Outside, the sun playing a cordial role in the evening’s temperature, patrons gathered around makeshift tables propped up by old whiskey barrels, tossed bean bags in a round of cornhole, ordered savory food from Majahua, and welcomed in the live music vibes.
Nathan Rice and Marcia Kegler, owners of The Bohemian Club Tavern, celebrated what is believed to be the tavern’s 100th anniversary, but it was also their one-year anniversary of being a part of the business themselves.
The pair said they took ownership of the historical operation during the summer of 2024 after friend Clinton Pollock off-handedly asked if they knew anyone interested in buying it.
“Me and Clint have been buddies for a long time and he was just wantin’ to do something else; he’s been doin’ it a long time,” Rice said. “Me and Marcia were kinda lookin’ for an investment. It’s been a place here in Sweet Home forever that everybody’s come to, so I figured to give ‘er a shot.”
At least a couple hundred patrons showed up throughout the evening to be part of the celebration on Saturday, July 26, keeping the bartenders behind the formica counter flitting past each other in a frenzy..
Aurora Bechtel, bartender at the Bohemian for several years, said the business gets pretty busy from time to time, but never anything like this.
The visitors perched themselves at their favorite bar seat, sat outside for a smoke, or stood in the fenced-in patch of grass next door for food and live music by Trevor Tagle. Sloping floors in certain areas of the building hinted about its age and the weight of people it has carried for a good number of years
Television screens offered a variety of images to watch during those awkward silent moments – options on this night were a 1970s rerun of The Price is Right, Lottery, and a rotating photo display of local sportsmen. Other patrons played a round of darts, took their chances on brightly lit Lottery machines, or shot balls across the pool table.
Long-time customers, familiar with their stomping grounds, were heard sharing stories with each other about the business – sometimes referring to its nickname of “Boho” or “Bohunk.”
Lonnie and Louise Littell, who’ve been coming to the Bohemian for “close to 50 years” recalled back in the day when there was a chalkboard on the wall where job listings could be found. Louise also remembered a day many decades ago when a woman came into the bar.
“Before she got to the end of the bar, she had a fight started,” Louise said. “One woman took on the whole bar. I went outside and stood at the window and watched.”
Explaining why he’s committed to the Bohemian, Lonnie said, “This was all family at one time” – including some of the blood on the floor – adding that his mother is a descendant of the Ames family, who founded the city.
Jared Banta, who likes to stand at the far end of the bar, has also been a longtime customer and has seen his fair share of Bohemian owners. More recently, before Rice and Kegler took over, Banta once helped former owner Pollock rebuild some of the flooring. He unearthed multiple layers of floor before uncovering the old wood beams holding the building off the ground, he said.
Jesse “Bill” James, now in his 80s, said he remembers the wood floors from way back.
“This was a loggin’ town and the loggers wore their cork (caulk) boots in there,” he said. “Pretty soon it just tore up the wood; it practically turned to sawdust and splinters.”
James also said the establishment would have two or three fights every month, and he recalled an Ames lady known as the “Blond Bomber.” When he was a kid in the late 1940s, James made a shoe shine kit and set himself up outside the Bohemian to do some business.
“The drunker she got, the more heck she’d raise. She’d fight men or whatever,” James said about the woman.
But she would slam her foot down on his kit and pay him well for his work, he said.
Still, for all the history remembered about the Boho as far back as the living can remember, nailing down the exact date and original owner is less easy to come by.
After much research, this reporter has so far been able to unearth information that a W.C. Kahler in Salem purchased the Woods Restaurant on Long Street from Martin Woods in September 1934, and opened there the Bohemian Club with Fred Blevins and Lester B. French (also of Salem) managing the establishment.
Not long later, Harry Johnston was the proprietor of the business (with Kahle still as owner). In 1935, Kahle purchased property from Dewey Fogle “just west of the present location of the club,” where he erected a new building with updated fixtures and moved the Bohemian there.
It should be noted, however, that current owner Rice has a long family line in Sweet Home. It was his ancestor Andew Wiley who settled Foster in 1852, the same year the Ames’ settled.
Club in this photo believed to date from the early 1940s.
(Note the Roxy Theater in the background.)
Sweet Home. His lineage can also be traced back to Charles Rice, who came to the Holley area in roughly the same time period as Wiley.
“When my grandpa (“Charlie”) was a little kid, he would walk up the Santiam River. His grandpa (perhaps referring to “Charles Ora”) would take supplies to homesteaders up there,” Rice said. “That was back when my grandpa was a little guy.”
The story goes that the elder and younger Charles’ would take a dog with them to run cougars if they came across any. That makes sense, since elder Charles’ dad, James Norval Rice, trained dogs for such a task, according to Mona Waibel’s book.
Regardless of the origin of the Bohemian, it’s clear that the tavern and its owners continue to hold fast to the roots of Sweet Home’s history.
For Rice and Kegler, the Bohemian is perhaps something of a side hustle, as they both work full-time elsewhere. As Kegler put it, “we bought ourselves a second job.”
The experience so far, she said, “is different than I imagined, but enjoyable.”
Rice praised Kegler for the success they have in the business. He’s been so busy at his other job, he said, that it was Kegler who really helped keep the tavern business going.
“She’s amazing, and people love her,” he said. “The customers are great; they’re like family,”
