Tavern

A three-alarm fire last night heavily damaged the historic Manor Tavern, a popular northern Baltimore County restaurant and bar. Firefighters were called to the tavern, in the 15000 block of Old York Road in Monkton, shortly after 10 p.m. by a person reporting an electrical fire. It was not immediately known where in the three-story structure the fire originated. By the time firefighters arrived, the second and third floors were ablaze. "It was pretty intense," said nearby resident Sarah Scott, who watched the fire with her husband from a parking lot about 70 feet away.

Robert Ernest Miller Sr., a retired tavern owner and newspaper route courier, died of complications of Parkinson's disease Saturday at North Arundel Hospital. The Gambrills resident was 86. He delivered The Sun and The Evening Sun and the News American on a rural Anne Arundel County route for more than 20 years. He also owned and operated Miller's Tavern in Herald Harbor and Rudy's Tavern on Generals Highway in Crownsville. He retired about 15 years ago. Born in Rockbridge Baths, Va., he was raised in Princess Anne, and graduated from Princess Anne High School in 1933.

A fire sparked by old electrical wires destroyed an Eastport tavern Saturday morning, leaving behind a boarded-up shell of what used to be a popular place to play pool and throw darts.Built before Eastport became part of Annapolis in the 1950s, the bar was once owned by Warren B. Duckett Jr., a former county state's attorney and now a Circuit Court judge, who gave the establishment its current name, The Wharf."I hope the person who owns it re-establishes it," Duckett said yesterday. "It holds a lot of rustic community history."

Joseph Braglio, a retired Woodlawn tavern owner, died Feb. 6 of congestive heart failure at the Mariner Catonsville Heath Care Center. The Woodstock resident was 92. Born in Granite and raised in Woodstock, Mr. Braglio was a graduate of St. Alphonsus Rodriguez Parochial School. As a young man, he cut stone in local quarries. He later founded the Windsor Inn on Windsor Mill Road in Woodlawn and worked alongside relatives at the Woodstock Inn and the Millstream Inn, also in Woodlawn. Mr. Braglio was a founder of the Baltimore County Licensed Beverage Association.

A Woodlawn tavern that specializes in scantily clad female dancers has been fined $1,000 by the Baltimore County Liquor Board for its third violation of sex regulations since 1991.In the latest incident, patrons of Ye Olde Mill Stream Inn in the 5300 block of Dogwood Road were invited to go "Ball Diving" with two young women in a rubber boat full of plastic balls. Two county vice detectives said male patrons wrestled with the women for numbered balls, which were worth small prizes. In addition to the game, the detectives said, other dancers touched customers, a violation of board rules.

The ghosts at Cockey's Tavern have no one to haunt except themselves until Jan. 27.At 10:30 that morning, the historic site, which has operated as an inn or tavern since the early 1800s, will be auctioned along with the restaurant equipment and some of the owners' personal property.Robert and Alida Lowry, who had owned it since 1985, closed the popular Westminster restaurant suddenly in September, saying the resignation of several longtime employees and the East Main Street reconstruction had hurt business.

Harry E. Fields, whose Fields Old Trail Tavern in Govans was a popular destination for the thirsty for 70 years, died of heart failure Tuesday at Franklin Square Hospital Center. He was 81 and lived in Northeast Baltimore. Mr. Fields was born in Baltimore, the son of John Fields, a roofer, and was raised on McCabe Avenue. His father became a full-time bootlegger and ran a speakeasy after a fall ended his roofing career. After the end of Prohibition in 1933, the elder Mr. Fields established Fields Old Trail Tavern in the 5700 block of York Road the next year.

The county government tentatively agreed Monday to postpone plans todemolish a Sykesville tavern with a sordid past.Until Monday, the administration and Howard W. Bollinger were at an impasse over a fair price for The Duke's Place, a tavern noted for brass knuckle-broken bottle brawling and blatant discrimination against blacks until Bollinger became a part-owner in 1984.After he became majority owner in 1990, the bar's reputation changed so completely that it has become what Bollinger calls "a decent, respectable place where you can come in and feel comfortable."

An auction at Cockey's Tavern yesterday brought out former employees, old customers and curious onlookers, but failed to attract a buyer for the historic Westminster restaurant that closed abruptly in September.The bidding reached $150,000, about half the price that the owners, Robert and Alida A. Lowry, had hoped the tavern would bring, said auctioneer Tom O'Farrell.The property at 216 E. Main St. was withdrawn from auction after the Lowrys found the bids unacceptable.They had hoped to get $275,000 for the building, the restaurant equipment and some personal property on the premises, Mr. O'Farrell said.

Richard Leonard Malone, a retired tavern owner and telephone parts machinist, has died of complications of diabetes and a stroke. He was 87. Mr. Malone, a longtime Ashburton resident who later moved to Ellicott City, died Thursday at the University of Maryland Medical Center. Mr. Malone earned a teaching degree from St. Paul's Normal School in his hometown of Lawrenceville, Va. He taught elementary school in Virginia before moving to Baltimore's Druid Hill Avenue in the 1940s. He became a machinist in the wire shop of the old Western Electric Co.'s Point Breeze works from 1943 to 1978, when he retired.