Cape Girardeau's oldest tavern closes doors

The corner of Independence and Frederick streets should be noticeably devoid of any New Year's Eve activity Monday night.

The city's oldest drinking establishment, the Corner Pub, has closed.

Most recently operated by Deborah F. Seesing of Cape Girardeau, the business has been in operation as a bar since about 1910, with a few temporary closures along the way.

"It will probably remain as a bar," said John Boos, who owns the three-story building and lives above the bar with his family. "It's been a bar ever since the building was constructed."

Seesing didn't return phone messages Thursday.

The bar has had five owners over the past 40 years. Seesing assumed operations in 1995.

It has also had its share of names through the years: Central Tavern, Central Inn, Corner Inn, Corner Pub.

The bar's clientele has varied along with its names and ownership. Blue-collar regulars have stopped off for beers after long shifts. Pool-shooting college students have frequented the corner. A few customers regularly "opened" the bar at sunrise.

"It was a good place to go after work," said Darrell Hobbs of Cape Girardeau. "I met a lot of good people there."

Hobbs, who had been frequenting the bar about 10 years, said he was disappointed it closed.

The building on the southwest corner of the intersection was constructed by the Woods family in an era when hotels and rooming houses were built over bars.

"This building was known as the Woods Building a number of years," said Boos. "It was still in the Woods family when I purchased it in the late 1970s."

The upper floors of the Woods Building served as a rooming house or hotel, said Boos. "Each floor had one bathroom at the end of the hall," he said.

Various modifications have been made over the years.

At the onset of Prohibition, the tavern known as the Central Bar sold near-beer, which was 2.75 percent alcohol by volume. When the U.S. Supreme Court later ruled that even 2.75 percent beer was too intoxicating, the bar closed for a time.

In later years, before Sunday beer sales were allowed, the Central Bar was divided into separate facilities, legally selling 3.2 percent beer on Sundays and higher alcohol-content beer the remainder of the week.

rowen@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 133