Apex Club

Status: Closed

Parish: East Baton Rouge

Location: Baton Rouge

From Sepia Socialite, May 1942:

Apex Club’s Cocktail Lounge Is Last Word In “Atmosphere”

“From all over the country they come by Macie Lamott’s Apex Club, and from everyone who has sipped a cocktail in teh cool, comfortable lounge comes the remark: “This is the swankiest nite club in Colored America.” And so it is, the large stucco building (picture upper right) sits on the corner of Louisa and Braddock Streets in the shade of a giant, moss-covered oak, surrounded by an acre of parking space. Canopied side entrances lead to a spacious, streamlined private dining room, the main dance floor, center right, and through the front to the main bar (bottom left).
But the feature of the Apex Club is its beautiful cocktail lounge, (picture top left, bottom right), into whose portals only the sophisticated, properly attired, can enter. Prices are a little high, services a little more replete, and accommodations are a bit more comfortable but you have exclusiveness such as is here enjoyed by Charley Brook, Apex bartender and his pretty fiancee, Thelma Smith.
Other employees of M. Lamott’s Apex Club include Gilbert W. Crawford, in charge of the cocktail lounge, Lottie V. Joseph, waitress, Clyde Leduff & Abbot Emerson, bartenders, Lee Ella Collins and Beatrice Davis, waitresses, and assistant Mgr. Louis Brooks.
Make your next trip to Baton Rouge a purposeful visit to the Apex Club. Lots of people we know sneak over from New Orleans.”

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Photo Credit: Sepia Socialite, May 1942