Lets all go to the Silver Corner!
This article is part of the Shoshone News-Press Then and Now special section that appeared in the Friday, July 30 print edition. Copies of this edition can be purchased at the News-Press office in Osburn.
WALLACE – It's nearly impossible to find a building in the city of Wallace that isn't dripping with history. That's the way things go when many of your buildings are more than 100 years old.
The Arment building, which is currently home to the Silver Corner Bar and the upstairs Lux Rooms, is no exception.
Current owners Jocelyn and Mathias Bachman explain that their building is one of many that was constructed following The Great Fire of 1910. With the original building that was built in the late 1800s being destroyed by the fire, the current brick building took its place.
With the exception of a few businesses in the early years, the Arment building has kept a fairly consistent track record with the establishments it has been home to.
"Our building since 1911 has pretty much housed a bar on the main floor and rooms upstairs,” Jocelyn said. “Even during prohibition, I bet you could have still gotten a drink here…I guarantee there was a speak-easy somewhere in the back because, Wallace."
Photographs show that during the 1920s, the downstairs space was home to Theodore's Army Store, following World War I. Even during this time, the Bachman’s are sure that certain paid services that have become synonymous with Wallace were being offered in the upstairs space.
"Odds are that it was never a hotel," Mathias said. "It was always a whore house."
The next recorded business in the downstairs space is Brownie's Corner and the Owl Taxi service in the 1940s. The Bachmans believe that the space was possibly home to more than just these two, as the guts of the building indicate several different spaces and possible basement apartments, but records are scarce.
The building would finally get its mainstay business in 1976 when famous madam Dolores Arnold purchased the building from Chris Lutich.
"She closed everything, gutted everything, and did a full top-to-bottom remodel,” Jocelyn said. “Even including AC units in the '70s for the brothel."
Following the renovations, Arnold would open up the Silver Corner Bar downstairs and the Lux Rooms upstairs. As she ran the Lux Rooms, which was previously in what is today the Sixth Street Theater & Melodrama building, the Silver Corner would be leased out to the Posnick family. This tandem of vice would continue until 1989 when Arnold retired and closed down the Lux Rooms. In 1992, she sold the entire building to the Posnick family, who continued to operate the Silver Corner for years, but left the upstairs alone.
“Originally, John Posnick Sr. was running the whole thing, then he passed in the late '90s and John Posnick Jr. ran it until 2014 until he sold it to Dan Clark,” Mathias said. "He had it for three years and during those three years, he did a lot of remodeling and renovation to it, 100%. A lot of cleanup."
Unfortunately for the Bachman’s, who would acquire the building in December 2017, the Silver Corner ended up losing its liquor license in 2014. The two worked hard to get another one for four months and thankfully were successful.
With a new license in hand and the completion of some of their own renovations, the Silver Corner reopened in June 2018, along with the newly improved Lux Rooms (as hotel rooms…not ‘working’ rooms) not long after.
Today, the Silver Corner carries on as the premier cocktail bar in the Silver Valley — boasting a wide array of signature drinks and even some awards to back them up.
The Silver Corner Bar is open Tuesday through Saturday 5 p.m. to midnight and located at 601 Cedar St. in Wallace. The bar can be reached by phone at 208-753-4261 and by email at silvercornerbar@gmail.com.
