Poor Man’s Country Club given last call after 80 years of live music, magic, mischief | PHOTOS

CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – Poor Man’s Country Club on Madison Street – touted as “the oldest bar in town” – has announced they are closing in the middle of August after serving Clarksville as a community staple for over 80 years.

“Poor Man’s is very sad to announce we will be closing very soon,” said owners Bill and Donna Langford on the businesses Facebook page. “All rumors were true, and the property was sold to a damn bank. Donna and me would like to tell every customer how much we love all you guys and consider you family. A very special thanks to all the artists that played in front of the most famous windows in Clarksville.”

Bill Langford told Clarksville Now he’s sorry the neighborhood bar is closing down. “Big business bought the property and evicted all of us,” he said. “It would have been nice to have a phone call from the landlord instead of the eviction notice delivered by certified mail. However, we knew it was coming; we just didn’t know when.”

Poor Man’s Country Club history

Poor Man’s Country Club has been at Madison and Memorial Drive for so long that its patrons got to watch Memorial Hospital being constructed across the street in 1954, and then watch it be demolished 50 years later. In a podcast interview, Langford said the bar and hospital traded phone numbers: The phone in the Labor and Delivery Room had Poor Man’s pay phone number on the wall – to retrieve husbands waiting across the street – and Poor Man’s had the Emergency Room number, just in case.

Langford said the bar was started by B.B. Drinkard, probably in the 1940s. It was then handed over to C. Gordon Jumper, a World War I veteran who was known for his friendly, quirky ownership style, according to Leaf-Chronicle archives. In the 1950s, he informally entertained others as a singer, comedian and magician. In 1954, in a Leaf-Chronicle special section on the new Memorial Hospital, he placed an ad that said, “Congratulations to those responsible for the new Memorial Hospital. See Gordon Jumper at the office across the street.”

In 1969, Jumper began holding a golf tournament that featured gag prizes. The tournaments continued into the 21st century. Jumper died April 11, 1976, but the bar carried his nickname, “Jumper’s,” for decades to come.

Previous owner Rose Kitchen watched in 2011 as the old Clarksville Memorial Hospital was torn down across the street to be replaced by a Publix Super Market. There had been rumors at the time that the pub and its neighbors might be demolished for to create nearby developments, but Kitchen said her landlord reassured her they’d stay. “We’re a neighborhood bar that everyone knows everyone, and we meet no strangers,” she told The Leaf-Chronicle.

‘Every band that’s ever played up there is going to come up on the 9th’

Langford said Aug. 15 will be the pub’s last day, and a band event is planned for Aug. 9 to celebrate Poor Man’s Country Club. “Every band that’s ever played up there is going to come up on the 9th, and we’re going to start early in the afternoon, and each band is going to play for a couple of songs.”

Langford said the event will begin sometime around 4 p.m. and go into the late evening. “We’re going to make the best of it,” he said. “I’ve been here for 14 years, and the place has been there since the late ’30s. It survived Prohibition by working out the back door. It was a grocery store/bar combination. There’s so many stories.”

Langford said once the bar has closed and been cleaned out, the building is expected to be demolished to clear way for the development taking its place.

Chris Smith contributed to this report.

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