Oshkosh Saloons of 1902: The Zayat

The Zayat, 224 N. Main Street.
A.G Cone, Proprietor.

Almer G. Cone was born in Wisconsin in 1864 and had his own saloon in Oshkosh by the time he'd reached his mid-20s. He had a flair for the exotic right from the jump. His first bar, at 412 N. Main Street, was a swank joint called the Monte Cristo Club. It was billed as the "headquarters for theatrical people... where expert and distinguished dispensers of palatable decoctions are ever ready to accommodate customers with the best plain, bottled, or fancy drinks known to the profession." Try making sense of that after you've had a few.

In 1902, Cone moved down the block to 224 N. Main and opened The Zayat. Cone claimed it was "the swellest sample room" in all of Oshkosh. The name reflected his penchant for the eccentric. Zayat is a Burmese word for a type of refuge used by traveling worshipers. I'll bet that whatever was being worshiped at The Zayat had nothing to do with the Buddha. Here we are...

The Zayat; page 174 Oshkosh Up to Date, 1902. 

Several of the images that appear in Oshkosh Up to Date were airbrushed. The photo of The Zayat received an especially heavy treatment. The mirror behind the bar has been all but blotted out. I suspect there may have been some racy illustrations attached to it. That doesn't matter. The thing to notice in this shot is the wooden partition with the classic swinging doors at the entrance to the barroom (you can always click on any of these pictures to enlarge them).

That barrier was there to prevent the prying eyes on Main Street from looking in. Most saloons of this era had large, plate glass windows facing the street. The partition and swinging doors were usually placed about six-feet back from the street entrance. The barrier made it impossible for passersby to see who was at the bar or what they might be doing there. The anti-saloon gang had mixed feelings about this setup.

Some of the prudes considered the barriers necessary to save the innocent from being corrupted by the spectacle of vice playing out in the bowels of a saloon. Other killjoys thought the privacy only served to inflame the debauchery. In some Wisconsin cities, the latter band of bluenoses won out and persuaded local governments to make such partitions illegal. That didn't happen in Oshkosh. Here, at least, the sober folks had enough sense to realize they were probably better off not seeing the sights on the other side of those swinging doors.

What was A.G. Cone’s Zayat is now Market Boutique On Main. The building was known as the Weisbrod Block when it was built in 1875. Here's how it looks today.

224 N. Main Street.

If you go there, check out the impressive ceiling. It looks much like it did when Almer Cone was slinging drinks there.

The 1902 Saloon Crawl Continues.
The next stop on the crawl is the John Meentzen Saloon at 141 High Street. 
To return to the start of the crawl, click here.
For links to all of the stops on the crawl that are currently available, click here.

Notes
There are some recent photos of the interior of the former Zayat that you can view here.
For more on the Weisbrod Block, go here.