Bars, Restaurants, & Taverns

LOUVE RESTAURANT

Photo to the right is from the City of Portland Oregon Directory 1904.

BELOW: The elegant Gents' Dining Room at the Louvre Restaurant, on a postcard, from the collection of George Painter.

275 SW Alder (Belvedere Hotel)

(corner of Fourth and Alder),
Years: 1977 - 1979 (?)

Years: 1891 – later owned and operated under Theodore Kruse possibly between 1906-1913. 

The Louvre originally was opened by Fritz Strobel in 1891 and was purchased later by Theodore Kruse, who made it an outpost for the avant-garde. It featured a nude statue as the main attraction [no photo exists].  The café was mentioned as a meeting place for some of the defendants in the vice scandal of 1912. See George Painter’s book: "The Vice Clique Scandal of 1912-1913".

Continuing on what Wikipedia says, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portland_vice_scandal [and which will be cited throughout this page]: Theodore Kruse and the Louvre The (Vice Clique) scandal also exposed Theodore Kruse and the Louvre restaurant in Portland, which he had owned. Kruse (born Feb. 13, 1864, Germany, died Nov. 3, 1941, Gearhart, Oregon[9]) started in Portland with the Kruse Grill around 1891. He married his second wife, Marion F. in Spokane, Washington in 1906 and divorced in 1908. He then purchased the Louvre restaurant, running it and Portland's Belvedere Hotel starting around 1907. He was married to his third wife, Marie E. Daggett, at the time. While in the process of setting up Hotel Carlton in 1911, he disappeared mysteriously in August 1911, days before a large payment was due to Gevurtz Furniture Company for the Carlton, who formed a company and took over the hotel lease. This was front-page news in the Oregonian; a month later, his wife sent people to Seattle to look for him, and the Oregonian described him as surfacing there with a young man. He suddenly reappeared on March 24, 1912, at the (Hotel) Carlton.

Below is photo of Hotel Carlton.

Below shows a different building, but still in the time period and what it offered.

Per The Oregonian’s Handbook of the Pacific Northwest [1904] The  Louvre. — Among  Portland's  places  of  amusement  there  is  no  resort which enjoys  so high  a  reputation  in  its  line  as  the  Louvre,  located  on  Fourth street, between  Washington and  Alder.  To  all intents  and  purposes  The  Louvre  takes the  place  of  a well-equipped club,  with advantages  not  possessed  by  the  latter institution.  Fine  meals  are  served  here during  the  day,  at  a  reasonable  price,  and the  best  of  spirituous  and  malt  liquors and  cigars  are  dispensed  to  patrons  at the  bar,  or  at  private  tables.  Leading magazines and  periodicals  are  kept  on file  at  the  Louvre  for  the  accommodation of  guests.

In  the  evening,  at  this  popular resort, first-class  concerts  are  given,  free  of charge,  for  the  benefit  of  patrons  who may  be  desirous  of  passing  a  few  hours  of  pleasant  relaxation.  These  concerts  are varied  occasionally  by  entertainments  of  a  high  order.  The  Louvre  is  conducted as  a  pleasure  resort,  which  enjoys  a  high  reputation,  and  it  is  well  worthy  of  the large  patronage  it  receives.

PER GLAPN website: The owner, Theodore Berthus Kruse, was born in Germany on Feb. 13, 1864, and began his life as a sailor.  His shipwrecked on the coast of Alaska, and this caused Kruse to live in the United States.  He became a U.S. citizen in 1893.  In 1897, he moved to Portland and established himself in the restaurant and catering business.  In December 1906, Kruse purchased the elegant Louvre and turned it into a “gay ’90s equivalent” of modern nightclubs and a “Bohemian” place (newspaper story’s terms).  It was cited repeatedly by police and newspapers for its ”immoral” atmosphere and numerous liquor law violations.  There was a separate “gents’ dining room” featuring both palm trees and mirror-lined walls not found in the mixed-gender dining room.  In 1911, Kruse disappeared for several weeks and his wife discounted the theory of another woman suggested by some.  She said, for publication, “I laugh at such a suggestion because I had virtually to drive him out with the young men of his acquaintance to attend banquets or other social affairs.”  Kruse was seen in Seattle “getting new singers” for the Louvre, accompanied by two other men.  When he returned to Portland in early 1912, he claimed he had been in Germany visiting his father.  Shortly thereafter, his wife divorced him in secret court proceedings (closed to the public).  Kruse closed the Louvre in late 1913, one year after it was named in the vice scandal trials as a meeting place for some of the defendants.  He remained in the restaurant business for a short time [opening the Rainbow Grill], but never again reached the success he had with the Louvre.  He moved to California, then retired to Gearhart, OR in 1931, where he died at age 77 on Nov. 3, 1941.  The Belvedere was demolished, apparently sometime between 1948 and 1952.

Below Left is from the Oregon Journal December 30, 1902, and Right is from December 30, 1908

In April 1912 his third wife was granted a divorce from him, citing his "cruel and inhuman treatment" (a common ground for divorce before the no-fault divorce was legal). She described him as flirting with clientele at his restaurant in 1911 before his disappearance, and recounted that he was first in Quebec, then she sent a stepson (from his previous marriage) to Europe and found him in Germany. He stated his wife had died and he had retired. He then traveled through Europe (Monte Carlo, Naples, Rome), before suddenly reappearing.

The Louvre was described as having an "immoral atmosphere" and on a list of eight "gay refectories" in Portland in 1911 by a local judge. It had a men's-only dining room. By 1912 it was linked to the clique, especially Kruse and Rigó. Kruse then closed the Louve and opened the Rainbow Grill in October 1913, which advertised "fat, juicy, delicious" oysters and a "Special Men's Grill" with meat of the diner's choosing. It closed in June 1915.

An article appeared in https://www.portlandmercury.com/feature/2018/01/10/19597137/a-city-scandalized under A City Scandalized How the Vice Clique Scandal of 1912 Exposed Portland’s Gay Underground by Heather Arndt Anderson

The Gay Lothario

In 1912, the Louvre was one of downtown Portland’s finest dining establishments. It was owned by Theodore Kruse, a wealthy German hotelier who dabbled in restaurants and catering. Kruse had a flair for the dramatic; one day in August of 1911 he simply disappeared, worrying his wife enough that she placed an ad in the paper a week later inquiring to his whereabouts. When Mrs. Kruse was pressed with the notion that he may have run off with a mistress, she laughed, insisting that she’d always had to shoo her homebody hubby out the door with male friends. The next day, he was spotted in Seattle in the company of two men, and then disappeared again for several months. Having purportedly spent the time visiting family in Germany, Kruse returned to Portland the following spring, saying he had needed “to merely get away.” He and his wife divorced shortly after.

The Louvre had a wild reputation. Shortly before Kruse’s abrupt disappearance, the restaurant had been on Circuit Court Judge William Gatens’ short list for what he saw as an immoral atmosphere. For a few exciting years, it was a regular venue of the Hungarian violinist Jancsi “Gypsy” Rigo.

Rigo was pretty hot shit for Portland. The Oregonian reported on his comings and goings, calling him the “violin virtuoso, gipsy of romance, gay Lothario.” He wore rings on his fingers, smoked monogrammed cigarettes, and even had an Austrian dessert named after him. “He was always ogling women and seemed to think he was a lady killer,” wrote the Oregonian.

On November 16, 1912, ads promised a delightful Saturday evening of Rigo doing his thing in “his own eccentric way,” but patrons of the Louvre were disappointed to learn that Rigo wouldn’t show up for his gig that night.

He had been arrested.

Below: Per website https://globalpostcardsales.com/gallery/portland-hotel-belvedere-the-louvre-restaurant/ Unused, undivided back card with instructions to use a 2-cent stamp, so it’s hard to judge the card’s age.  As we often do, we went to Google to check the hotel’s history.  The first several entries all pointed to similar stories, of which we reproduce some of one here:  “The Louvre was an elegant restaurant located in the Hotel Belvedere on the northeast corner of Fourth and Alder.  Built in 1891, the Belvedere survived the massive flood of 1894 and was purchased in 1907 by property developer Theodore Kruse.  Once he owned the restaurant, Kruse turned it into a “bohemian” place.  Separate restaurants were located inside, one for mixed male‑female dining and one for men only.  (It isn’t known if there was one for women only as well.)  The “Gents’ Dining Room” looked different from that of the mixed dining room.  The men‑only dining room sported potted palms and mirror‑lined walls.  The Louvre became infamous in certain legal circles.  It possessed a liquor license, and there a number of reports in local newspapers cited liquor law violations.  In one from 1908, the Louvre found itself on a list of eight “gay refectories” where the “gay laugh” could be heard.”  That’s enough from us, and this card does cite Kruse as the proprietor. 

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