Name/Title
Dawson House Bar Tender Joseph Michael RidillaDescription
Joseph Michael Ridilla (1877–1961) stands behind the Dawson House Bar in Dawson, Pennsylvania, around 1914. The handwritten caption identifies him as “J.M. Ridilla, Bartender.” Ridilla, an immigrant from what is now Czechoslovakia, worked for saloonkeeper Otto Haas, whose Dawson House hotel and bar once boasted curiosities like a two-headed calf. The photograph captures a warm, lived-in saloon interior just years before Prohibition transformed establishments like it.Made/Created
Date made
1914Time Period
1910sPlace
City
DawsonState/Province
PennsylvaniaCreate Date
November 4, 2025