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| The Louis Bank of Commerce building at 835–837 Fifth Avenue |
Wyatt Earp moved to San Diego in 1885 during a real estate boom. He leased and operated multiple gambling halls and saloons in San Diego's Stingaree District. His most famous venture was "The Oyster Bar," which occupied the first floor of the Louis Bank of Commerce building at 835–837 Fifth Avenue. The building served as a hotspot for high-stakes gambling and drinking.
He opened up a few saloons, gambling houses, and brothels in San Diego’s notorious Stingaree District -- which is now the historic Gaslamp Quarter. He operated them between 1885 and 1891.
The Oyster Bar & The Golden Poppy were in the same building. Wyatt Earp ran the Oyster Bar saloon and gambling hall, but he did not own or run the Golden Poppy brothel upstairs. The Golden Poppy was owned and managed by a famous local madam and fortune teller known as Madame Cora. Though Wyatt Earp is said to have worked as an "enforcer" or "pimp" for her from time to time, he had no ownership stake in her brothel.
The Stingaree District occupied a more concentrated 12 to 16-block area bounded by First and Fifth avenues, and Market and K streets. However, the broader Red-light District defined by San Diego's Health Department, which included the Stingaree, encompassed about 100 city blocks. The larger vice zone stretched north to F Street, just south of Broadway, east to 16th Street, and south to the waterfront. Supposedly, it was named after comparing the danger of being "stung" by its gambling and prostitution vices to getting stung by stingrays in San Diego Bay.
San Diego's Stingaree District, like San Francisco's more famous Barbary Coast, got its reputation by being the home to the city's undesirable criminal element of prostitutes, pimps, drug dealers, thieves, and gamblers. Of course, during Wyatt Earp's life, he was no stranger to running saloons in such areas. So he was right at home when he operated his oyster bar saloon and gambling hall on the ground floor while dealing Faro. And no, he was no stranger at being a Pimp while Madame Cora operated her brothel known as The Golden Poppy upstairs from his oyster bar saloon and gambling. In fact, some of Wyatt Earp's earliest arrests were when he was arrested as a Pimp in Illinois before ever coming West.
The Panic of 1893 was a severe national economic Depression that devastated what was left of San Diego's real estate market. It's said that Earp was still operating his Oyster Bar inside the Louis Bank of Commerce building on Fifth Avenue as late as 1893, right in the thick of the crash. But that seems odd since he's said to have relocated to San Francisco by 1891. Local historians say that while Wyatt Earp was already living in San Francisco in 1891, he sold his last holdings in San Diego in 1896 when the local real estate market finally went under.
What became of San Diego's Stingaree District? During the Progressive Era (roughly 1900–1920), California underwent a massive political and social transformation. Rather than a single, unified movement, California Progressivism was a collection of overlapping campaigns led by anti-railroad Republicans, women’s clubs, labor unions, and moral reformers.
All in all, during his time in San Diego between 1887 and 1891, Wyatt Earp was highly active in the real estate boom and vice. He leased and operated saloons and at least four different gambling halls, all illegal like everyone else, in the surrounding Stingaree District.
Sensing the end of the boom era, Wyatt Earp began selling off his properties and shifting his focus toward Northern California and other Western boomtowns. In San Francisco he pursued horse racing, boxing refereeing, and new gambling ventures.
His Oyster Bar saloon and gambling hall, and the Golden Poppy brothel were only one of hundreds of saloons and brothels in San Diego's Stingaree District. At its peak, the Stingaree District housed over a hundred brothels, including Ida Bailey's famous Canary Cottage, Madame Cora's Golden Poppy, opium dens, and more than 90 saloons and gambling halls.
What exactly was the Stingaree District in San Diego, and why did they call it that? Well, the Stingaree District was the home to San Diego's first Chinatown, which was alongside dense blue-collar residential blocks. It was more famous for its notorious red-light district in downtown San Diego, California, that came out of the 1880s real estate boom.
The Stingaree District occupied a more concentrated 12 to 16-block area bounded by First and Fifth avenues, and Market and K streets. However, the broader Red-light District defined by San Diego's Health Department, which included the Stingaree, encompassed about 100 city blocks. The larger vice zone stretched north to F Street, just south of Broadway, east to 16th Street, and south to the waterfront. Supposedly, it was named after comparing the danger of being "stung" by its gambling and prostitution vices to getting stung by stingrays in San Diego Bay.
San Diego's Stingaree District, like San Francisco's more famous Barbary Coast, got its reputation by being the home to the city's undesirable criminal element of prostitutes, pimps, drug dealers, thieves, and gamblers. Of course, during Wyatt Earp's life, he was no stranger to running saloons in such areas. So he was right at home when he operated his oyster bar saloon and gambling hall on the ground floor while dealing Faro. And no, he was no stranger at being a Pimp while Madame Cora operated her brothel known as The Golden Poppy upstairs from his oyster bar saloon and gambling. In fact, some of Wyatt Earp's earliest arrests were when he was arrested as a Pimp in Illinois before ever coming West.
The Panic of 1893 was a severe national economic Depression that devastated what was left of San Diego's real estate market. It's said that Earp was still operating his Oyster Bar inside the Louis Bank of Commerce building on Fifth Avenue as late as 1893, right in the thick of the crash. But that seems odd since he's said to have relocated to San Francisco by 1891. Local historians say that while Wyatt Earp was already living in San Francisco in 1891, he sold his last holdings in San Diego in 1896 when the local real estate market finally went under.
Why did he leave San Diego? Well, between the real estate market crash and the fact that San Diego's Stingaree District was being closed down, the result of a new city administration that promised to get rid of the gamblers, prostitutes, and pimps, Wyatt Earp wasn't welcomed there anymore.
Those Progressive Era anti-vice moral reformers were responsible for targeting San Diego's Stingaree District ahead of the 1915 Panama-California Exposition. They got the city to raid, clear out, and demolish around 100 blocks of San Diego in 1916. Today, the area is known as the Gaslamp Quarter.
Let's look at something else for a moment, gambling and prostitution were made illegal in California in 1872. In fact, both gambling and prostitution were heavily restricted by the enactment of California's first formal Penal Code in 1872.
But, while that was the case, the 1872 Penal Code did not outlaw all gambling outright, but instead targeted specific types of gaming. For example, the 1872 California law explicitly prohibited house-banked games where players bet against the venue rather than each other. And yes, it banned several casino games by name, such as faro, roulette, fan-tan, and rondo. California's 1872 code conspicuously left poker untouched because draw poker was legally viewed as a game of skill rather than pure chance. That's how cardrooms continued to operate throughout the state.
But, while that was the case, the 1872 Penal Code did not outlaw all gambling outright, but instead targeted specific types of gaming. For example, the 1872 California law explicitly prohibited house-banked games where players bet against the venue rather than each other. And yes, it banned several casino games by name, such as faro, roulette, fan-tan, and rondo. California's 1872 code conspicuously left poker untouched because draw poker was legally viewed as a game of skill rather than pure chance. That's how cardrooms continued to operate throughout the state.
None of that stopped Wyatt Earp from opening gambling halls that offered house-banked games where players bet against the house rather than each other. And yes, he offered banned games such as faro. Of course, since dealing and playing them, or operating them for money or value is classified as a misdemeanor punishable by a fine and/or county jail time, who knows how many people cared about the law -- especially when those breaking the law can easily afford to pay the fines to keep operating.
He offered games like faro, poker, blackjack, and keno. And no, there's no telling if they were on the level of not. My knowing that he would be arrested for running a crooked faro game to bilk a sucker out of a lot of cash in 1911 makes me wonder if Earp ever ran an honest faro game.
In San Diego, it is known that several of his illegal gambling houses shared buildings with, or sat adjacent to, red-light brothel operations like the Golden Poppy brothel situated directly upstairs from his Oyster Bar. Some sources say he got a cut of their action, while others sources say he only worked for them as an "enforcer" and "pimp" when asked.
In the 1887 San Diego City Directory, Wyatt Earp formally registered his occupation as a "capitalist." And yes, he made a lot of money. In fact, at his peak, Wyatt Earp reportedly pulled in up to $1,000 a night from his illegal gaming operations. Add to that, alongside his vice operations, that he refereed boxing matches, judged local horse races, including at the 1889 Escondido County Fair, and raced a horse named Otto Rex, and he must have been fairly wealthy when he left San Diego.
While the names and locations of all of his specific properties are not fully documented in surviving city registries, he is well-recorded as a regular fixture at nearby historic watering holes like the Tivoli Bar and Grill.
As I said before, with the real estate boom going bust, and gambling drying up, there wasn't any reason for Wyatt Earp to stay there. That's why he left San Diego for better gaming opportunities in San Francisco.
In the San Francisco Bay Area, Wyatt Earp was initially seen as a local gambler, a "Sporting Man," someone who walked the edge of the law. He was well known among the criminal element as someone who successfully evaded arrest and never stood trial for the murders of Frank Stilwell and Florentino Cruz who was commonly known as "Indian Charlie."
By the end of 1896, Wyatt Earp's name would be known across the nation as the boxing referee who was the key figure, the actual lynchpin, in the biggest sports swindle of the 1800s. That was when Wyatt Earp's life took a notoriously dark turn on December 2, 1896, when he refereed the highly anticipated Bob Fitzsimmons vs. Tom Sharkey heavyweight prize fight in San Francisco.
Up to that point, Wyatt Earp was largely a regional figure known primarily in Arizona and Southern California. That all changed when the fallout from his actions had national newspapers across the country branding him a notorious desperado, a crooked gambler, con artist, and "Bad man." It was then that he became a household name for all the wrong reasons.
Tom Correa
