The Temperance Tour
May 22, 2010 through WalkingTown, DC.
The Temperance Tour is available as an iPod or MP3 audio download on AudioSteps.
Download the map by clicking here.
Cogswell Temperance Fountain
7th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, NW (Archives - Navy Memorial Metro station)
The Temperance Tour starts at the ugliest statue in Washington, DC -- the Cogswell Temperance Fountain -- funded by a California dentist who protested alcohol in our nation's capital (he built about 50 of these statues nationwide). Those scaly fish are supposed to be dolphins. We discuss the temperance movement and its religious origins. For years, the statue stood across from the Apex Liquor Store, but the statue was later moved north a half-block. It's now in front of a Starbucks.
Color photos by Garrett Peck
Smithsonian American Art Museum / National Portrait Gallery
7th Street and F Street, NW
Calvary Baptist Church
777 8th Street, NW at H Street
We walk one block through the bustling Chinatown neighborhood to this historic church designed by Adolf Cluss (the "Red Architect") in 1866. The Anti-Saloon League had its first national convention in the church in 1895. Led by Wayne Wheeler -- the Karl Rove of his day -- the ASL was the advocacy group that pushed for national Prohibition, and was ultimately successful. We discuss how the ASL used World War I as the catalyst for the 18th Amendment.
Photos by Garrett Peck
We next take the Red Line (subway) to Dupont Circle, where we will tour the Woodrow Wilson House.
Woodrow Wilson House
2340 S Street, NW at Massachusetts Avenue
President Woodrow Wilson retired to this house in Kalorama after leaving the Oval Office in 1921, and there he died three years later. Wilson was the president when the nation passed the 18th Amendment (Prohibition) and the 19th Amendment (establishing the vote for women). When Wilson left the White House, Congress passed a special law allowing him to transport his wine to his new home, and the wine cellar still has a number of original bottles. There is an entrance fee for the house, which is owned by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Photos by Garrett Peck
The Brickskeller
1523 22nd Street, NW (near Dupont Circle Metro station)
Photos by Garrett Peck
Additional Prohibition-related sites in Washington, DC
(not included in the Temperance Tour)
Rum Row and Newspaper Row
Freedom Plaza (Pennsylvania Ave & 14th Street, NW)
Rum Row was once quite a colorful part of town. It lay along the north side of E Street (now Pennsylvania Avenue), directly across from the District Building. Rum Row was a series of saloons where journalists, politicians, and activists rubbed shoulders. Among the bars were Shoomaker's, where lobbyist Colonel Joseph Rickey invented the Rickey (DC's claim to cocktail fame, nicknamed "air conditioning in a glass"), Tim Sullivan's, as well as Dennis Mullany's Saloon. These saloons were long ago razed to make room for the buildings along the block from the J.W. Marriott Hotel to the National Theater. Just across 14th Street to the west, the fabulous Willard Hotel had quite the reputation as a quality drinking establishment (and still does with the Round Robin Bar).
From Pennsylvania Avenue, turn right (north) onto 14th Street. Stretching north along 14th Street were the local bureaus of many
national newspapers, now partly occupied by the National Press Club
Building. The concentration of press bureaus earned the street its nickname: Newspaper Row.
"The Brewmaster's Castle"
1307 New Hampshire Avenue, NW
This high Victorian mansion was built south of Dupont Circle in 1894 by German brewmaster Christian Heurich. The house is one-of-a-kind. Heurich owned multiple breweries in Washington, DC, both before and after Prohibition; he chose the location for this house because it was adjacent to his brewery that took up most of the block along 1223 - 1235 20th Street, NW. After a fire destroyed the building in 1892, two years before building the mansion, Heurich moved the brewery to a larger location along the Potomac River. This last brewery was torn down in 1956 to make way for the Kennedy Center. There is an entrance fee for the Heurich Mansion.
Heurich Mansion
1223 Connecticut Avenue, NW
This Dupont Circle nightlife spot was once a certifiable speakeasy during Prohibition. Back then it was known as the Mayflower Club, where it offered high end cocktails and gambling. More recently, it was the MCCXXIII Club, but it is currently closed. There were an estimated 1,500 to 2,000 speakeasies in Washington, DC during Prohibition. During 1931 alone, the police and the Prohibition Bureau raided 1,155 of them. That's three a day! It shows how endemic lawbreaking was during Prohibition, and how Washington never dried up.
The Methodist Building
100 Maryland Avenue, NE
This prominent Capitol Hill location, across the street from the Supreme Court, was built by the Methodist Board of Temperance, Prohibition and Public Morals in 1923. The message was clear: the Methodists wanted to remind Congress and the courts that Prohibition was the law of the land. The board disbanded in the 1950s, and the building is now home to the United Methodist General Board of Church and Society.
George Cassiday House
303 17th Street, SE
This private house on Capitol Hill was once home to George Cassiday, the "Man in the Green Hat" who was the bootlegger to Congress during Prohibition. You can read a fascinating interview in The Washington Post with George's youngest son, Fred, in Congress Winks at Prohibition in Bootlegger's Tale.
The Quarry House Tavern
8401 Georgia Avenue
Silver Spring, MD
Silver Spring's favorite dive bar officially "opened" right after Repeal - or at least that's when it got its license to serve alcohol. But with its shady 13 steps down to the basement, it may well have been a speakeasy. Enjoy a burger, beer, and a surprisingly good selection of whiskies.