Sadar's Saloon in Elyria

“The saloon was at 46th and Humboldt. It’s gone now. It’s a parking lot.” Joe Sadar remembered.

Matt Sadar arrived in Colorado before 1900 from a town in Slovenia called Novo Mesto. He opened a tavern and boarding house at 3rd Avenue and Powell Street in Elyria (now 46th and Humboldt Street.) Men who worked in the Grant and Globe Smelters could get a room, a lunch packed in a pail, an evening meal and laundry services. Newcomers from the old country, like Jennie Hocevar, cooked, and cleaned in the boarding house while learning English.

Joe Sadar reminisced, “We’d go down to Matt’s with a lard bucket. You could say, ‘I want 25¢ worth of beer,’ and they’d fill it. We’d pass the pail around and everyone would take a sip.

“Matt was so nice. He had the most beautiful hair. It was all gray, but very thick. He had this long bar. and tables you could play cards there and they had a little shelf where you could set your beer. He had pictures of the men working in the smelter. There were these pictures on the wall of a horse and wagon and some kegs of beer on the wagon.”After Prohibition was repealed in 1934, Joe Sadar recalled, “From out of nowhere, beer instantly appeared.”

In 1946, Jack and Frances Brinkerhoff purchased the business and renamed it the Shambles Inn. The bar and restaurant were well known for their beef chili, beef stew and pot roast sandwiches. In 1978, it was bought by the National Western and demolished for a parking lot.

Matt Sadar’s Saloon in 1903 in Elyria

Robbery of the Vogel Mercantile

The headline from the April 2nd, 1920 edition of the Denver Post screamed "Clever Yeggs Crack Safe, Make Big Globeville Haul." A subhead continues, "Store Robbed of $1,000 and Merchandise."

"Blowing the safe with nitroglycerin, yeggmen obtained $1,000 in currency from the Vogel Mercantile store, 201 East Forty-fifth Avenue in Globeville, on Thursday night. They proceeded to carry away shoes, overalls and other merchandise valued at between $500 and $1,000. Also included in the loot were a Liberty bond valued at $50 and silver in the amount of $40 or $50.

The cleverness displayed by the robbers, who made a getaway without being observed or leaving any clew, leaves the police to believe the men were expert safe-crackers. Just enough nitroglycerin was used to blow the safe and still not make a report loud enough to be heard by persons near." 

The crime occurred late on a Thursday night without waking any of the neighbors, even though the safe was blown apart and the front window demolished. Men heading to work at the nearby stockyards on Friday morning alerted one of the proprietors, Henry Vogel, who began tallying up the losses.

Vogel concluded. "The robbers must have been familiar with our business and knew we cashed many checks from the stockyards on payday, which was yesterday. I am thankful that I took a bunch of endorsed checks home with me, or the loot would have been much larger." Patrolmen Anderson and Thomas from the stockyards station pronounced the job as one of the cleverest they had ever seen. 

 

Globeville was like a small town and a robbery like this was big news. In this immigrant neighborhood, people didn't trust banks, choosing to use taverns, grocers or ethnic fraternals for their financial services. Owners of taverns, and mercantile stores and officers of fraternal societies were a part of the community, who knew their neighbors and attended the same churches.They allowed residents to carry a tab and settle up at the end of the month (many workers were paid monthly). Likewise citizens could rely on these institutions to keep their money for them, cash checks, and grant loans. The mercantile would have lots of cash on hand, making it a tempting target for thieves.

According to grandson James Vogel, his grandfather Henry J. Vogel, bought the mercantile from the Globe Smelter in 1919. After the robbery and due to the health of his wife, the Vogels moved to Longmont later that year. Today the building is used as a residence.

Photo of the smelter store about 1913