Amelia Island Dining » Florida’s Oldest Bar, The Palace Saloon, Amelia Island, Florida

Originally constructed as a haberdashery in 1878, Louis G. Hirth bought the Prescott building in 1903 and replaced shoes with booze and named it the Palace Saloon. Hirth called upon his old friend Adolphus Bush, founder of Anheuser-Busch to assist him with the design of the elegant Bar, and Busch reportedly traveled from St. Louise to oversee the installation of the now famous fixture. The saloon still has the elegant features that made it famous for over a century: inlaid mosaic floors, embossed tin ceilings, hand-carved mahogany caryatids (undraped female fixtures). a 40-foot bar lit with gas lamps, and walls painted with six commissioned murals.