Lexington, KY - One hundred years ago, Lexington was awash in alcohol. In the downtown area bounded by Rose Street to the east and Jefferson Street to the west and two blocks north and south of Main Street, there were nearly 80 bars and saloons. In the entire city at the time, there were 114, or one bar for every 300 or so citizens. Outside downtown, the concentrations of the saloons were largely on South Broadway near the Red Mile, in the East End on Third and Race streets near the Kentucky Association race track, in the West End along Georgetown Street, and on South Mill and South Upper near the University of Kentucky.
The anti-alcohol temperance movement, led by Kentuckian Carrie A. Nation, took hold about 1890, and by 1914 only 14 of the 120 counties remained wet - leaving Lexington a veritable oasis surrounded by a desert of dry counties.
For Lexington, events came to a head in 1918, when the Army established Camp Stanley as a training center at the University of Kentucky. After extensive studies, the Army presented city leaders with an analysis of the number of saloons enticing the young soldiers. (The city's brothels were also included in the study - see June's history column for a piece on an infamous Lexington madam.) As a result, the city began rigidly enforcing existing laws. By the following year, only 96 saloons remained open - more than two-thirds in the downtown area.
Another impact on alcohol sales was the Wartime Prohibition Act, passed on Nov. 18, 1918 and limiting alcoholic content to 2.75 percent to save grain for the war effort - which had ended seven days before. Clearly, the temperance forces were on a roll. It all came to a head in 1919.
On Jan. 16, 1919, the Eighteenth Amendment was ratified, prohibiting the production, sale and transport of "intoxicating liquors" in the United States, to take effect the following January. The next day, the local temperance forces held a party at Broadway Christian Church to celebrate their victory. In June, the Wartime Prohibition Act took effect. In October, Congress passed the Volstead Act providing the "appropriate legislation" called for by the amendment to define "intoxicating liquors," prohibit their sale as beverages, and allow for production for medicinal and scientific purposes.
As the national stars lined up, Kentucky voters passed an amendment to the state Constitution providing for state and local enforcement (the Eighteenth Amendment applied only to the Federal government). That amendment took effect 91 years ago on July 1, 1920.
As the eastern Kentucky headquarters for the National Prohibition Bureau located in the old District Court building at the northwest corner of Main and Walnut (now Martin Luther King Boulevard) streets, Lexington came under early scrutiny regarding alcohol sales. Although heavily armed, the agents tended to round up the likes of barbers, gas station attendants, homeowners and university students. Each month, some 75-100 indictments were handed down.
Although local sheriffs and police were empowered after July 1, they showed little enthusiasm in Lexington, given that political boss Billy Klair was a "wet." Frequently, however, local law enforcement was called on to back up the Federal forces. At times alcohol enforcement was used to arrest criminals involved in other illegal activities.
Before prohibition, Lexington was one of the nation's largest producers of alcohol, with three distilleries and several breweries. The warehouses of James Pepper and Old Tarr (today's Distillery District anchors) were targets for break-ins, until Federal agents consolidated the liquor inventories at Pepper and placed it under heavy guard.
The city's largest brewery, the Lexington Brewing Co., located on E. Main Street across from Deweese, continued operations for several months, owing probably to the fact that one of its major investors was Mayor Thomas Bradley. Finally, Federal agents raided the brewery, confiscating 6,000 bottles that were stored in the Federal Courthouse. Soon, several hundred bottles were found to have disappeared. With the exception of a few bottles retained for evidence, some 5,000 bottles were poured down the sewer drains, leaving a strong yeasty smell over the city for several days.
Lexingtonians, being a resourceful lot, found a way to buy a drink. Many former bars converted to restaurants, with a back or basement room - so-called "speakeasies" - serving liquor. An amazing number of "candy and soft drink" stores opened as a front for liquor sales; among them, Mary Todd Lincoln's girlhood home on W. Main Street. Even private residences operated as night clubs (called "blind pigs"), concentrated in "The Jungle" at the intersection of W. Fifth and Jefferson streets.
The illicit product came from a number of sources. The more visionary bootleggers had been building inventories long before prohibition took effect. Others, as noted, raided the closed distillery warehouses. Most, however, just made the stuff as white lightening in stills tucked away in the surrounding farm country.
After about 10 years, a backlash began to mount. In 1931, a Lexington chapter of the Association Against the Prohibition Amendment was formed. The 1932 National Democratic Party platform called for repeal, and the Democrats swept to power under Franklin D. Roosevelt. By December 1933, Kentucky had joined the 35 other states needed to pass the Twenty-First Amendment repealing the Eighteenth. The state's pesky Constitution provisions remained in effect, but un-enforced, until July 1, 1934.
(EDITOR'S NOTE: The Lexington History Museum has opened a new exhibit exploring the events that took place in Lexington up to and during Prohibition. The Museum is open seven days a week, including holidays, Noon - 4 p.m.; early Saturdays at 10 a.m. Admission is $5 ages 12 and up, $3 ages 6-11. (Free under six.)