Vintage Hotel Spokane Bar Spoon and Bottle Opener
This Hotel Spokane bar spoon and opener was an indispensable tool necessary for the weary traveler. The necessity of this bar tool lives on and is fully functional today.
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Product Description
Part advertising, part room amenity, this vintage bar spoon and brewsky opener is part of Spokane history. The hotel was built shortly after The Great Fire in August of 1889. The bar spoon and opener was an indispensable tool necessary for the weary traveler. The necessity of this bar tool lives on and is fully functional.
This artifact of drinking culture typical of western cities in the west is made of metal and measures 7-3/4 inches long. The spoon is approximately 1-1/2 inches across at the widest part. The bottle opener? It opens today’s popular microbrews just as it opened a bottle of Schade or Bohmemian beer from early twentieth-century Spokane.
The spoon has some wear from usage and light dents, discoloration,2 light corrosion spots on the back of the spoon. The decoration in the bowl of the spoon, along the back handle, and the text “HOTEL SPOKANE” is in surprisingly good condition considering the age of the items (and perhaps it’s extensive use). Stamped Made in the U.S.A. by Vaughan, Chicago.
Want to learn more about the Hotel Spokane? Read on. Want to purchase? Add to cart now.
A Shot of History
The Hotel Spokane was one of the first in the Pacific Northwest to have electric lights in every room and the second in the nation to have a telephone in every room. Pretty fancy. It was also renowned for the restaurant, The Silver Grill, and maître d’hotel, Clarence Taylor. In a Feb. 2017 article in the Spokesman-Review, journalist Jesse Tinsley explained that “One day in 1902, hotel owner Ben Norman was awakened by a black youngster yelling loudly on the street below, selling newspapers outside the hotel. Although initially annoyed, Norman hired Clarence Taylor on the spot.
Taylor was 12.
Through the decades, Taylor moved up to wine steward, waiter, and eventually the maître d’hotel. He served Bing Crosby, Theodore Roosevelt and Herbert Hoover.” The hotel was torn down for the building of the Ridpath Motor Inn. The last dinner was served by Taylor on Christmas Eve 1961. Taylor passed away in 1974 at the age of 83.
