It was known as the ‘Party Pad’, a clandestine bring-your-own-bottle establishment on the upper floor of a deserted produce warehouse on Davis Street, downtown San Francisco. The underground hipster hub was run without license by a beatnik generation actor and poet known as Eric “Big Daddy” Nord, a well-known figure of the bohemian scene in California at the time.
These photographs of the speakeasy-style joint were discovered by a digital archive for the city, Found, SF.
“The Party Pad is a place with sawdust
floors, a few tables with red oilcloth covers, a couple of beat-up
pianos and a hi-fi phonograph,” described a local newspaper
in the summer of 1958, “There is no charge, but signs advise that a
“donation” of $1 from men and 50 cents from women would be appreciated.”
Nord even hired a policeman to keep order at the club and clear
everyone out at the end of the night.
Unfortunately, the party was shut down after a 31 year old man died in June 1958 after he fell from the Party Pad’s roof, which guests used to get a breath of fresh air. ”Police found 13 empty whiskey bottles, 10 empty beer cans, as well as chairs and mattresses on the roof,” reported the local paper, “It was found that the roof was a most unsafe place.” Today, the old food warehouse has long been demolished.
Despite it’s tragic end, this secret
club must have had an electric atmosphere behind its shabby
exterior
inspiring modern-day hipsters to open their next ‘speakeasy’
cocktail hotspot– complete with a decaying facade salvaged from an
abandoned green grocer’s.
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