12/8/2023 0 Comments Harpoon beer hatThe legendary writer was first given food and shelter at the bar when he was homeless and destitute at the age of just 14, purely because Heinold felt great paternal affection for the boy. Heinold’s First and Last Chance Saloon’s biggest claim to fame, arguably, is being a major inspiration and favorite hangout of Jack London. Jack London basically lived there Jack London, observer of humans, writer of words and frequenter of bars. Here are five historical tidbits about both. In the end, he even died there - friends found him slumped over in a chair there one day in 1933, having suffered a stroke.īut oh, what a storied life Heinold and his saloon had before that. But beyond the money, Heinold loved the saloon dearly for the rest of his life, spending most of his time behind the mahogany bar for close to half a century. The bar was also enormously profitable - Heinold is said to have averaged earnings of $40 a day at a time when $3 was considered a lot. It didn’t take long for Heinold’s First and Last Chance Saloon to become beloved by the community around it. Heinold’s First and Last Chance Saloon, as it looked in 1885. Most importantly of all, 50 Webster Street was also surrounded by sea captains, sailors, fishermen and other dock workers who needed a drink or seven at the end of a long day. The saloon was on the horse car line that ferried fans to and from baseball games at two different ballparks. It was also located very close to the 1,000-foot-long Webster Street Bridge - then a major thoroughfare. When Heinold first opened the saloon, it was on the main highway between Oakland and Alameda. And he was right - Heinold’s First and Last Chance Saloon went on to become a legendary East Bay watering hole and, today, has more than earned its status as a National Historic Landmark. Immediately, though, Heinold saw the building’s greater potential as a saloon. When Heinold first came upon the building, it was a lowly bunkhouse for oyster poachers, constructed out of old timbers from a shipwreck. On June 1, 1884, Johnny Heinold handed over $100 and bought himself a salt-encrusted wooden shack at 50 Webster Street, on the Oakland waterfront.
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