How do you get into Gils Speakeasy?
We have not confirmed it. Gils Speakeasy is in the directory because it calls itself a speakeasy, and that is the whole of what we can stand behind about its door.
Drinks of the era
We have not seen this venue’s own list, so what follows is the period rather than the bar: Sazerac, Ward Eight, and Scofflaw are all drinks of this era, and each links to its origin and its build.
The building
Documented — Gils Speakeasy occupies the Pallay Apartments, a property listed on the National Register of Historic Places under reference number 100006124. The listing is a federal record maintained by the National Park Service, and the nomination document is the primary source for the building’s architectural and social history.
National Register reference 100006124 · NPS nomination document
Where Gils Speakeasy sits
Gils Speakeasy is in Portland, Oregon, in Multnomah County, in the West of the United States.
Our directory currently lists fourteen speakeasies and hidden bars in Portland. The full list is on our guide to hidden bars in Portland.
Measured from the map pins, the closest of those to Gils Speakeasy are Speakeasy Tavern, a few doors away, Voysey, about 300 m away, and Known Associates Social Club, about 350 m away.
Oregon holds 34 listed venues in this directory. See them all on our Oregon speakeasy guide.
Prohibition in Oregon
Oregon did not wait for the federal government. Statewide prohibition took effect here in 1916, four 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, Oregon already had an established illegal trade and the habits that went with it.
More on the period in our history of Prohibition in Oregon.
What the newspapers recorded in Oregon
Searching the Library of Congress run of Oregon newspapers for speakeasy, blind pig and bootlegger across 1920 to 1933 returns dated pages anyone can open. These are from Oregon:
- Capital journal, January 19, 1920 — read the page at the Library of Congress
- East Oregonian : E.O, January 21, 1920 — read the page at the Library of Congress
- The Hood River glacier, January 22, 1920 — read the page at the Library of Congress
- Capital journal, January 27, 1920 — read the page at the Library of Congress
Planning a visit
The address is 609 Southeast Taylor Street, Portland, OR 97214. Open in Google Maps.
What we have confirmed
For Gils Speakeasy we hold street address and a listed-building record. We do not yet hold telephone number, official website, social accounts, opening hours, a published drinks list, or an online booking link.
It is in the directory because its own name calls it a speakeasy and the description in the source data describes it as a speakeasy.
OpenStreetMap carries this venue, contributed by a mapper; Overture Maps has no matching record.
The source data classifies the premises as a bar.