Our Single Arch Bar – what is its story?

Our single arch Empire style bar was hand carved in Chicago in the 1880s, destined for a Saloon bar in Raton, New Mexico. This Single Arch Bar came out of a Saloon Bar in Raton, New Mexico. Raton was a thriving town in the Old West Days and during the 1870s and 1880s it was the main stop on the Sante Fe Trail across the Rocky Mountains.

In Denver they won the races as the main route through the Rocky Mountains and Raton slowed along the bar trade, it was truly a unique part of Wild West history. The Raton Township, New Mexico slowed down, to the point that the Saloon; this beautiful bar sat pride of place in closed.

How lucky that a wonderful antique dealer purchased and housed it for more than 50 years before we shipped it across the world to Ballarat. The first of its kind to come to Australia, and after 4 months on the high seas, we opened the shipping container.

If this bar could talk of its days in the Wild West….

Our Triple Arch Bar…
Our Triple Arch Mahogany Bar was made by the Brunswick Company in 1875. The Brunswick Company opened for business in 1845, originally J.M Brunswick intended to be mainly in the business of making Horse Carriages. But soon after opening his machine shop, he became fascinated with Billiards and started making Billiard Tables.

This was a commercial success, and they soon expanded into making the neo-classical style bars for Saloons, including our Triple Arch. Our Triple Arch Mahogany Bar is originally from Chicago; the Hotel she sat in was torn down in the 1950s. Our Triple Arch survived and moved to a Tavern in Greenwich Village, New York City.

When the owner of this Tavern died our Triple Arch was sold again and nearly met its match when it sat in a known Gambling Hideout of a Mafia boss in Covington across the river from Cincinnati, Kentucky. This gambling hideout was deliberately burnt down. Our Triple Arch was completely restored in Illinois and sat with the restorer until the antique dealer who owned it received an enquiry from Australia.

How did we get these bars to Australia?
When seeking an original Saloon Bar from the 1880s, Brian packed his bags in July 2022 to visit some Antique Dealers in the USA.

After meeting antique dealers in Arizona, Pennsylvania and New York, Brian flew back with some tentative arrangements in place. With his heart set on the Del Monte style made by the Brunswick Company, this wasn’t meant to be. When Brian landed back in Australia, we discovered we were outbid by a Las Vegas casino. We eventually found 2 bars made by the same company in the late 1800s, site unseen.

The packing arrangement were the next big challenge, after 6 months of organising our precious shipping containers was loaded. Initially we needed to use expensive treated wood to meet Australian Quarantine standards, until we found an amazing man to shrink wrap the bars.

During Covid, we tracked our precious shipping around the world, it stopped and nearly every major port. After 18 weeks on High Seas the shipping container arrived, with an amount of trepidation we opened it.

So excited to bring piece of American history to Australia, we will continue their story.