Trips Places Foods Stories Newsletters

Take your next trip with Atlas Obscura!

Our small-group adventures are inspired by our Atlas of the world's most fascinating places, the stories behind them, and the people who bring them to life.

Visit Adventures
Trips Highlight
Puglia Italy - Matera
Italy • 8 days, 7 nights
Southern Italy: Castles, Caves & Coastal Treasures in Puglia
from
Turkmenistan Gates of Hell Darvaza crater
Turkmenistan • 10 days, 9 nights
Turkmenistan & the Gates of Hell
from
View all trips
Top Destinations
Latest Places
Most Popular Places Random Place Lists Itineraries
Add a Place
Download the App
Top Destinations
View All Destinations »

Countries

  • Australia
  • Canada
  • China
  • France
  • Germany
  • India
  • Italy
  • Japan

Cities

  • Amsterdam
  • Barcelona
  • Beijing
  • Berlin
  • Boston
  • Budapest
  • Chicago
  • London
  • Los Angeles
  • Mexico City
  • Montreal
  • Moscow
  • New Orleans
  • New York City
  • Paris
  • Philadelphia
  • Rome
  • San Francisco
  • Seattle
  • Stockholm
  • Tokyo
  • Toronto
  • Vienna
  • Washington, D.C.
Latest Places
View All Places »
Pinal Airpark
Note the chrysanthemum crests.
Hachiman Bridge
Clarendon War Memorial.
Clarendon War Memorial
This fried chicken is one of Bangkok’s most famous.
Gai Tord Jae Kee
Latest Places to Eat & Drink
View All Places to Eat »
Everything at Li’l Dizzy’s Cafe is served in takeout containers.
Li’l Dizzy’s Cafe
The fried green tomato sandwich comes on jalapeño cornbread toast.
Café Reconcile
BBQ shrimp braised in beer are a popular menu item.
High Hat Cafe
The pastries at Lagniappe Bakehouse are worth waking up for.
Lagniappe Bakehouse
Peter Vazquez has been quietly making a name for himself for years.
The Appetite Repair Shop
Recent Stories
All Stories Video Podcast
Most Recent Stories
View All Stories »
Haleakalā National Park’s summit region, shrouded in the pre-dawn fog.
Beware the Legends Behind These National Park Souvenirs
20 days ago
For Aguilar-Carrasco, nature is a powerful reminder of the interconnectedness of all life.
How Can National Parks Be Made Accessible to All? AO Wants to Know.
20 days ago
Podcast: Finding ‘The Great Gatsby’ in Louisville
21 days ago
Here’s which treats you can safely lug home without risking a fine.
Dear Atlas: What International Food Can I Legally Bring Into the U.S.?
22 days ago

No search results found for
“”

Make sure words are spelled correctly.

Try searching for a travel destination.

Places near me Random place

Popular Destinations

  • Paris
  • London
  • New York
  • Berlin
  • Rome
  • Los Angeles
Trips Places Foods Stories Newsletters
Sign In Join
Places near me Random place
All the United States Florida Key West Captain Tony's Saloon
AO Edited Gastro Obscura

Captain Tony's Saloon

Florida's oldest bar was once a morgue, complete with a hanging tree and gravestones.

Key West, Florida

Added By
Luke Spencer
Email
Been Here
Want to go
Added to list
The old hanging tree, once outside, now built into the bar.   Luke J Spencer / Atlas Obscura User
The old hanging tree, once outside, now built into the bar.   Luke J Spencer / Atlas Obscura User
Reba Sawyer’s grave.   Luke J Spencer / Atlas Obscura User
Gravestone inside the bar   Luke J Spencer / Atlas Obscura User
Elvira’s grave…right by the pool table   Luke J Spencer / Atlas Obscura User
Captain Tony’s Saloon, Florida’s oldest bar.   Luke J Spencer / Atlas Obscura User
The tree, which the bar was built around, still sprouts. Look top left of tree   Shaheen Alikhan / Atlas Obscura User
19-year-old Elvira Drew was hanged on the winter solstice for killing her abusive husband   Shaheen Alikhan / Atlas Obscura User
  jlord7 / Atlas Obscura User
  Louchebonvivant / Atlas Obscura User
  Jason Michael Walker / Atlas Obscura User
At night   Jason Michael Walker / Atlas Obscura User
🪦   Jason Michael Walker / Atlas Obscura User
🪦   Jason Michael Walker / Atlas Obscura User
  Jason Michael Walker / Atlas Obscura User
  Jason Michael Walker / Atlas Obscura User
  Louchebonvivant / Atlas Obscura User
  Runawaydc / Atlas Obscura User
  Louchebonvivant / Atlas Obscura User
The living Hanging Tree, and many patrons’ unmentionables gracing the ceiling   Shaheen Alikhan / Atlas Obscura User
  Collector of Experiences / Atlas Obscura User
This gravestone serves double duty as a step   Shaheen Alikhan / Atlas Obscura User
This skeleton is real, and they’re fond of it. Last exposed body left in the bar.   Shaheen Alikhan / Atlas Obscura User
Been Here
Want to go
Added to list

About

Most trips to Key West involve a visit to its most famous bar on Duval Street, Sloppy Joe's, but for those who would like a little literary history and a whole bunch of morbidity with their cocktail, the "Sloppy Joe's" where Ernest Hemingway used to sit and drink is right around the corner on Greene Street, now known as Captain Tony's Saloon.

Josie Russell opened Sloppy Joe's on Greene Street in the 1930s, and in 1938 when the rent was raised by a dollar a week, the bar moved to its more famous location on Duval. The building that was once Hemingway's watering hole went through several incarnations before finally being purchased by Captain Tony Tarracino and Captain Tony's saloon was born.

The building itself has a long and macabre history, stretching back to the early nineteenth century. Visitors will notice that inside the bar is a large tree- this was the gallows tree in the open courtyard that was used for judgements, and the building was later built around it.  At least 75 people were hung here for piracy, along with other transgressors. Ironically, the tree itself is still alive; it extends through the roof, though Hurricane Irma took much of the top, at least six inches of tree still peek above the building. Curiously, it still sprouts twigs and leaves inside the dusky bar.

In its storied past, the building saw time as a morgue, a bordello, a telegraph office, a speakeasy and a cigar factory. During refurbishing work in the 1980s, the floorboards were taken up to reveal the bones of between 15-18 people. Among them, a gravestone for a young woman named Elvira Drew was discovered. Elvira was married, in her mid-teens, to an abusive, alcoholic man in his fifties. Elvira left the world in 1822 at the tender age of 19, hanged on winter solstice nearly two hundred years ago for killing her husband- self-defense wasn't a valid argument at the time. Her tomb marker now sits beside the pool table for eternity, or at least until the bar undergoes another renovation.

Another gravestone in the bar underneath the old hanging tree belongs to Reba I. Sawyer, a Key West native who lived from 1900 to 1950. Upon her death, her husband found scandalous letters between his wife and another man. The letters detailed their trysts, and how they would arrange to meet at Captain Tony's Saloon. The widowed husband dragged his cheating partner's tombstone from the cemetery into the bar, placed it under the tree, and supposedly said "this is where she wanted to be, so this is where she will stay".

There are far more bodies under the floor than there are gravestones- some graves are flush with the current floor level, and some rest beneath it. So wherever you step, you're walking on someone's grave. And before you leave, make sure to say goodbye to the resident skeleton, now propped up and fashionably dressed inside the bar. 

Related Tags

Bars Gravestones Memento Mori Graves

Know Before You Go

Down the street from the famous Sloppy Joes.

Community Contributors

Added By

Luke J Spencer

Edited By

Rachel, annakovach, Molly McBride Jacobson, scottburau...

  • Rachel
  • annakovach
  • Molly McBride Jacobson
  • scottburau
  • Shaheen Alikhan
  • Louchebonvivant
  • Collector of Experiences
  • Jason Michael Walker
  • jlord7
  • Runawaydc

Published

February 16, 2013

Edit this listing

Make an Edit
Add Photos
Captain Tony's Saloon
428 Greene Street
Key West, Florida, 33040
United States
24.55876, -81.805434
Visit Website
Get Directions

Nearby Places

Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Society and Museum

Key West, Florida

miles away

Pan Am's First Office

Key West, Florida

miles away

Key West Historic Memorial Sculpture Garden

Key West, Florida

miles away

Explore the Destination Guide

Photo of Key West

Key West

Florida

Places 23
Stories 5

Nearby Places

Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Society and Museum

Key West, Florida

miles away

Pan Am's First Office

Key West, Florida

miles away

Key West Historic Memorial Sculpture Garden

Key West, Florida

miles away

Explore the Destination Guide

Photo of Key West

Key West

Florida

Places 23
Stories 5

Related Stories and Lists

29 Dive Bars, Saloons, and Taverns Where the Vibe Is Unbeatable

List

By Diana Hubbell

The Best of Weird Florida

List

By Molly McBride Jacobson

Related Places

  • The original west gate.

    Dundee, Scotland

    The Howff Cemetery

    People leave coins atop an unusual grave marker in one of Scotland's oldest burial grounds.

  • William Jeffreys’ stone grave.

    Youngsville, North Carolina

    Tomb of William Jeffreys

    A young state senator's deathbed plea to be buried inside a rock resulted in this unusual grave site.

  • Obelisk and Fence

    Wilton, New Hampshire

    Captain Sam Greele Monument

    A small obelisk marks the spot where Captain Sam Greele was killed by a falling tree.

  • Houdini’s Grave

    Queens, New York

    Houdini's Grave

    The final resting place of the great escape artist, where some still gather to wait for his escape from death.

  • Brooklyn, New York

    Most Holy Trinity Cemetery

    A burial ground of rusting metal grave markers.

  • The Pasty Cline Crash Site Memorial

    Camden, Tennessee

    Patsy Cline Crash Site Memorial

    An engraved boulder marks the spot where Patsy Cline's life ended in a plane crash.

  • You can make out individual letters and portions of words.

    San Francisco, California

    Buena Vista Park Tombstones

    Gold Rush-era tombstones line the park's paths.

  • Săpânța, Romania

    The Merry Cemetery

    A countryside Romanian cemetery filled with colorful crosses bearing lyrical, ironic, or satirical rhymes.

Aerial image of Vietnam, displaying the picturesque rice terraces, characterized by their layered, verdant fields.
Atlas Obscura Membership

Become an Atlas Obscura Member


Join our community of curious explorers.

Become a Member

Get Our Email Newsletter

Follow Us

Facebook YouTube TikTok Instagram Pinterest RSS Feed

Get the app

Download the App
Download on the Apple App Store Get it on Google Play
  • All Places
  • Latest Places
  • Most Popular
  • Places to Eat
  • Random
  • Nearby
  • Add a Place
  • Stories
  • Food & Drink
  • Itineraries
  • Lists
  • Video
  • Podcast
  • Newsletters
  • All Trips
  • Family Trip
  • Food & Drink
  • History & Culture
  • Wildlife & Nature
  • FAQ
  • Membership
  • Feedback & Ideas
  • Community Guidelines
  • Product Blog
  • Unique Gifts
  • Work With Us
  • About
  • FAQ
  • Advertise With Us
  • Advertising Guidelines
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy
  • Terms of Use
Atlas Obscura

© 2025 Atlas Obscura. All Rights Reserved.