A Dartmouth neighbourhood bar closed its doors Saturday after 50 years of operation.

The Old Mill Tavern's property was sold, and the bar was given three weeks to vacate, according to longtime bartender Marcel Logan.

"Sobeys should have left it the way it was," Logan said. "I was upset, but what could I do?"

Logan has worked at the Wyse Road bar for 20 years, and the 64-year-old says he has more fond memories than he can name.

"I enjoy the customers, I enjoy the building, and the bosses treated me good," Logan said.

Bar owner Jason Cain remembers a time when not everyone was welcome.

"Women weren't allowed in here, and in '79 they started allowing women in here only on Thursday nights. Hence the addition of the ladies washroom," Cain said.

The 144-year-old former Dartmouth Rope Works Factory existed before Wyse Road did, and helped establish the development of Dartmouth's north end.

The Old Mill Tavern opened in 1962. (CBC)

"It's history," says Crystal States, who has been coming to the bar for more than 20 years.

"This was the first place [we sang] karaoke. We were karaoke queens and kings down here," she said with a laugh. "This was our bar."

Cain hopes to reopen at a new location on Windmill Road this fall.

"I'm going to miss it. A lot of my customers are going to miss it too. It's not a bad little place," Logan said.

"It's home."