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The girl he marked book7/14/2023 ![]() When married couple Mona and Jimmie Sargeant first opened Mona’s, they envisioned a free-spirited hangout for local writers and artists. (Soibelman Syndicate Collection/Visual Studies Workshop/Getty Images) Take that, health and sanitation rules! Mona’s 440 Club Blues singer and pianist Gladys Bentley was the star performer at Mona’s 440 Club - a bar that embraced lesbians and crossdressing in the 1930s. The shelves of the saloon were laden with cobwebbed bottles counting all sorts of spirits and liquors. Every precaution was taken to keep them intact and a person could always get the proprietor into a good natured chat by remarking their size and evident age. Old Warner seemed to regard the webs with as much pride as a collector bestows on rare and beautiful antiques. Some of these cobwebs were more than a yard in length and had not been disturbed for a quarter of a century or more. In a description published after Warner’s 1896 death at age 88, it was said that:Įnormous strings of silky webs, which had become dark and heavy with the dust of years, hung from the ceiling and festooned the strange curios and pictures that adorned the wall. The Cobweb Palace stayed open for almost 40 years, and during that time Warner steadfastly refused to clean his ceiling out of respect for his arachnid friends. Monkeys and parrots roamed free at the bar, and the venue was named for the spider paradise that Warner allowed to form on his ceiling. ![]() What Warner was best known for, however, was his love of small creatures. The Cobweb Palace was full of taxidermy and weapons from around the world, including bone spears, harpoons, lances, Maori knives, axes, darts, bows, snares and jackknives. Warner opened his ramshackle bar in 1856 on Francisco Street between Powell and Mason Streets, not far from where Sweetie’s Art Bar stands today. (OpenSFHistory / wnp33.00557)Ībe Warner was a bona fide weirdo, but, in classic San Francisco fashion, the whole city loved him for it. Two of his beloved parrots swing on a perch in the center. Proprietor Abe Warner can be seen behind the bar here. The Cobweb Palace The Cobweb Palace was a haven for spiders, parrots, monkeys and, for some reason, weapons from around the world. ![]() Here are five rip-roarin’ bars that, had they stuck around, would be regularly making all of our lives better. And let’s not forget North Beach’s Saloon, which has been there since 1861.īut not all of the great ones survived. There’s Elixir in the Mission, first established in 1858. There’s the Old Ship Saloon, named for the fact that it was originally housed inside a ship that ran aground in 1851. San Francisco is blessed with a whole bunch of bars that have been hanging around for almost as long as the city itself.
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