1894 Schlitz Cooperage, Speakeasy, and Reputed Brothel
422 S 2nd St, Milwaukee, WI 53204
Age
21+ for the bar; ghost tours typically all ages with adult accompaniment
Cost
$$
Walk-in dining and drinks à la carte. Hangman Tours' historic ghost tour is ticketed separately, approximately $30 per person.
Access
Limited Access
Three-story 1894 brick building with original staircases between floors; ghost tour involves multiple flights
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1894 · Schlitz Brewing-Era Cooperage · Prohibition-Era Speakeasy
The building at 422 S. 2nd Street was constructed in 1894 as a cooperage — a barrel-making facility — for Milwaukee's Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company. The Walker's Point neighborhood housed several Schlitz support operations during the brewery's late-19th-century expansion, and the cooperage's heavy-timber construction reflects industrial demands of the period.
Local histories hold that during Prohibition the building operated as a speakeasy connected to the Capone organization, with the upper floors used as a brothel. The brothel claim is sourced primarily to oral history rather than archival record; Milwaukee newspapers from the 1920s reference vice activity in Walker's Point but do not name the building specifically.
During a 2001 renovation of the third-floor penthouse, workers found a collection of bones beneath the floorboards. A subsequent investigation determined some were human and over 70 years old, opening the possibility that the remains belonged to one of the women reportedly housed on the upper floors during the Prohibition era. The bones were turned over to authorities; no public identification was made.
Shaker's Cigar Bar opened in the building in 1986 and operates today as Milwaukee's only licensed cigar bar. The building is the home venue for Hangman Tours, the city's principal ghost-tour operator, and has been documented by Atlas Obscura, Milwaukee Record, and local news outlets.
Sources
The most frequently reported figure at Shaker's is Elizabeth, described in local accounts as a child who died on the property after a fall from an apple tree. Witnesses describe her presence near the women's first-floor restroom — whispering and giggling, with a particular stall door reported to open and close on its own.
The third-floor penthouse, where human remains were discovered during the 2001 renovation, is the focus of the bar's most-reported activity. Staff and tour participants describe disembodied voices, cold spots, and the sensation of being watched. A young female apparition is associated with the floor; she is sometimes connected in oral history to the woman whose remains may have been recovered, though no identification has been made public.
The second floor — historically the brothel level, per local oral history — produces reports of phantom footsteps, cigar smoke when no one is smoking, and the sound of laughter. Hangman Tours' ghost-tour route incorporates witness accounts collected over the bar's nearly four decades of operation under current ownership.
The site has been documented by Atlas Obscura and reviewed by overnight visitors via Milwaukee Record's longform reporting. Investigators describe activity as frequent rather than dramatic — small, persistent phenomena layered over a building with an unusually concentrated history.
Notable Entities
Walker's Point's historic bar serves cocktails, dinner, and live music in the original 1894 Schlitz cooperage. The bones of the building — exposed brick, original timber, third-floor penthouse — frame the experience.
A guided tour of all three floors led by Hangman Tours, the in-house operator. Stops include the third-floor penthouse where human bones were found beneath the floorboards in 2001 and the women's restroom associated with sightings of a child reported as Elizabeth.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
Milwaukee, WI
Shaker's Cigar Bar occupies an 1894 Walker's Point building originally constructed as a cooperage for the Schlitz Brewing Company. During Prohibition the structure operated as a speakeasy reportedly tied to the Capone family, with a brothel on the upper floors. Bob Weiss converted it to its current cigar-bar configuration in 1986.
Wisconsin Dells, WI
The Showboat Saloon building was constructed in 1907 as a tavern on the ground floor with railroad office space on the second floor. Originally called Stanton's Palm Garden, operated by William and Minnie Stanton, it survived Prohibition and resumed tavern operations until 1965, when it became the Showboat Saloon with a focus on live music. The building has since been associated with the Wisconsin Dells ghost tour circuit under the name Ghost Molly's Showboat Saloon.
Saratoga Springs, NY
The Parting Glass opened on St. Patrick's Day 1981 in a 1926 building that had previously housed Rocco's Royal Spring Grill, Lou Rocco's Italian restaurant. The tiger-oak front bar was built in 1936 by Frank K. Spalt, with a partition that originally separated a men's bar side from a ladies' entrance. The Parting Glass is said to be the oldest continuously running bar and restaurant in Saratoga Springs.