The Hanging Tree in the Bar Captain Tony’s Saloon- Key West
- Marisa DeRoma ( a.k.a The Wandering Oddball)
- Jun 20
- 2 min read
Photo credit: Marisa DeRoma
Captain Tony’s Saloon is one of Key West, Florida's unique watering holes. Aside from bras and dollar bills hanging from the ceiling, a tree is in the middle of the bar. It’s one of the bar's unusual charms that many tourists come for. Not many patrons don't know that the tree itself has a dark past, as it was once used to hang people.
The Lonely Ghost Woman in the Bar
Because of the tree’s dark history, ghost stories have emerged. Among the 17 executed (some sources say 75), many people report seeing a ghost of a woman who was accused of murdering her husband and child.
Morgue
To add more chill to this story, Captain Tony was an ice house in 1851 that DOUBLED as the local morgue. Key West, being a hot place, especially with no air conditioning at the time, would make sense that an ice house would be the next best option to house the deceased before finally being laid to rest.
Over the years, it has been a morgue, a telegraph station, a bordello, a cigar factory, and speakeasies. It was also home to Sloppy Joe’s from 1933 until 1938, when rent increased. This resulted in business owner Joe Russel moving his bar to its current location, where it sits today. I also brought this up in the Ernest Hemingway article.
Photo credit: Marisa DeRoma
In 1958, the bar was purchased by a local charter boat captain named Captain Tony Tarracino, and it became what we know today as Captain Tony’s Saloon.
The Tombstones in the Bar
In the 1980s, when the bar was renovated, they found over a dozen human remains underneath the floors and a headstone of a woman named Elvira that can still be seen to this day. The story goes that there was a girl in her mid-teens married to an abusive alcoholic man in his 50s. In 1822, she was hanged for killing her husband in self-defense. Unfortunately, back then, it was not an applicable court defense.
At the foot of the tree is another tombstone that says Reba I. Sawyer. No one is buried there. This was a result of jilted revenge on a spouse. The story goes that in 1950, Reba passed away and was buried in Key West Cemetery. A short time after she died, her husband found letters she wrote to a man that she had romantic feelings for (definitely not her husband) and to meet at Captain Tony’s Saloon. So as a form of humiliation, he took her tombstone from Key West Cemetery and placed it in the bar under the tree. He shouted, “This is where she wanted to be, so this is where she will stay!”
Captain Tony’s Saloon today
Today, Captain Tony’s Saloon has many tourists visiting to escape the hot Key West air, unaware that a few human remains may be left underneath the floorboards. Over the years since it became a site for death, hurricanes have irrigated remains from the ground, so it is uncertain who remains there. If you ever decide to visit Captain Tony’s Saloon, be sure to make a toast to the deceased.
Ernest Hemingway Story
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