Thanks to some longtime care and respect, a relic from old downtown Cadiz has recently been returned into restorative hands.
And though it’s going to take awhile, the foyer of the Trigg County History Museum on Jefferson Street will eventually be filled with a large, two-level wooden bar and liquor cabinet — one that belonged to former spirits salesman Cy Cunningham.
For the last 40-plus years, it’s been in the possession of Jimmy Kennedy, Trigg County Class of 1968. Bob Brame, president of the Trigg County Historical Society and a Wildcat classmate of Kennedy’s, said his high school friend recently called both he and another pal, Burton Aldridge, to come pick up this cumbersome thing.
Brame noted it was “difficult” for three 70-somethings to load up the lumber and bring it back to Cadiz from the Evansville area, but well worth the trip. He’s unsure of when dark wood piece was built, but that it had to be between 1890 and 1910 for two reasons:
— Many of the brass fixings and hinges have the date “1901” inscribed on them.
— And Cunningham’s bar operated in downtown Cadiz from the early 1900s until prohibition was first enforced in 1920.
In 1933, prohibition ended in the United States. However, Brame said Trigg County officials opted to remain dry in both the city and the county, and that didn’t change until 2009.
Brame and the Historical Society have full plans to use the piece as a bookshelf and rack card display, but it’ll be serve other purposes — particularly for an exhibit.
Because of its basic, but elegant, construction, Brame believes it was a built locally and specially for Cunningham and his establishment — perhaps cherry in nature because of its dark complexion.
At the very tippy top of the shelf, old dark rings have permanently stained the wood — where old moonshine and whiskey jugs once lined the saloon fixture.
Brame added it will take a “long” time to get the piece fully restored back to its original state, but its condition is far from poor. Selling it, he said, would generate no less than $10,000.
Recently renovated and undergoing a transformation into a “transportation focus,” the Trigg County History Museum is located at 41 Jefferson Street.
