Once a month, Pendleton’s historic 1800s Shamrock Card Room comes to life as a real bar, where drinks are served by corset-wearing saloon girls and bow-tied bartenders.
The bar, which closes at a respectable 7 p.m., is owned and operated by Pendleton Underground Tours, a nonprofit founded in 1989 by a group of locals eager to show off their town’s (sometimes seedy) Old West history.
“Pendleton was the entertainment capital of Eastern Oregon, hosting some 32 bars and 18 bordellos on within one block of Main Street,” said Phil Garton, who served as board president when the nonprofit formed in 1989. “Virtually every two-story building in downtown Pendleton was a bordello.”
Today, Pendleton Underground Tours offers a 90-minute walking tour through the town’s underground spaces — both the literal and figurative kind. In a series of connected basements under a block of buildings along Main and Emigrant streets, visitors will see reconstructions of a late 1800′s card room, a butcher shop, an ice cream parlor, a Chinese laundry, an opium den, and a speakeasy from the days of Prohibition. The tour also ventures above ground to the former Cozy Rooms bordello, which Madam Stella Darby ran on Main Street until 1953.
Brooke Armstrong, executive director of the Pendleton Underground, said the tunnels below the buildings were originally used for transporting goods to businesses from the railroad. Because the basements were cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter, they were valuable for a variety of purposes.
But by the 1980s, the tunnels were closed off and the basements were filled with junk. Garton said locals donated some 1,300 hours of labor to clear the spaces, open up the stone-lined tunnels and recreate the look of the past.
That’s how Jerry Severe and her daughter, Pam Severe, got involved. The women were antique dealers in town who provided much of the furnishings to reconstruct each room along the tour. Jerry Severe, 91, still operates the Western Working Girls Gift & Antique Shop next to the Pendleton Underground offices.
“We had a meeting with all the people that were into antiques and history,” she said. “They each took a room, and that was their project, to put it together. That’s how we got started. It was local people who donated their time.”
Boy Scouts and Little League teams pitched in to haul junk out of the basements. Meanwhile, Garton and others conducted interviews with Pendleton’s long-time residents to collect stories of the town’s history. The Pendleton Underground officially opened for subterranean sightseeing during the 1989 Pendleton Roundup.
And how did Pendleton feel about the Underground?
“I didn’t really run into a lot of opposition other than from a few old timers,” Garton said. “I think they were mainly afraid their grandfather’s name would come up on a ledger out of a bordello.”
Pendleton’s early leaders had long turned a blind eye to the gambling and prostitution that took place downtown, but Garton remembered interviewing Morris Temple, who was mayor in 1953 when the town finally shut down the brothels. As the story goes, a local Presbyterian minister came into Temple’s office one day holding two sheets of paper. In his left hand was a list of all the women “doing business” in the city brothels. In his right hand was a list of all their customers.
“If those girls aren’t out town by this coming Sunday,” the preacher said, according to Garton, “I intend to read both lists in church.’”
The city council vote a few days later was unanimous. The brothels would have to go.
By 1989, no one’s grandfathers were outed, and the brothel tours were a hit with locals and tourists alike. Eventually, the nonprofit was able to purchase most of the buildings on the block.
Pam Severe became the nonprofit’s executive director, and in 1991, she turned one of the former brothels into the Working Girls Hotel. Visitors can now spend the night in the five-room hotel featuring 18-foot ceilings, exposed brick walls and antique furnishings in each room.
Armstrong is the third generation of Severe women to work in the Underground. As Pam Severe’s daughter, she practically grew up in the Underground, roaming its tunnels as she tagged along with her mom. In 2008, her mom brought her on as an assistant, with the hope that Armstrong would take over when she retired. But when Pam Severe died in 2012, at age 59, of cancer, Armstrong stepped into the position earlier than planned.
“My mom, she was such a hard worker and such a strong woman,” Armstrong said. “I just want to make her proud. I know she’s here with me every day when I’m down here.”
The Pendleton Underground also runs A Piece of Pendleton, a gift shop featuring hand-made wares by Pendleton craftspeople and artists, and hosts the Duff Severe Gallery, showcasing a collection of saddles and rawhide work made by the world-renowned Severe Brothers. (Yes, that’s the same Severe family. Duff was Armstrong’s great uncle.)
Each May, the Underground hosts an annual “Comes to Life” fundraiser where about 75 live actors recreate Old West scenes in each of the rooms. Armstrong built on that concept, opening up the Shamrock Card Room as a real bar once a month.
“It’s a place where history is told, culture is kept and legends live on,” Armstrong said. “It’s where we can continue to tell our history. We bring people in from all over the world. Their word of mouth continues to bring more and more people to Pendleton.”
IF YOU GO:
The Shamrock Card Room is open from 4-7 p.m. the first Saturday of summer months at the corner of Southwest Emigrant Avenue and First Street in Pendleton.
Ninety-minute walking tours of the Pendleton Underground, starting at 31 S.W. Emigrant Ave., are $20 for adults and $15 for children ages 6-12. Children younger than 6 are not allowed. Tours, which involve multiple staircases, are offered daily except Tuesday and Sunday, but times vary.
Room rates for the Working Girls Hotel are $85 to $200, depending on the season and the room.
Visit pendletonundergroundtours.org or call 541-276-0730 for more information.
