CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – Poor Man’s Country Club on Madison Street – touted as “the oldest bar in town” – has announced they are closing in the middle of August after serving Clarksville as a community staple for over 80 years.
“Poor Man’s is very sad to announce we will be closing very soon,” said owners Bill and Donna Langford on the businesses Facebook page. “All rumors were true, and the property was sold to a damn bank. Donna and me would like to tell every customer how much we love all you guys and consider you family. A very special thanks to all the artists that played in front of the most famous windows in Clarksville.”
Bill Langford told Clarksville Now he’s sorry the neighborhood bar is closing down. “Big business bought the property and evicted all of us,” he said. “It would have been nice to have a phone call from the landlord instead of the eviction notice delivered by certified mail. However, we knew it was coming; we just didn’t know when.”
Poor Man’s Country Club history
Poor Man’s Country Club has been at Madison and Memorial Drive for so long that its patrons got to watch Memorial Hospital being constructed across the street in 1954, and then watch it be demolished 50 years later. In a podcast interview, Langford said the bar and hospital traded phone numbers: The phone in the Labor and Delivery Room had Poor Man’s pay phone number on the wall – to retrieve husbands waiting across the street – and Poor Man’s had the Emergency Room number, just in case…