
Italian immigrants opened this two-story red brick commercial building as the Gold Coin, long celebrated as the most authentic old-time saloon in a town of many antique watering holes. The Coin's swinging doors open into another world. The authentic entry foyer has a shoeshine chair and cigar display case behind a golden oak Eastlake screen with acorn finials. The inner sanctum is warmed by an ancient potbellied stove on a diagonally laid pine plank floor, and tinny music from a player piano bounces off the tongue-and-groove wooden ceiling. The interior was carefully measured and photographed for restoration as the centerpiece of the three-story casino opened around it in 1992. Gambling, however, has been banished from this sanctuary with its Neoclassical back bar.