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Curious City

Where Did Chicagoans Go To Drink During Prohibition?

Curious City

WBEZ Chicago

Society & Culture, Education, Public, Chicago, Arts, City, Radio, Curious, Investigation

4.8642 Ratings

🗓️ 22 July 2021

⏱️ 17 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week on Curious City, we’re visiting the spots where Chicagoans would enjoy their beer and spirits during Prohibition.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hey, it's Curious City editor Alexandra Solomon.

0:06.1

When the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution went into effect in January 1920, it prohibited

0:13.1

the manufacture, sale, and transportation of intoxicating spirits.

0:19.0

But just because prohibition started, Americans didn't stop drinking. Many simply changed

0:26.1

where they did it. At Curious City, we get a lot of questions about how and where people

0:33.5

did their drinking in Chicago during Prohibition. And today, we're going to look at some of the more unlikely spots.

0:40.8

To guide us through, I'm joined by historian and educator Paul Dorica.

0:45.6

He's the director of exhibitions at the Newberry Library.

0:49.2

And he's actually going to be helping us out here at Curious City to uncover some of Chicago's deepest and weirdest history more

0:55.6

often. Hey, Paul. Welcome. And thanks for unlocking the archives for us. Thank you. I'm very excited

1:02.6

to be taking a deep dive into the archives and exploring Chicago's past with Curious City.

1:07.9

Yeah, me too. There's so many interesting things buried at the Newberry.

1:11.6

So, okay, I'm wondering whether you have a favorite spot for drinking here in Chicago.

1:19.9

And I'm particularly like a place that might have been around, you know, during Prohibition and is still around today.

1:24.4

Well, I probably have some favorite spots. And I might, and I might get into a little trouble for this.

1:30.4

But I'll just name two.

1:31.6

One is near where I live, and that's the Skylark, the corner of Sir Macon-Hallstead.

1:36.0

Skylark opened in 1908 as a Tide House connected to the Burke Brothers Brewery.

1:41.0

And it's been a bar more or less throughout most of its existence, but something must

1:45.2

have been going on during the Prohibition era there. And then another beloved place is on the north

1:50.7

side, and that's the appropriately named the Hideout, which has been hiding out in one form

1:56.8

or another since the end of the 19th century. Yeah, those are both really great places. We've done a few curiosity events at the hideout.

...

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