A Place of Cheer-
The Roanoake Inn
This is Bill Flinn's saloon. Bill was a Canadian. He had the back bar and front built in mahoganey... beautiful. It was shipped up here on a steamboat and he shipped it to Butteville [about 4 miles upriver from Wilsonville], and set up his saloon there around the 1890's. He heard they were going to build a railroad from Portland to Eugene and they were going to build a bridge at Wilsonville. So he knew there would be traffic there. He had his back and front bar loaded back up on a steamboat and shipped down to Wilsonville. Then he unloaded it and set up his building there. He operated that until 1923 when prohibition came into effect. On the right is Doc Kittle. The next is Bill Flinn and next is Joe Chalupsky. Joe was a carpenter. He built an estimated 18-30 homes and barns. Next [to Joe] is a fellow by the name of Eppler. His folks had a big hop farm on the south side of the river. Emery Aden This is #3 on the Wilsonville historic map |
Bill later ran the waterworks for Wilsonville. He had a good well dug and this furnished enough water for 3, 4, 5, houses around the area. Don't ever remember what happened to the front or back bar. The story maybe [it was] Fred Edmunds, a rose grower out by Frog Pond, had one of the front or back [bars]. But I can't tell you if whether that's true. The two bars were set up at the four corners of Wilsonville when 3.2 [percent] beer came in. It was known as the Roanoake Inn; this was the name of Bill's saloon. And he got that name from the bar brand of whiskey he sold. When they opened up a tavern up at the four corners of Wilsonville, they... forgot the name of the tavern... but in later years they named it the Silver Leaf and they had a restaurant and they operated it for several years and then it was demolished. Emery Aden. |