Sperier Bar
The Sperier Bar
Located at the northeast corner of Market Avenue and Second Street until March 1974, it was reported to possibly be the Pass's first nightspot outside of the famed "Hotels of the Pass." Until Hurricane Camille in 1969, the lounge and sometimes pseudo grocery was a gathering place for Pass patrons and their friends. The downstairs bar reportedly supported the generations of Speriers who resided in the upstairs living quarters.
Customary for the times, there was an entrance for Whites and a separate entrance for Blacks. Later, the bars were joined into one.
The last owner, Louis J. Sperier, was forced to close the store and it was demolished for safety and health reasons. The repairs made following Camille were not sufficient to sustain its foundation damage or to eliminate the health hazards. Rotting timbers in the walls and risky flooring resulted in its being condemned by the City and razed.
Along with it went the dusty jukebox, weathered tables and rickety chairs. The wrecking crew disclosed a massive underground cache of ammunition reportedly left over from Civil War days.
Today, the grounds remain vacant and used as a parking lot.
On asking Billy Bourdin about a humorous story concerning the Bar, he promptly retorted that ol' man Parnell of the Tarpon Beacon claimed that if he took a picture of the front of Sperier's Bar and came back two weeks later to take another photo, people would swear that he had simply used the same negative twice.”
Mrs. Margaret C. Farrell related that the old Sperier Bar down on Market and Second streets was originally the Curtis Grocery years ago. And the Curtises lived upstairs.
"It was Mrs. Curtis and her elderly sister and her son, --- And they used to take me there for dinner every Sunday."
