For three weekends in April, Jim Hegarty’s Pub hosted an “18 Bars Gone Memorial,” offering drink specials to honor campus bars long lost.
Alumni and students were invited to toast old watering holes like the Avalanche, Glocca Morra, O’Donoghues and the Gym Bar. Turns out Hegarty’s would have the same fate.
After 77 years under various owners, the Irish pub poured its last beer Thursday morning.
The bar had to shut its doors by noon, per court order, because Hegarty’s owner Sonja Brown hadn’t made rent payments to St. James Estates LLC, the property owner. Brown filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy protection last October. Court records indicated she owed St. James $59,972 in rent and taxes since November 2008.
Last Tuesday, federal bankruptcy Judge Susan Kelly honored St. James’ request that Brown surrender possession of the bar.
Hegarty’s announced its closing on its Facebook page shortly before 7 p.m. on Wednesday. Students flocked to the bar soon after, and some returned for a final drink when it reopened Thursday at 6 a.m.
Hegarty’s five-year lease was set to expire July 11, and bar staff expected to remain open at least through the end of the school year. Co-owner Todd Brown said the bar’s abrupt closing came as a shock. But he didn’t want to fight the judge’s order.
“It was a good last party. The tears and emotions that students showed really made it kind of a heartfelt moment for me and my wife,” Brown said.
In 2007, Marquette bought 90 percent of the property at 12th and Wells streets, the former Newbridge Apartments. A condominium agreement with St. James was signed for the remaining portion of the building, which included Hegarty’s. The university reached an agreement with St. James in February to purchase the remainder of the building.
Mary Pat Pfeil, senior director of university communication, said the real estate transaction hasn’t yet closed, and Marquette “has no responsibility for the condition or tenancy of the 10 percent of the property that includes Hegarty’s Pub.”
Hegarty’s manager Nate Grabowski’s immediate reaction when he learned of the bar’s closing was that the university was “the big bad wolf.” He said he had no knowledge of bankruptcy proceedings until Thursday.
But once it was reported that Marquette was purchasing the building, Grabowski said there was “no way in hell” the university would renew Hegarty’s lease.
Marquette officials have previously said the university doesn’t oppose a “properly managed” pub on the site, but the property is in a “strategic location relative to Marquette’s master plan.”
Pfeil said there are no immediate plans for the property, but that “the buildings will have to be demolished before the property can be put to productive use.”
Todd Brown said Hegarty’s business decreased 40 percent when the Newbridge Apartments closed in 2007. Grabowski said some Friday quarter beer nights would have only about 10 people.
That’s a long way from the tavern’s glory days.
The bar, first known as Flanigan’s, was established by Chuck Flanigan in the 1930s. Jim Hegarty, an Irish immigrant who operated several taverns in Milwaukee, took over the bar in the 1970s. After Hegarty died of a heart attack in the bar in 1981, his bar manager Paul Quinn took over.
Quinn, now deceased, and his sister Jean ran the bar until 1997. That was the year Playboy Magazine named Hegarty’s one of the top 100 college bars in the country. She said the establishment had a “lunch and cocktail crowd” of lawyers from the Milwaukee County Courthouse and Marquette employees during the day, and students frequented the bar at night.
On Sunday, former employees and patrons gathered to honor Paul Quinn, who died last August. The memorial was scheduled to be held at Hegarty’s, but organizers had to relocate it to Slim McGinn’s Irish Pub, 338 S. 1st St.
Attendees characterized Hegarty’s as Marquette’s version of “Cheers.” They recalled the 6 a.m. opening times on St. Patrick’s Day with green beer, eggs and a mysterious “green drink.”
But Hegarty’s last moments Wednesday night and Thursday morning may have been a fitting Irish wake for an Irish pub.
As bar supplies were moved out, bartenders served customers the remaining beer. The bar was packed with students, alumni and other patrons by 8 p.m Wednesday. It closed at 2 a.m., only to reopen four hours later for the bar’s last call. Hegarty’s bartender Rudy Kopp said he finished cleaning up around 4 a.m., went home, took a shower, sat down for two minutes, and went back to work.
Hegarty’s regular Jay Rynne, a senior in the College of Arts & Sciences, was one of those to return on Thursday morning, and he stayed until St. James officials arrived to change the locks at noon.
“What made it great was that the bartender knew your face and name and what you wanted to drink, and you could talk in there without loud music,” Rynne said. “It’s an old part of Marquette. The college experience is not only lectures and labs. It’s nights at Hegarty’s.”
