Historic St. Louis-area tavern destroyed by fire

The Sports Attic Bar & Grill — the latest incarnation of a series of taverns at that location since the 1920s — in Brentwood, Mo., was destroyed by fire Friday, according to the Brentwood-Maplewood Patch.

The fire was reported about 4 a.m. No cause was known, although the St. Louis Post-Dispatch said it may have started in the basement.

The Sports Attic was located at 8212 Manchester Road, which is the old alignment of Route 66 through the St. Louis region.

According to Norma Maret Bolin’s well-researched book, “Route 66 St. Louis,” the Engelhard family relocated to that very spot in 1926, where a house and a small restaurant stood:

A 1927 photo shows the establishment as Fred Engelhard Lunches advertising Whistle soda and Coca-Cola. They catered to the Route 66 travelers and locals alike. Mary heard family stories that during the Prohibition era, Fred was a bootlegger. Clara continued as the cook, now serving up frog legs in addition to hot sandwiches. They had a rathskeller (a basement banquet area for large groups) and the Rock Hill and Maplewood Lions Clubs met there regularly. Lucille worked as a banquet waitress, making 5 cents per head. One family story was about Lucille selling a customer a Coke. Unbeknownst to both Lucille and the customer, it was filled with hard liquor and Fred told her afterwards. As Mary grew up, she smelled the hops from Fred’s “brewery” operation in the basement. Another family story was about when the place was raided. The police searched the restaurant and the home. When they came upstairs to the girls’ bedroom, Elsie told the police they could not enter their bedroom and acted very insulted. They police did not search their bedroom and it was a good thing because their closet was full of gin and other hard liquor. This is how the family survived the Depression. By the time Route 66 was rerouted to Gravois/Chippewa/Watson, the Engelhards were firmly established and continued with local patronage.

Engelhard’s eventually became the Brentwood Inn, then Ruby’s Brentwood Inn, then the Sports Attic. It had been continuously operated since 1926.

According to the Patch:

Neighbors with lots of memories of the bar gathered in the parking lot of RPM Car Care, across the street.

Mary Engelhard Van Cleave was born in the second floor of the building in 1927. Her parents had bought it in 1926.

“A lot of these kids, their parents all came in all the time,” she said. “Everybody knew everybody else. It was that kind of a tavern. I loved it.”

She lived there until 1974.