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Smoke House

1941-1971

315 Pearl Street

  

Logansport, IN 46947

  
 
The Smoke House in Logansport opened around 1941 as a cigar store located at 313 Pearl. A few years later it moved to 315 Pearl and expanded into a café and cigar store. In the late 1950’s it moved again to 317 Pearl. The place was operated by a known gambler named Paul Clawson. He ran the place from the early 1940’s until his death in 1961 at the age of 57. The place continued to operate for about a decade after his death.
 
Pic of Paul Clawson

Article from Logansport Pharos Tribune shows that Clawson bought a gambling tax stamp for the Smoke House in 1951

Logansport Pharos Tribune reports police visit the Smoke House on September 20, 1957
 

From 1951.  Among other things, the Smoke House was a sports bar.  Mike Dwyer (1896-1988) was a known gambler who had been a semi-pro baseball player in his youth.  He started working at the Smoke House in the early 1950’s and was still working there when Clawson died.
From 1961.  The “Berries” was the name of the local high school basketball team; said to be some kind of a word play on the
town name Logansport and the fruit loganberries.