand-new facade. The stucco covering the entire front of the bar has been replaced with tall, glass windows, giving passersby and customers a fresh perspective.
Stephanie Lusher, co-owner of NDN Art Gallery, which shares the same block with the newly opened Crow Bar, said the most recent incarnation has been a big improvement.
“We’ve been here eight years, and in that time, there have been five or six different bars in that space,” said Lusher. “The newest tenant though, has made a huge improvement to the neighborhood by pulling off all that old stucco and putting in the windows. The entire interior, too, has been completely remodeled. They’ve done a good job.”
Crow Bar owner Josh Martin has a good deal of experience in the business, owning the Mercury Lounge in Tulsa and The Blue Note in Oklahoma City. Bartender Angela McLaughlin said Martin came in and worked the building over to make it more appealing.
“Actually, the front windows were always there; they just had that stucco in front of them,” said McLaughlin. “The actual bar is made from wood from the former dance floor, which is really cool. Also, he took out two false lowered ceilings, exposing the original tin ceiling of the building.”
In previous incarnations, the Crow Bar may or may not have offered anything more than beer. Today, it has a full liquor service, offering “near beer,” along with 6-point imports, as well as cocktails. Open seven days a week, the Crow Bar is also a venue for live music.
“On Wednesdays, we have the Dirty Okie from Red Eye Gravy,” said McLaughlin. “Sundays we host R.C. Edwards of the Turnpike Troubadours, with bigger bands on Friday and Saturday nights.”
