Not affiliated with the Holiday Inn motel chain, the Holiday Inn Tavern was located at 3960 Minnehaha Ave. in Minneapolis.  It was owned by Thomas L. Knott.

BUILDING HISTORY

The building was built in 1918; a 1922 ad indicates that it was a Rochdale Consolidated grocery store.

In 1930 the Falls Department Store was closing out.

HI HO CLUB

In July 1933, at the end of Prohibition, Simon H. Eustice applied for a dance hall license, but neighbors objected to the Hi Ho Club.  Apparently the issue of whether to allow dancing where beer is sold had not yet been worked out, and although an alderman had not noticed any undue noise at the Hi Ho Club, the dance hall license had not yet been approved, so police stopped the dancing.  (Minneapolis Star, August 24, 1933).  In October 1933 the dance hall permit was denied.

FALLS EAT SHOP

By April 1934, Earl C. Paddock was the owner of the Falls Eat Shop and had a 3.2 beer license.   In December 1935 he had licenses for “amusement devices,” which were probably juke boxes and pin ball machines.

FRANK PADDOCK’S TAVERN

By January 1, 1943, the place was called Frank Paddock’s Tavern.  In January 1940, Frank Paddock and 11 other defendants had been charged with maintaining gambling devices – “14” games and pinball devices – he at his tavern at 907 W. Lake Street.  They were all sentenced to 30 days in the Workhouse, but on appeal their sentences were reduced, his to $100.  Paddock’s wife’s obituary says that they owned the tavern on Minnehaha for 20 years before they sold it, bringing it back to 1937.  Which doesn’t compute if he had a tavern on Lake Street in 1940, unless they had two licenses. Frank died in 1990, and his wife Orpha in 1994.  (Star Tribune, October 19, 1994)

On August 25, 1957, the place was advertised for sale.

PEASANT INN

On June 13, 1958, two ads for a “Barmaid” called the place the Peasant Inn.

---

 

HOLIDAY INN TAVERN

The first listing for the Holiday Inn Tavern, in the form of a wantad for a waitress, can be found in the Minneapolis Star on April 24, 1959.

In the summer of 1959 the bar had a softball team.

Musical acts included Sherwin Linton and the Fender Benders playing rockabilly.

On September 28, 1960, the Minneapolis City Council licenses committee heard from residents and/or merchants in the area of the bar, complaining of “disorderly conditions:  drunken persons, fights, and litter,” creating a nuisance.  The committee recommended revocation of the bar’s 3.2 beer permit.

SHORT LIFE

On October 28, 1960, the building was put up for sale for $15,000.  It was vacant and for sale for over a year until taken over by Minnehaha Surplus and Hardware.  That went out of business in May 1966.

The next owner was the U.S.S. Yorktown Post and Auxiliary 178 Veterans of Foreign Wars from 1966 until 1979.

The building is now the Minnehaha Business Center.