In Alabama, the big news of 1937 was the opening of what was touted as "the only underground nightclub in America," the Bangor Café Club. In its short year and a half of operation it proved to be one of the most glamorous and controversial places in the South.

The nearby area of Blount Springs, "The Saratoga of the South," was making news long before that, however. In what might have been the first specific historical reference to Blount Springs, Davy Crockett was said to have spent time recuperating from a fever by a set of sulphur springs some miles north of Jones Valley, Alabama, in about 1815.

Jackson House Hotel, destroyed by fire in 1915 (Photo courtesy of Blount County Memorial Museum)

Col. J. F. B. Jackson, a construction engineer for the South and North Alabama Railroad, realized the potential of the springs during the completion of a 66-mile stretch of railroad between Birmingham and a point south of Decatur. He purchased several thousand acres of land in the area, including Blount Springs, in 1871. On Sept. 29, 1872, the last spike was driven to complete the line from Decatur to Montgomery and, soon after, Jackson built a small hotel, naming it after himself. Barely a thousand feet from the depot, the hotel served as a stopover for passengers and a home-away-from-home for vacationers.

On July 12, 1878, Blount Springs' new Jackson House was opened to the public, replacing the temporary hotel that had been constructed six years earlier. In 1879, the Blount Springs Natural Sulphur Water Bottling Company began advertising medicinal benefits of the sulphur water, including treatment for skin diseases, sore eyes, gout, pimples, blotches, ulcers, and even paralysis.

As the bustling community continued to grow, a new two-story hotel, the Mountain House, was completed in 1883, on an elevated site behind the Jackson House. The town of Blount Springs was officially incorporated in 1885.

In 1887, Jackson sold his holdings to J. W. and Mack Sloss, brothers who operated the Sloss Furnaces in Birmingham. They planned to make Blount Springs an even more popular resort for weary businessmen, with a sanitarium for invalids and a playground for children, while at the same time increasing its reputation as the rendezvous of Southern Society. A new bath house with water connections from the sulphur springs was built and modernized plumbing was installed throughout the hotel.

Dignitaries, socialites and celebrities, such as Lillian Russell and Diamond Jim Brady visited the resort. Plays, vaudeville performances, concerts, balls and galas were all a part of life at the vacation land.

On June 3, 1915, a fire started in the kitchen of the Main Hotel and spread to adjoining buildings, bringing a virtual end to the resort.With the resort gone, the nearby Bangor Cave, just four miles northeast, was practically abandoned.

The cave had been well-known since the late 19th Century. Tours were conducted through the cave by candle and pitch-pine torch light. Band concerts were even held in the main chamber, which measures about 350 feet long by 57 feet wide, and is approximately 20 feet high. A souvenir token was presented to all those brave enough to hazard the trip.

Bangor Cave Bar (Photo courtesy of the Blount County Memorial Museum)

With the resort no longer providing visitors to the cave, it was almost forgotten. In the mid-1930s, property owner J. Breck Musgrove persuaded a group of investors to fund the construction of a nightclub, or in Prohibition parlance, a speakeasy, in the cave. A new entrance was blasted open using dynamite, and a bandstand and bar were carved from the stone. The floor of the first chamber was leveled with the addition of concrete and covered with linoleum, and the second chamber was later turned into a lounge for female patrons. A locked and heavily guarded room housed slot machines, craps tables, roulette wheels, and card tables.

One unique difficulty in preparing the speakeasy was the lighting. According to a Birmingham newspaper of the day, "electrical engineers studied the lighting possibilities for weeks, seeking to obtain proper effects. The results are that Bangor Cave, in the fastness of Blount County hills, will sparkle with lights like Broadway. The conduits are underground so as not to disturb the overhead stalactite formations."

After several delays, the Bangor Café Club finally opened Saturday, June 5, 1937. Guests from Birmingham, Decatur, Cullman, Tuscaloosa and Montgomery arrived at the club by train on a spur line that emptied within a few feet of the newly created entrance and motorcars arrived over a gravel-covered U.S. Highway 31.

Raids and legal proceedings over the cave's operation began almost as soon as the nightclub opened, with Gov. Bibb Graves ordering the local sheriff to shut down the club. After this first closing a grand reopening was announced for a July Friday night, allegedly without liquor or gambling. On July 31, just after midnight, the newly-appointed Sheriff Ed Miler and eight Alabama State Troopers headed to the club. An estimated crowd of 2000 were enjoying the roulette wheels, slot machines and liquor.

The battle continued among the state, the county, and the owners until January 1939, when the nightclub shut its doors for good. Early on the morning of May 8, 1939, neighbors noticed thick black smoke coming from the cave. Several raced to the site to find it engulfed in flames. Some thought it was the retribution of a group of petty thieves who didn't find anything to steal. Others thought it was the work of lawmen trying to ensure the club never opened again.

Visitors have continued to venture to the cave over the years, but it has become the target of vandals, with the walls becoming covered in graffiti and the initial chambers littered with trash. The bar and bandstand areas are still evident, but most other signs of the once-thriving nightclub have disappeared. At present, the cave is held privately and is not open to the public.

From

by Beverly Crider