Formerly: Ship Captain's Bar
Fernandina Beach, Florida · Founded 1878 · Building: circa 1870s
A still-operating Fernandina Beach saloon with late-19th-century roots, preserved after Prohibition reinvention and a 1999 fire.
The Palace Saloon occupies a historic Centre Street building in downtown Fernandina Beach that served as a dry-goods store and haberdashery before Louis G. Hirth converted it into a gentlemen's saloon in 1878, according to current local reporting. It became associated with the Palace Saloon name in the early 1900s, although the business now uses 1903 in its own branding. During Prohibition, liquor sales ceased and the enterprise continued through non-liquor goods before later returning to bar service.
Louis G. Hirth bought a Centre Street dry-goods store and haberdashery building and transformed it into a gentlemen's saloon, according to a 2025 News4Jax history feature.
Source: News4Jax, "Raise a glass to history: The Palace Saloon, Florida's oldest bar, still charms patrons in Fernandina with storied past," June 25, 2025
The current Palace Saloon website uses "Since 1903" in its branding, while other current accounts place Hirth's saloon operation at the site in 1878 and describe the Palace name as early-1900s. The exact significance of 1903 remains unresolved.
Source: The Palace Saloon / Amelia Island Hospitality Group, official website, accessed September 1, 2026; News4Jax, June 25, 2025
During national Prohibition, the business stopped selling liquor and remained commercially active with products including ice cream, Texaco gasoline, cigars, Coca-Cola, specialty wines, and 3 percent near beer.
Source: News4Jax, June 25, 2025; Visit Florida, "The Palace Saloon of Fernandina Beach: The Oldest Bar in Florida"; The Palace Saloon, official history page
National Prohibition ended in December, allowing Florida businesses to resume lawful liquor sales. The reviewed source set does not establish that The Palace held Florida's or Nassau County's first post-Repeal liquor license.
Source: United States constitutional history; no verified Palace-specific historic liquor-license record reviewed
A serious fire threatened The Palace Saloon, but the business survived and was restored.
Source: News4Jax, June 25, 2025; The Palace Saloon, official history page
The Palace Saloon continues operating at 117 Centre Street in Fernandina Beach, with daily published hours and live entertainment.
Source: The Palace Saloon / Amelia Island Hospitality Group, official website, accessed September 1, 2026
Every claim gets rated. A business's own website can never earn "documented."
A 2025 News4Jax report gives 1878 as the year Hirth bought the building and transformed it into a gentlemen's saloon. The present Palace site instead brands itself "Since 1903," so the distinction between the earliest Hirth saloon and the later Palace Saloon name requires a primary-record review.
The Palace's own historical narrative and later tourism accounts say Hirth called on his friend Adolphus Busch for design help and that Busch may have traveled from St. Louis to oversee the fixture's installation. No contemporaneous correspondence, invoice, Anheuser-Busch archive, or independent preservation record verifying Busch's personal role was reviewed for this entry.
Current reporting and the venue's historical account say the business stopped selling liquor during Prohibition but continued through ice cream, gasoline, cigars, Coca-Cola, specialty wines, and near beer. This supports continuity of commercial use at the site, not uninterrupted operation as a bar or drinking establishment.
Tourism and venue accounts repeat a last-minute pre-Prohibition liquor-selling story, and Visit Florida calls it the last American tavern to close. No verified state liquor-license register, county record, or comparative statewide evidence was reviewed to establish either the last-to-close or first-to-reopen claim.
The Palace has a modern haunted reputation in ghost-tour and social-media-style retellings, but this review did not verify the identity of Charlie Johnson, his dates of employment or death, or an early published source for the story. A haunted reputation should not be treated as evidence of a documented historical haunting.
News4Jax and the venue's own history say a 1999 fire nearly dealt the business a fatal blow but that the saloon survived and was restored. The reviewed materials do not provide a fire-investigation report or a detailed preservation inventory confirming which original interior components survived.
The Palace Saloon began in 1903 in a building constructed that same year.
Current reporting says Louis Hirth converted a late-1870s former dry-goods and haberdashery building into a saloon in 1878. The current venue uses "Since 1903," and local narratives place the Palace Saloon name in the early 1900s; the exact significance of 1903 and the precise building-construction date need archival verification.
Source: News4Jax, June 25, 2025; The Palace Saloon / Amelia Island Hospitality Group, official website, accessed September 1, 2026
The Palace Saloon has operated continuously as a bar since its founding.
The business remained commercially active during Prohibition, but accounts say it stopped selling liquor and operated through ice cream, gasoline, cigars, near beer, Coca-Cola, and other goods. Commercial continuity at the address is not the same as uninterrupted bar operation.
Source: News4Jax, June 25, 2025; Visit Florida, "The Palace Saloon of Fernandina Beach: The Oldest Bar in Florida"
Adolphus Busch personally designed the Palace's historic bar.
The story is repeated by the Palace and later tourism accounts, but this review did not find contemporaneous documentary evidence proving Busch personally designed, paid for, or installed the bar.
Source: The Palace Saloon, official history page; no independently verified contemporaneous source located
The Palace endured because it adapted without abandoning the commercial life of its Centre Street location. When alcohol sales became illegal, the business shifted to ice cream, gasoline, cigars, Coca-Cola, specialty wines, and near beer; when a 1999 fire threatened its future, later owners restored the venue's historic atmosphere. That combination of port-town location, ornate interior character, and willingness to turn history into a current-nightlife identity keeps the doors open.
Louis G. Hirth turned a Centre Street dry-goods and haberdashery building into a gentlemen's saloon in Fernandina Beach in 1878, according to News4Jax. The place later became associated with the Palace Saloon name in the early 1900s, although the current business brands itself as "Since 1903." During Prohibition it stopped selling liquor and remained commercially active with ice cream, gasoline, cigars, near beer, and other goods before returning to bar service after repeal.
No—not if "continuously operating bar" means uninterrupted alcohol-bar service. Historical accounts say The Palace stopped selling liquor during Prohibition and operated through ice cream, gasoline, cigars, near beer, and other non-liquor sales. It may fairly claim a long-running commercial and hospitality presence at the same location, but this review does not support an unbroken Florida bar-operation title.
No reliable earliest published source for The Palace Saloon's haunted reputation was verified in this review. Modern ghost-tour and social-media retellings associate the building with a supposed longtime bartender named Charlie, but they do not establish the story's origin, the person's identity, or a contemporary historical event. The haunting should be treated as modern folklore unless an early newspaper, oral-history recording, or archival source is found.
The Palace's historical narrative says Louis Hirth sought design help from his friend Adolphus Busch and that Busch may have overseen the bar's installation. However, this review did not locate a contemporaneous invoice, letter, corporate archive, or preservation record that proves Busch personally designed or installed the fixture. The story is a well-known local claim, not a verified fact.
The Palace did not continue alcohol-bar service during Prohibition. Instead, its owners kept the business active by selling goods such as ice cream, Texaco gasoline, cigars, Coca-Cola, specialty wines, and near beer. That adaptation helped preserve the commercial site and made it possible for the saloon to return to legal liquor service after repeal.
117 Centre St, Fernandina Beach, FL 32034
(904) 491-3332
The Palace publishes daily hours at its Centre Street location; verify live-music schedules and special events before visiting.