1900 Aliceanna St: What’s up with the history of Bar Alice Anne?
This corner in Fells Point has had a bar on it since 1905 - and for a lot of that time, women have been running it.
The first record is in 1899 with Robert O. Waterworth ow the building. By 1905, it shows up as the Saloon of Caroline Water.
John Horst, a Second Ward Democratic treasurer who was buying up property all over Baltimore, bought the building from Waterworth in 1907. He died in 1911, and the bar kept changing hands: John Spicer in 1907, Abraham Barlow in 1908 (fined $100 that year for selling liquor on a Sunday!), then Joseph Adamski in 1911.
Through the 1910s, the bar passed between a few families:
1913: Run by a Mr. Nokakowski
1914: His widow, Mary Nokakowski, applies for the liquor license herself
1917: Joseph Adamski takes over again
1919: Mary Adamski applies for the license - the same year her son Sylvester dies
Joseph Adamski Sr. on far left of this photo
Mary ran the bar while raising a family and burying a son.
In the 1920s, through prohibition, Mary Kurowski ran the bar. She violated dry laws - not the first or last time in this corner bar’s history - and was sentenced to 60 days in jail.
From the 1930s to the 1960s, John Polanowski ran John’s Tavern, and after his retirement, his wife Bertha Krol took over and kept it going as her own place: Bert’s Tavern.
In 1972, it became Ann's Tavern - a go-go bar, hiring dancers for two years before William Goeb took over in 1973.
Then in 1974, Pearl Maryanna Radtke opened the dive bar Pearl’s which she ran for 40 years straight, until 2014.
After Pearl's closed in 2014, the corner cycled fast: first, Lobo (2014–2020).
Then Mr. Tepaches (2022–2025).
Until 2026, it opened as Bar Alice Anne - named after the street it's always called home. Two of the four owners are women, Liz Irish and Katie Schlaffer, and the bar is still what it's always been: a neighborhood place that someone cared enough to keep open. May it live a long life on this historic corner.
