Springfield's oldest tavern lives on

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) -- There's history and there's mystery, and Lindberg's encompasses both.

Ryan Dock, co-owner of the Commercial Street venue, thinks that's part of its charm.

Lindberg's, on the corner of West Commercial Street and Campbell Avenue, is Springfield's oldest tavern. It opened when the railroad came through in 1870, Dock said.

At one time, it catered to Frisco Railway workers (and included a brothel upstairs). It survived Prohibition as a pool hall and in the 1970s became known as a great live music venue -- a reputation that continues.

While the building has held a variety of businesses, had numerous owners and names, and was shuttered for years, the tin walls and ornate ceiling are original.

Its long wood bar is a masterpiece -- and that is where the mystery comes in.

The Goliath piece is a throwback to another time. It's 22 feet long and 22 inches thick. The bar top was carved from a single piece of maple; the rest of the bar and the bar back are oak. Altogether it's solid and heavy and features intricate carving.

It was built by Brunswick, a company that traditionally builds billiards tables.

"The detail work is amazing. There's a bar like this in Columbia at Booches that is almost identical, but much smaller," Dock said.

There are many stories behind it.

Dock heard that it was a gift from Anheuser-Busch because of outstanding beer sales, but when he contacted the beer maker to track down more history, there was nothing about it in the company's archives, so he doesn't think that's true.

Dock believes the bar is from the late 1800s.

Bob McCroskey, a Realtor who owned Lindberg's with Bruce Rader in the late 1970s and knows a lot of the building's history, thinks the bar is from 1903. He believes it was built in St. Louis.

John Sellars, executive director of the History Museum on the Square, said the story he's heard is the bar debuted at the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904 and then was moved to Springfield. That's another common story, Dock said.

The bar was brought in by railroad (most people agree on that, although there have been rumors it was brought in by covered wagon; that's unlikely, given the size of the piece).

"You talk to 10 different people and you get 10 different stories," Dock said.

Regardless of its history, the bar is a talker, particularly for older customers.

"We get a lot of customers who say `I remember my father or grandfather bringing me in here,"' said Dock. "We hear so many stories and just embrace it all."

Commerical Street, where Lindberg's sits, is important to Springfield's history. When the Frisco came to town in 1870, there were two cities: Springfield and North Springfield.

"Commercial Street was the business district of North Springfield. It was the business district of the railroad town," Sellars said.

The two cities merged in 1887 and became one: Springfield.

"It made sense to merge. They had grown together as it was, so it made little sense to have two sets of infrastructure. They were always competing. They had their own railroad depot, everything about them was in competition or conflict," Sellars said.

But Commercial Street was split between the east side and west side.

The east side was "the nice end" and housed upscale hotels, and well-to-do business executives lived nearby. The west side of Commercial was "the rougher end of the community" and had the freight depot and warehouses and attracted more blue- collar workers. There were more bars on the west side.

"People gravitated to one end or another," Sellars said.

Many gravitated to Lindberg's.

In the late 1800s, the building now known as Lindberg's operated a brothel upstairs. The upstairs is still divided into little rooms.

It changed hands and businesses several times in the late 1800s and was a grocery store at one point.

"They had an iron safe in here and they would cash railroad workers' checks. They'd cash $30,000 a month," he said.

They sold beer at the bar and hard liquor in the back of the house because drinking laws were different at that time, he added.

It was a popular place among railroad workers for decades, and at one time they had six bartenders working, McCroskey said.

"It was that busy. It got awards from Anheuser-Busch for selling so much beer," he said.

The name Lindberg's comes from J. Carl Lindberg, who owned it for decades, Dock said.

In the 1930 city directory, the business is listed as Lindberg's Billiards, which is what Lindberg converted it to during Prohibition (1920-1933).

In 1946, the business was known as the Commercial Tap Room but was still owned by Lindberg and his wife, Hazel, according to city directory records.

By 1974, it had become "The Joint."

The owners attracted big-name local and regional bands, and the bar gained its reputation as a live music venue. Granny's Bathwater, a popular band at the time, would regularly play.

When McCroskey and Rader took over the business in 1979, they wanted to retain the reputation for good live music but bring back the history and name of Lindberg's.

They were open for lunch, and former customers who frequented the restaurant during the Frisco days or World War II would come in.

"Some of the guys said `We'll come back if you got Falstaff in a can.' When they got out in World War II, Falstaff was the most popular beer, beer in a can was new. That wasn't our preference, but we kept it for them. These were guys who come in four or five times a week," McCroskey said. (Falstaff stopped making beer in 2005).

Rader and McCroskey attracted big-name bands, too, and would often have to turn customers away -- even when, at that time, fire codes were less strict and the capacity was 176.

After one year, McCroskey sold out to Rader, who ran the business into the 1990s.

It was shuttered for years, then reopened under new owners as Lindberg's in 2007.

Since then, the building has changed ownership a few times. Dock and his partner Eric Weiler have operated the business since 2009 in the building, which they lease.

Dock said when they took over, they knew they wanted to keep the Lindberg's name and continue to build on its history and reputation.

"Lindberg's has such an identity, we didn't want to mess with that. We wanted to embrace the historical aspect, and live music was our love," Dock said.

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Information from: Springfield News-Leader, http://www.news-leader.com