Couple Gives Bar Restoration Their Best Shot

A family-style pub and community gathering place has taken hold in a historic building here where sawdust floors and fiery-strong drinks once were trademarks.

Harrison’s venerable watering hole, One Shot Charley’s, reopened this spring under new ownership. Robert and Peggy McClelland, who during the past two years operated a personal watercraft rental service at the Harrison docks, recently purchased the bar. It had been closed since last fall.

The opening date was April 25, but a Cinco de Mayo celebration is planned for this weekend and a grand opening is next weekend.

Begun by Charlie Jenicek about 50 years ago, One Shot has occupied the lower, northwest corner of the old I.O.O.F. building, a brick structure completed in 1917 just after Harrison’s devastating fire.

The blaze began in the Grant Mill - on the site of the present-day Gateway Resort and Marina - and raced uphill to engulf the downtown, which then consisted of mostly wooden structures. Post-fire pictures show a street, a few onlookers and little else, so complete was the destruction.

Before the fire, Harrison boasted a population of more than 3,000 and had seven lumber mills and a box factory. The only remnants of the town’s once-thriving lumber industry are the foundations of the box factory just north of town between U.S. Highway 97 and the Coeur d’Alene River.

Peggy - the former Peggy Craine, and part-time Harrison resident for the past 26 years - promises not to change the appearance of the bar too much. Renovation has involved a thorough cleaning, new paint, a new carpet and dance floor. In the beginning the bar boasted a sawdust floor and honky-tonk piano. The piano remains. The outside of the historic building will be preserved.

While Peggy has roots in North Idaho, Robert is a native of England, born in the village of Bedford Upon Avon. The couple met in Canada and have lived in Seattle where Peggy has an acupuncture practice and Robert worked for Boeing as a numerical control engineer.

Their diverse background also includes a spot on the “Oprah Winfrey Show,” filmed on the Love Boat. Robert and Peggy, on vacation, were two of the “three hot bodies” featured on the show.

He says, in a British accent, “I think the producer just liked my swimsuit.”

Peggy, whose ideas come along faster than she can talk, tells of a section of the lower level - insulated and removed from One Shot Charley’s - with a quiet room and TV room so parents can bring their children with them.

“People come in by boat and, spending the night, don’t want to leave their children unsupervised on the docks while they have an evening out and they ask for qualified sitters. We hope to provide them with both a recommended list and a safe place for their children.”

A soda bar for the younger crowd is also part of the McClellands’ planning.

While the name will remain the same, the couple explains that its concept will be different than the one that gave the place its name.

“In the old days,” one Harrison resident recalls, “drinks were so strong that one was all you could handle.”

The new owners have plans to open a handicrafts mall on the building’s main street level.

“It will provide an opportunity for area crafters to rent a booth and sell their wares - particularly during the summer months when boaters and tourists are in town,” says Peggy.

Also planned are a restaurant for the second floor and a roof garden bar. The McClellands’ plan, literally, is to grow from the ground up.

Jennifer and Breanne McClelland will join their parents in handling the personal watercraft rentals and helping out where needed.

“It’s a family business,” says Peggy.