The claim
A downtown Lafayette saloon that bills itself as Indiana's oldest bar, dating its trade to 1835. Stories of Ulysses S. Grant, Mark Twain and Al Capone stopping for a drink are part of its lore, though undocumented. Today it is a late-night local with live music and karaoke, open until 3am, with food from the adjoining pub kitchen.
What the records show
The 1835 and the visits by Ulysses Grant, Mark Twain, Al Capone and Neil Armstrong are the saloon's own claims, published on its own pages with nothing behind them, and no independent record of a founding has been traced. Its own arithmetic does not hold either: the same page claims 1835 and 180 years in business, which are not the same thing. The federal register has now been searched by position: the building has no entry of its own, and 113 North 5th Street falls inside the Downtown Lafayette Historic District, listed on the National Register on 27 November 1980 and bounded roughly by 2nd, Ferry, 6th and South Streets. That is a finding about four blocks of a county seat rather than about this bar — the entry names no individual building and dates none — so nothing in it reaches 1835. What is plain is the trade, a bar rather than a dining room, open from four in the afternoon until three in the morning every day of the week.
What to look for inside
- Claims to be Indiana's oldest bar
- Open until 3am daily
Visiting
Knickerbocker Saloon is in Lafayette, United States, at 113 North 5th Street, Lafayette, IN 47901. We do not list opening times, because they change; the pub’s own site is the place to check before you set out.
Sources
- knickerbockersaloon.net/?page_id=33
- savingplaces.org/stories/the-knickerbocker-saloon-in-lafayette-indiana
- knickerbockersaloon.net/
- mapservices.nps.gov/arcgis/rest/services/cultural_resources/nrhp_locations/MapServer/1/query?where=1%3D1&geometry=-86.89186%2C40.41861%2C-86.89146%2C40.41891&geometryType=esriGeometryEnvelope&inSR=4326&spatialRel=esriSpatialRelIntersects&outFields=NRIS_Refnum%2CRESNAME%2CAddress%2CCertDate&returnGeometry=false&f=html
Know something we don’t?Suggest a correctionLast checked Sept 2026
Run this pub? There is a badge for it
Free to put on your own site, no permission needed. It shows what the pub claims and what the records support, and it changes when the data does.
How to use it, and how to change what it says — if you have a document we have not seen, we would like to read it.
