The Temperance Tour

Garrett Peck, author of The Prohibition Hangover, leads the Temperance Tour, a fun, three-hour walking tour of Prohibition-related sites in Washington, DC. It visits many unusual sites that even most Washingtonians never see (did you know we have a Temperance Fountain?). The tour involves 1-1/2 miles of walking and a few staircases, so bring good walking shoes, a Metro card to take the subway, sunscreen, and water. But no worries: there are 5 Starbucks (!) and numerous museum restrooms en route, should you need a break.


The Temperance Tour is available as an iPod or MP3 audio download
for purchase on AudioSteps.

The next guided Temperance Tour will be
September 25, 2010 through WalkingTown DC. 



Since first given in May 2006 to a group of high school civics teachers, the Temperance Tour has proved to be a popular and unusual tour. You can read interviews with tour guide Garrett Peck in the Washington Post and on DCist, and the Temperance Tour has been featured on C-SPAN Book TV.





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

Next we walk a quarter mile (and past three Starbucks!) up busy 7th Street to the Old Patent Office, built in 1836. This Greek Revival building now houses two museums and was gracefully restored in 2006. It was once the largest public space in DC, and thus Abraham Lincoln had his Second Inaugural Ball there in March 1865. We talk about Lincoln's views on temperance (he was a teetotaler), then briefly enter the building to see the stunning Norman Foster-designed wavy roof. Lincoln was assassinated a few blocks away at Ford's Theater just six weeks later.

 
Photos by Garrett Peck

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)

From the Woodrow Wilson House, we walk a quarter-mile, down the miniature Spanish Steps (and far less crowded than in Rome), and past many embassies and consulates. The tour ends at the Brickskeller, which opened in 1957, and holds the Guinness World Record for the largest number of beers. We toast the end of Prohibition, and discuss the lasting outcome from the temperance movement. You are invited to check out the Alcohol Facts & Figures, as well as Recommended Reads.

   
Photos by Garrett Peck

Note that the optional happy hour after live tours
may vary by location and venue opening times.


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, lobbyists, and politicians rubbed shoulders. Among the bars were Tim Sullivan's, Dennis Mullany's Saloon, as well as Shoomaker's, where bartender George Williamson invented the Rickey, naming it after his boss, lobbyist and saloon owner Colonel Joe Rickey. The Rickey is DC's claim to cocktail fame, nicknamed "air conditioning in a glass" (read about it on Wikipedia). Opened in 1858, Shoomaker's stood at 1331 E Street for most of its history, but moved to 1311 E Street in 1914.

All of the saloons along Rum Row were closed in 1917 when DC adopted Prohibition (not that the city ever did become "dry"), and later 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 this block were the local bureaus of many national newspapers and The Washington Post. The only reminder of those glory days is the National Press Club Building. The concentration of press bureaus earned the street its nickname: Newspaper Row.

While in the neighborhood, I'd be remiss if I didn't point out one of the best views in Washington, DC. This is from the P.O.V. Roof Terrace & Lounge atop the W Hotel Washington, just a block to the west at the corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and 15th Street. The drinks are pricey, but the view is priceless. There you can look over the Treasury Department to the White House, and across the Ellipse and the Mall to see all the monuments. It faces due west, so it's a beautiful place to watch the sunset.

  
Views from P.O.V. atop the W Hotel Washington



Heurich Mansion
"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
Washington, DC

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.


Archibald's Gentlemen's Club
1520 K Street, NW
Washington, DC

This gentlemen's club is one of the few certifiable buildings that was once a speakeasy during Prohibition. It sits prominently on K Street, home to myriad law and PR firms. Just imagine: this was once how K Street and much of DC looked, a street of short, narrow, brick townhouses. Much of that has been torn down and replaced by larger office buildings, but Archibald's survives. It is indeed a strip club today, and has been since 1969, so probably not the best place to take the kids.

  
Archibald's Gentlemen's Club - how downtown DC once looked.


The Methodist Building
100 Maryland Avenue, NE
Washington, DC

This prominent Capitol Hill location, across the street from the Supreme Court and facing the Capitol, 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
Washington, DC

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. Fred was the special guest of the Temperance Tour in May 2009, where he regaled us with stories of his dad.


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 a 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. It's owned by Jackie Greenbaum of Jackie's, just a few blocks away.