Twin Cities Caves, Part 1: Wabasha Street
Wabasha Street Caves, 2007
Castle Royal Nightclub, c. 1933, as pictured in John Dillinger Slept Here
S., her friend L, and I spent part of yesterday on the St. Paul Gangster Tour, which starts at the Wabasha Street Caves. We didn’t actually see the caves, but I skulked around the outside taking photos for awhile, and last night I picked up a copy of Paul Maccabee’s John Dillinger Slept Here: A Crook’'s Tour of Crime and Corruption in St. Paul, 1920-1936 for bedtime reading. Published by the MN Historical Society Press, it looks like a marvel of research, and the materials are now collected at the Society. A little reading there and a little googling, and now I know that the caves have been in use since the 1840s, first as a silica mine and then as a mushroom farm of sorts run by French immigrants. In the 1930s, it became a speakeasy at the center of St. Paul's police corruption. Maccabee offers a description of the roaring nightlife it supported:
In its heyday the Castle Royal featured rich oriental carpets and glittering chandeliers, gambling in the back room, and performances by Cab Calloway, the Dorsey brothers, and Harry James. Although there is no proof that Dillinger and other gangsters frequented the Royal, current owners Donna and Steve Bremer have heard all of the gangland legends. “Ma Barker and her gang stopped into the club” claimed Donna Bremer. “In the 1930s, the underworld would come to these nightclubs on the weekend, and then the wealthy of Minneapolis and St. Paul would come just to see the gangsters.”
“The Castle Royal was built in a mushroom cave,” recalled former St. Paul police officer Pat Lannon Sr. “They turned it into a nightclub, put in gambling—craps and poker and cards—in the back end.” Lannon claimed that the Castle Royal’s gambling operations figured in a scheme by Tom Brown [formerly the corrupt police chief, reassigned as a police detective on the vice squad] to destroy rival George Moeller’s campaign for Ramsey County sheriff. Lannon took candidate Moeller on a guided tour of the Royal when the police held a party at the club. “But we skirted the gambling room and didn’t take him there,” laughed Lannon. “Next day, talk about a con, there’s a newspaper article about gambling in the Castle Royal and the article said that [Moeller] was there. They put him on the spot and the grand jury was going to have an investigation to railroad Moeller!” Lannon went to Ramsey County Attorney Michael Kinkead and explained Brown’s political maneuvering; formal charges were never brought against Moeller.
When it opened in October 1933, the Castle Royal promoted itself to newspapers as “The World’s Most Gorgeous Underground Nite Club.” Its motto, “Fit for a King,” referred to opening night entertainment by Juan King and his ten-piece Castle Royal Orchestra. (45-46)
The place is apparently believed to be haunted now. Several murdered gangsters, both male and female, are said to haunt the caves. At least one of them doesn’t care for disco, according to the site, and several of them have played with child visitors.
We’re planning to go back in a few weeks and do the cave tour. Should be fun.
Comments
Oh yeah! I'm definitely down for more nerdy local history exploration. The best part of the tour may have been telling people after that I spent my Saturday riding around in a bus with Red Hat ladies looking at a senior center that used to be the location of a nefarious gangster speakeasy.
That, or that the driver, Les, tried to "speed" away in the bus every time Dillinger got to the part of his story where the gansters "made their escape."
Posted by: S | September 24, 2007 8:53 PM