Ramsey County Historical Society Presents

Bill Lindeke & Andy Sturdevant, Closing Time: Saloons, Taverns, Dives, and Watering Holes of the Twin Cities

History Revealed Series
December 12, 2019
Thursday, 7:45 pm
Waldmann Brewery & Wurstery

Reservations requested, space is limited. Free and open to all.
Registration Form

Join RCHS for History Revealed, our program series featuring presentations and tours from the best of local historians, authors and archaeologists, with a wide range of topics drawn from the heritage and traditions of Ramsey County.

An entertaining journey into the highs, lows, bright spots, and dark corners of the Twin Cities’ most famous and infamous drinking establishments—history viewed from the barstool.

In 1838, a rum trader named “Pig’s Eye” Parrant built a small shack in a Mississippi bluff that became the first business in the city of St. Paul: a saloon. Since then, bars, taverns, saloons, and speakeasies have been part of the cultural, social, and physical landscape of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Serving as neighborhood landmarks, sites of political engagement, welcoming centers for immigrants, hotbeds of criminal activity, targets of ire from church and state alike, and, of course, a place to get a drink, the story of the taverns and saloons of the Twin Cities is the story of the cities themselves.

In Closing Time, Bill Lindeke and Andy Sturdevant dive into tales from famous and infamous drinking establishments from throughout Twin Cities history. Readers are led on a multigenerational pub crawl through speakeasies, tied houses, rathskellers, cocktail lounges, gin mills, fern bars, social clubs, singles bars, gastropubs, and dives. Featuring beloved bars like Matt’s, Palmer’s, the Payne Reliever, and Moby Dick’s, the book also resurrects memories of long-forgotten establishments cherished in their day. Lindeke and Sturdevant highlight neighborhood dives, downtown nightspots, and out-of-the-way hideaways, many of which continue to thrive today. Closing Time brings together stories of these spaces and the people who frequented them.

Books will be available for purchase and signing at the event.

Bill Lindeke, Ph.D., is an urban geographer and writer who focuses on how our environments shape our lives. He wrote MinnPost’s Cityscapes column from 2014 to 2017, has written articles on local food and drink history for City Pages and the Growler, and has taught urban geography at the University of Minnesota and Metro State University. He writes a local urban blog at Twin City Sidewalks and is a member of the Saint Paul Planning Commission. He is the author of Minneapolis-Saint Paul: Then and Now.

Andy Sturdevant is an artist and writer living in Minneapolis. He has written about art, history, and culture for a variety of publications, including City Pages, Belt, and Mpls.St.Paul. He currently writes a regular column for Architecture MN, and for five years, Andy wrote “The Stroll,” a weekly column on Twin Cities neighborhoods, art, history, and architecture in for MinnPost. He is the author of Potluck Supper with Meeting to Follow and Downtown: Minneapolis in the ’70s.

Available October 2019 from the Minnesota Historical Society Press
240 pages, 75 b&w photos and illustrations, index, bibliography, 7 x 9

Reservations requested, space is limited. Free and open to all.
Registration Form

It’s RCHS Day at Waldmann Brewery & Wurstery!

On the second Thursday of each month, 10% of all sales to RCHS members and their guests will be donated to the Ramsey County Historical Society!

RCHS members and supporters are encouraged to come and enjoy a lunch/dinner/drink at Waldmann throughout the day, or time your dinner so that you can stay for the presentation immediately after. So come on in and raise a toast to history and support RCHS!

Mention that you are a member, supporter or friend of RCHS to your server, and they will make sure that your tab is counted toward Waldmann’s support.

2019 History Revealed Programs

For 2019 History Revealed programs, see https://www.rchs.com/news/history-revealed-2019/ New programs are being added.