HISTORIC POLITICAL RESORT CHANGES HANDS. Hanifin's Old Corner at Seventh and Broadway, Famous in the Earlier Annals of the City, is at Last Sold by its Veteran Proprietor -Long the Headquarters for Politicians. HOW SEVENTH AND BROADWAY LOOKED IN 1870 (From a wood engraving in the and nominations were agreed on in its | quiet back rooms; there trades were made, truces concluded and programs outlined. Convention proceedings were but the echoes and ratifications of what took place in Hanifin's corner. F. K. Shattuck, John B. Felton, John W. Dwinelle, Henry Vrooman and many others of note, being since passed away, used to do their politics in the Old Corner. Hither came Dr. Samuel Merritt when he wanted things done. When* George M. -Pinney was doing politics for Carr and• Sargent he used to consult the oracle in Hanifin's back room. Frank Page met and counseled with his political supporters. Even the Democrâtic leaders gathered in there to oil the political machinery. The Old Corner was the political nerve • center of Alameda county. It was the meeting place for those HE of for the of aid W. I | possession of E. F. Thayer.) Hansen & Kahler, agents for the | Buffalo Brewing Company, haye bought the stock, fixtures and good will of the Hanifin saloon, corner Seventh and Broadway. The price paid was $6000. - By this sale J. J. Hanifin disposes of a place famous in the history of Oakland, and. for many years the resort of all the leading politicians; professional men and capitalists of the earlier period. Mr. Hanifin has kept the place for twenty-nine years continuously, and until he set up his present wholesale and retail liquor establishment on Fourteenth street made it his personal headquarters. In those days he was active in politics, and a power in the State, county and city. All the Republican slates were fixed up in the Old Corner. "hither came all the aspirants for office and the men seeking political advancement. Platforms| who went and came from San Fran-| cisco. Business and social, as well as political engagements, were arranged for Hanifin's. There men met in the morning to. discuss probabilities and again in the evening to talk over the day's occurrences. : "The tide of life circulated around that corner. In those days a great majority of Oaklanders, crossed the bay back and forth daily, and the station at Seventh and Broadway was the meeting of the tides. Hanifin's was where they ed"' died. It was the only place in town where a man was sure of meeting any-; body that was anybody. Mr. Hanifin took the place. in 1875. Prior to that" time he had been keeping the Cosmopolitan Hotel just above, which he opened i in 1869. The picture shows- Seventh and Broadway as 'it appeared in 1870, when the old woodén station stood •on the street. Then Henry Evers and F. W. Dohrmann, a Regent of the State University, and member of the San Francisco firm, Nathan, Dohrmann & Co., kept a grocery store in the Old Corner. The politica! scene-shifting was done a few doors above in Hanifin's place. When Evers and Dohrmann went out in 1875 and Hanifin, went in, the Old Corner became headquarters, and remained headquarters for more than. fifteen years, In latter days, however, the city has spread out and grown away from the focus of thirty years ago. Business has moved up town and the Broadway station has lost its. importance. The Old Corner. has. lost its prestige and lapsed into a position of a quiet. drinking place not - particularly different from a score of others. The old timers have gone, the politicians have gone, the poker games have gone, Hanifin has gone. And now the place has changed hands and Will change its character. It will be a beer r depot.