How do you get into Kanawha Lounge?
We have not confirmed it. Kanawha Lounge is in the directory because it calls itself a speakeasy, and that is the whole of what we can stand behind about its door.
The drinks at Kanawha Lounge
How the venue describes itself: “The AFM represents professional musicians playing in orchestras, bands, clubs, and theater—both on Broadway and on tour.” (from its own website, retrieved 9 October 2026)
The current drinks list is published on the venue’s own site — see the menu.
Beyond what the venue publishes we have not verified a list, so what follows is the period rather than the bar: Jack Rose, Diamondback, and Brown Derby are all drinks of this era, and each links to its origin and its build.
Where Kanawha Lounge sits
Our record places Kanawha Lounge in Upshur County, West Virginia, in the South Atlantic of the United States. The source data carries coordinates and a county or region but no municipality, which usually means an address outside an incorporated city, or a record that was never given one. The map pin is the reliable part.
West Virginia holds two listed venues in this directory. See them all on our West Virginia speakeasy guide.
If you know which town Kanawha Lounge is in, tell us and we will place it properly.
Prohibition in West Virginia
West Virginia did not wait for the federal government. Statewide prohibition took effect here in 1914, six years before the Eighteenth Amendment came into force nationally on 17 January 1920. By the time the Volstead Act was being enforced across the country, West Virginia already had an established illegal trade and the habits that went with it.
More on the period in our history of Prohibition in West Virginia.
What the newspapers recorded in West Virginia
Searching the Library of Congress run of West Virginia newspapers for speakeasy, blind pig and bootlegger across 1920 to 1933 returns dated pages anyone can open. These are from West Virginia:
- The West Virginian, April 28, 1920 — read the page at the Library of Congress
- The Wheeling intelligencer, May 8, 1920 — read the page at the Library of Congress
- Belington progressive, September 30, 1920 — read the page at the Library of Congress
- The Wheeling intelligencer, November 26, 1920 — read the page at the Library of Congress
Planning a visit
You can reach Kanawha Lounge by phone on (304) 472-0330, through its own website, and on Instagram, Facebook, and X.
The address is 18 S Kanawha St, WV 26201. Open in Google Maps.
What we have confirmed
For Kanawha Lounge we hold street address, telephone number, official website, social accounts, and a published drinks list. We do not yet hold opening hours, an online booking link, or a listed-building record.
It is in the directory because its own name calls it a lounge and the description in the source data describes it as a speakeasy.
Overture Maps carries this venue; OpenStreetMap has no matching record.
The source data classifies the premises as a bar.