Formerly: Old Ship Ale House · Grocery Saloon
San Francisco, California · Founded 1851 · Building: 1907
A San Francisco saloon whose 1851 predecessor operated from the hull of the Gold Rush ship Arkansas, whose remnants remain buried near the present site.
Old Ship Saloon operates at 298 Pacific Avenue in San Francisco’s Jackson Square area. Its history begins in 1851, when Joe Anthony opened Old Ship Ale House inside the hull of the abandoned Arkansas; the present brick building was erected after the 1906 earthquake and fire destroyed the prior structure.
The Arkansas, described in San Francisco history as a three-masted ship, was blown aground at Alcatraz during a storm and later towed to the shoreline near today’s Pacific Avenue and Battery Street.
Source: SFGATE, “San Francisco’s ghost ships are buried here,” July 6, 2016; San Francisco Heritage, “Jackson Square Legacy Business Spotlight: Old Ship Saloon,” June 5, 2025
Englishman Joe Anthony cut an opening in the abandoned Arkansas, built a ramp, and opened Old Ship Ale House inside the hull.
Source: San Francisco Legacy Business Registry application, Old Ship Saloon; San Francisco Heritage, “Jackson Square Legacy Business Spotlight: Old Ship Saloon,” June 5, 2025
As Yerba Buena Cove was filled, development continued around the Arkansas. Later accounts describe a rooming house and hotel built over portions of the vessel while the bar lineage continued at the site.
Source: SFGATE, “San Francisco’s ghost ships are buried here,” July 6, 2016; San Francisco Heritage, “Jackson Square Legacy Business Spotlight: Old Ship Saloon,” June 5, 2025
After a period as Grocery Saloon, proprietor Henry Klee purchased the building and revived the Old Ship Saloon name.
Source: San Francisco Heritage, “Jackson Square Legacy Business Spotlight: Old Ship Saloon,” June 5, 2025
The building then occupied by the saloon burned in the earthquake and fire.
Source: San Francisco Legacy Business Registry application, Old Ship Saloon
Henry Klee rebuilt the saloon and boarding house as the substantial brick building that remains at the site.
Source: San Francisco Legacy Business Registry application, Old Ship Saloon; San Francisco Heritage, “Jackson Square Legacy Business Spotlight: Old Ship Saloon,” June 5, 2025
Construction in the adjoining lot uncovered ship remains about 25 feet below grade, including a 15-foot section of false keel. Archaeologists associated the material with the Arkansas and left it in place.
Source: San Francisco Heritage, “Jackson Square Legacy Business Spotlight: Old Ship Saloon,” June 5, 2025; SFGATE, “San Francisco’s ghost ships are buried here,” July 6, 2016
Old Ship Saloon was added to San Francisco’s Legacy Business Registry.
Source: San Francisco Heritage, “Jackson Square Legacy Business Spotlight: Old Ship Saloon,” June 5, 2025
Every claim gets rated. A business's own website can never earn "documented."
San Francisco’s Legacy Business documentation and San Francisco Heritage state that Joe Anthony opened Old Ship Ale House inside the abandoned Arkansas in 1851. The ship origin is central to the documented site history.
Archaeological work in 2016 found remains identified with the Arkansas in the adjoining lot, about 25 feet below grade. That strongly supports the ship’s presence beside the current building, but available sources describe the bar as steps from the vessel’s final resting place rather than proving that surviving hull sections lie directly beneath the saloon footprint.
Crimping and shanghaiing occurred in nineteenth-century San Francisco waterfront culture, but this review found no reliable primary, institutional, or scholarly evidence tying specific incidents to Old Ship Saloon. Waterfront setting alone is not enough to establish the claim.
The City’s Legacy Business documentation describes Old Ship as the city’s oldest continuous saloon and bar. Its long business lineage and site continuity are well documented, but this review did not independently verify every interruption, including Prohibition-era operations, or conduct a complete comparison against other historic San Francisco bars.
City documentation and San Francisco Heritage state that the pre-1906 structure burned in the April 1906 disaster and that Henry Klee rebuilt the substantial brick building in 1907.
The current Old Ship Saloon building is the original hull of the Arkansas.
The 1851 bar operated in the Arkansas hull, but the present structure is a substantial brick building rebuilt in 1907 after the 1906 earthquake and fire. Surviving Arkansas material has been found in the adjoining lot, not established as the present building itself.
Source: San Francisco Legacy Business Registry application, Old Ship Saloon; San Francisco Heritage, “Jackson Square Legacy Business Spotlight: Old Ship Saloon,” June 5, 2025
Joe Hare opened the Old Ship Saloon inside the Arkansas.
City and heritage documentation identify Englishman Joe Anthony as the person who opened Old Ship Ale House in the Arkansas hull in 1851. Charles Hare belongs to the later shipbreaking history.
Source: San Francisco Legacy Business Registry application, Old Ship Saloon; SFGATE, “San Francisco’s ghost ships are buried here,” July 6, 2016
The surviving Arkansas hull is proven to lie directly beneath the present bar.
A 2016 archaeological discovery established Arkansas remains in the adjacent lot, about 25 feet below grade. That supports the historic ship’s location near the saloon but does not prove that surviving hull sections are directly below the present building footprint.
Source: San Francisco Heritage, “Jackson Square Legacy Business Spotlight: Old Ship Saloon,” June 5, 2025
Old Ship’s uninterrupted operation since 1851 is fully proven.
The City’s Legacy Business documentation calls it San Francisco’s oldest continuous saloon and bar, but the detailed record of operations through Prohibition and all ownership transitions needs further archival verification.
Source: San Francisco Legacy Business Registry application, Old Ship Saloon
The Old Ship’s endurance comes from an unusually durable story paired with a real historic site. Changes in building, ownership, business name, and street numbering did not erase the connection to the Arkansas, while the 1907 brick rebuild and later preservation by successive operators kept a neighborhood saloon at Pacific Avenue into the present day.
Old Ship Saloon’s 1851 predecessor, Old Ship Ale House, operated inside the hull of the abandoned Gold Rush ship Arkansas. The present 1907 brick building is not a ship hull; archaeological work in the adjoining lot found remains associated with Arkansas buried about 25 feet below grade.
The ship was the Arkansas, a three-masted vessel that was blown aground at Alcatraz in 1849 and later towed to the shoreline near modern Pacific Avenue and Battery Street. In 1851, Joe Anthony opened Old Ship Ale House in its abandoned hull.
The current substantial brick building dates to 1907. The prior saloon building burned in the April 18, 1906 earthquake and fire, and proprietor Henry Klee rebuilt on the site the following year.
San Francisco’s Legacy Business documentation calls Old Ship Saloon the city’s oldest continuous saloon and bar. The business traces its lineage to 1851, but a strict uninterrupted-operation claim, particularly during Prohibition, needs further archival verification before it is treated as a proven comparative superlative.
Shanghaing was part of nineteenth-century San Francisco waterfront history, but this review found no reliable evidence documenting specific shanghaiing incidents at Old Ship Saloon. The story should be treated as unverified Barbary Coast folklore, not a confirmed fact about this bar.
San Francisco’s Legacy Business Registry application identifies Eric Passetti and Marc Passetti as the current owners. San Francisco Heritage also described the brothers as the saloon’s owners in a June 2025 profile.
298 Pacific Ave, San Francisco, CA 94111
(415) 788-2222
In Jackson Square near the Embarcadero. Look for site-history markers, but confirm current opening hours directly before visiting.