The Jaffes Went From a Tent to a Liquor Powerhouse

When Louis Jaffe established his Seattle saloon and liquor house in August 1889, he initially operated from a tent because a fire had destroyed much of the central city.  With the help of two sons, only a few years elapsed before Jaffe & Company Inc. was advertising as “The Finest Exclusive Liquor Store in the United States.” and the family controlled multiple outlets.

Louis was born in Gniezno, Poland, in September 1835, a city 31 miles from the border of 19th Century Prussia, an area that changed hands between Poland and Germany with some regularity.  As a result Louis sometimes listed his birthplace as Poland, sometimes Germany.  At the age of 21, he emigrated to the United States in 1857 and headed to the West Coast, settling initially in San Francisco. 

Limited information exists on Louis’ activities over the next three decades although it appears that he was able to prosper as a coal dealer in Oakland, California.  When he died, Louis was extolled in the local press as a “well known resident of Oakland, being the proprietor of  a large coal business in this city.” In 1863 he married, possibly a childhood sweetheart.  She was Johannah Oppenheim (also given as“Koppenheim”), also born in Gniezno.  The couple would have eight children, five girls and three boys.

In 1886, now 58 years old, Louis changed direction radically.  He moved to Healdsburg, California, 70 miles north of Oakland, shown above, and purchased the Pridham Vineyards, 264 acres of wine and brandy grapes.  Assisted by two grown sons, Joseph and Herbert  (both of whom had “Louis” as a middle name),  the family plunged full tilt into the wine and liquor trade.

The Seattle Fire of 1889

In  August 1889, the Jaffes moved further north to Seattle, opening just months after a fire had gutted most of the downtown.  Although the conflagration lasted less than a day, it destroyed 25 city blocks, including the entire business district, four of the city's wharves, and its railroad terminals.  Undeterred, the Jaffes set up a 15x70 foot tent at a location on what was then known as Old Mill Street just above Third Avenue South.  They quickly built a three story brick building at 115-117 Second Avenue South and opened a retail and wholesale liquor and wine house called Jaffe & Co. 

The Jaffes featured just a few whiskey brands, all of which mimicked other labels. None were trademarked.  They included “Old Oaken Bucket,” “Louis Hunter 1870,” and “Golden Wedding.”  The family presented them in amber bottles, as shown below.  The Oaken Bucket back-of-the-bar bottle, right, can be identified as a Jaffe product by the script “J” at the top.  The bottle would have been given to saloons, hotels and restaurants doing business with Jaffe & Co.

Within a reasonably short time, the Jaffes’ business mushroomed into a conglomerate.  In addition to opening Seattle’s first commercial winery called the Wine Creek Winery,  the Jaffes owned a saloon and liquor store in Spokane;  Joseph was running a spin-off called the Imperial Liquor Company, and the eldest son, Aaron, managed an enterprise listed as “wine merchants and importers.”  Meanwhile Louis, trumpeting the family’s success, was claiming on his jugs and ads that his Second Avenue headquarters was “The Finest Exclusive Liquor House in the U.S.”

As he aged, Louis’ health faltered.  On February 1, 1905, he died, age 69.  After a funeral service at the Hotel Van Nuys, he was buried in Mountain View Cemetery, Oakland.  Johanna would join him there thirteen years later.  Their joint monument is shown here.  Jaffe &Co. also remained, as a memorial to Louis and his business savvy .  The year after the patriarch’s death, the Seattle directory listed Joseph as  vice president and Herbert, shown above in a passport photo, as secretary-treasurer.  The position of president was left open, likely as a silent tribute to their father, the coal dealer turned wine and whiskey tycoon.  

For the next five years in Seattle, the Jaffe sons battled growing prohibitionary pressures and shrinking markets.  One tactic was issuing advertising shot glasses to be given to the saloons carrying the company brands.  As seen here, the brothers’ shot designs were generally a notch above other merchants as they advertised “Old Oaken Bucket,” “Golden Wedding,” and “Louis Hunter 1870 Rye.”

Recognizing that the days of selling liquor in the State of Washington were growing short, the Jaffes began to move their emphasis from the “Finest Exclusive Liquor House” to becoming less dependent on a Seattle customer base.  The decision resulted in their issuing a new series of shots, one that noted a company shift toward mail order trade.  

The ax fell in 1915 when Washington, following the trend in other states, voted to become “dry.”  Forthwith neither whiskey or wine or beer could be manufactured or sold in the state. Overnight the door closed on the alcohol conglomerate Louis Jaffe had founded 29 years earlier.  Joseph’s Imperial Liquor Co. marked the occasion by a sign that proclaimed:  “This is the end of our sinning:  ice cream and candy for us.”  The public was implored to: “Help us move this high grade stock of wines and liquors.  Price no object.”  In fact, it was not the end of Jaffe “sinning.”  The brothers wasted no time in moving Jaffe & Co. out of Seattle to the more friendly environment of reliably “wet” San Francisco.  The business survived as a retail and mail order house until 1920 when National Prohibition went into effect.  It was not revived with Repeal.

Note:  This post was created from a variety of Internet sources, census data and city directories of Seattle and San Francisco.