The Corner Club takes first in Best Historic Bar competition
The Corner Club has been a local hot spot in Moscow since 1948, and University of Idaho graduate student Tyler Tennison said the bar’s defining feature is that it holds more than just old photographs and Moscow memorabilia, it holds memories as well.
The Corner Club was recently voted as the winner of the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s 2015 Historic Bars Tournament.
Although Tennison said he has made a number of fond memories at the bar, his favorite night was in the fall of 2013, after he and his friend Hannah Davis were crowned homecoming king and queen.
“As soon as we were crowned at the bonfire, they drove us to the Corner Club,” he said. “The homecoming king and queen sing the Vandal fight song on top of the bar … It’s a tradition that every homecoming couple participates in and it was a great experience to follow in the footsteps of the Vandals before me.”
Tennison said given the bar’s prominent presence and penchant for such traditions, he isn’t surprised The Corner Club received the award.
Marc Trivelpiece, owner of The Corner Club, said the bar’s first-place finish in the competition came as a welcome surprise.
“Being entered into the competition came as a surprise to me,” Trivelpiece said. “We won the competition and they featured our place in an article … It happened really fast.”
The National Trust held the competition for Historic Preservation and individuals could vote and track the progress of the competition through the foundation’s blog, Preservation Nation.
Trivelpiece said the competition was a 32-team play-off tournament featuring historic bars throughout the nation.
Although The Corner Club wasn’t the most well known bar in the competition, Trivelpiece said it still managed to beat the runner-up, the Holler House, by more than 1,000 votes.
Trivelpiece said he is grateful for the competition, because it promotes The Corner Club and he feels fortunate the bar already has such a large following.
“The competition gets our name out there and reminds people that we’re here,” he said. “But really, the people who are going to come are already coming here … Our customers helped us win. They were the ones who voted on us and we’re grateful for that.”
Trivelpiece, who worked for The Corner Club when he was a student at UI before purchasing the bar in 2007, said he doesn’t feel the bar atmosphere in Moscow has changed much over the years.
“When I was a student, kids came out a lot earlier,” he said. “If you weren’t at the bars by 9 o’clock you were missing out, but now people aren’t coming out until 11 o’clock. But other than that, the atmosphere really hasn’t changed.”
Tennison, who has been a Corner Club regular since he first turned 21, said his favorite thing about the bar is its friendly atmosphere.
“The camaraderie you feel when you walk in, you can’t find that anywhere else,” Tennison said. “You always see someone you know, you always have someone to hang out with, everyone is there to have a good time … It’s a great place, and it’s like a second home to me.”
Tennison said it is the atmosphere of the bar, the traditions it upholds and the Vandal memories contained within its walls that make a night at The Corner Club a worthwhile experience.
“Of all of the bars in Moscow, The Corner Club is the most Vandal bar,” Tennison said. “There is so much tradition and history throughout the club and there’s so much spirit — all of these things make the bar a great experience for any Vandal to have.”
Corrin Bond can be reached at [email protected]