barBar Rescue · Season 9, Episode 13 · Aired May 19, 2024
VFW Post 1689
Jacksonville, Florida
It is still up and running.
What happened after
Charles E. Bennett Memorial VFW Post 1689; official site confirms hours and active navigation (Events/Services), though most recently dated content on the site itself was late 2023/early 2024.
What happened on the show
VFW Post 1689 in Jacksonville, the Charles E. Bennett Memorial post, came in for the show's attention as a veterans' facility rather than a for-profit bar. The rescue treated the members-only post as a community institution worth preserving, and the show invested heavily in it, spending roughly 75,000 dollars renovating the post per the episode. The work aimed to restore a veterans' hall and its bar for the members it served rather than chase a broader nightlife crowd. The intervention followed the show's arc of scrutiny and renovation, betting that a substantial rebuild could secure a veterans' post for its community, a rescue framed as much around service and gratitude as around fixing a struggling operation. As a members-only veterans' post rather than a public bar, its measure of success was service to its community, which set the whole rescue apart from the show's norm.
After the cameras left
VFW Post 1689 is still active. Its official site confirms current hours and active navigation for events and services at 3409 St. Augustine Road in Jacksonville, though the most recently dated content on the site itself was from late 2023 into early 2024, which puts the open call at high confidence. The veterans' post the show invested about 75,000 dollars in renovating kept its doors open for its members, landing this one among the survivors of the ninth season, a memorial post secured for the community it serves.
Sources
Confidence: high. Last checked 2026-07-19.
What is there now
Street imagery via Google Maps. Location approximate.