Temperance Photo Gallery
The temperance movement was a significant social and political movement, led by white middle class evangelical Protestants, that struggled for more than a century to define the U.S. as a God-fearing nation that didn't drink alcohol. The movement finally achieved its political goal of banning alcohol by changing the Constitution - only to see widespread civil disobedience undermine the law of the land. Prohibition lasted less than 14 years (1920-1933). The temperance movement was discredited and never recovered from Repeal. Today, the phrase "temperance" is an anachronism - much like anarchy,
communism, or the gold standard. It's no longer culturally relevant to
most Americans.
Throughout the years, I've found a number of monuments to temperance around the United States. Even as most of us no longer abstain from alcohol (myself included), it's important to remember what was a significant era in American history.
Library of Congress image archive
Few images so completely convey the temperance movement's attitude toward alcohol as the one above. It wasn't just something to be avoided, but it was a tool of Satan himself. They even had a handy name for it: Demon Rum.
Washington, DC
The nation's capital has a fair number of temperance monuments, particularly since the movement had a strong political bent to it. You can see a number of these by accompanying me on the Temperance Tour that I give several times a year (see the link to the left). Best known is the Cogswell Temperance Fountain, strategically located halfway between the Capitol and the White House and near Rum Row, where it could symbolically proclaim that people should drink water instead of whiskey. The four sides of the fountain read: FAITH, HOPE, CHARITY, and TEMPERANCE. This was a way of tying in the dry cause with the Bible.
Color photo by Garrett Peck
Henry Cogswell funded about 50 of these nationwide; only a handful survive, including a similar one in New York City (see below). You can read more about Cogswell on Wikipedia. As you can see from the historic photo (probably taken in the 1940s), the statue once sat prominently at the corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and 7th Street. Ironically it stood in front of the Apex liquor store for years. It was moved about 50 feet north when Indiana Plaza was created during the rehabilitation of Pennsylvania Avenue, and a monument to the Grand Army of the Republic took its place. The Temperance Fountain is now across from a Starbucks.
Photo by Garrett Peck
A few blocks north from Temperance Fountain is Calvary Baptist Church in Chinatown. This is a truly grand church that hosted the Anti-Saloon League's first national convention in 1895. The organization was founded in Ohio two years before, and it used pressure politics to force through the 18th Amendment during World War I. The ASL collapsed upon Repeal in 1933: much of the nation blamed it for pushing Prohibition on an unwilling people. Today the Anti-Saloon League Museum and the organization's archives are kept at the Westerville Public Library. Westerville is a suburb of Columbus, Ohio, where the ASL had its publishing house, the American Issue press.
Photo by Garrett Peck
The halls of Congress have many statues in them, but the first statue dedicated to a woman was a gift from Illinois, the home state of Frances Willard. Willard was a social reformer who led the Woman's Christian Temperance Union for more than 20 years. Her home in Evanston, Illinois is now a museum. The statue above is in Statuary Hall of the U.S. Capitol Building.
Photo by Garrett Peck
One of my favorite buildings in DC is the Library of Congress's Thomas Jefferson Building, built in 1897. The Great Hall is a stunning temple to learning, a marble room that can rival the Vatican for stateliness. Numerous frescoes adorn the walls in the style of the ancient Romans, where the muses would free float on a color background. One of them is Temperance, who pours a liquid into a drinking bowl. It appears to be water, though in the classical world it undoubtedly would be wine. Temperance in the ancient world was associated with moderation, not abstinence.
Photo by Garrett Peck
The United Methodist Building is at 100 Maryland Avenue, NE, across the street from the U.S. Supreme Court, and directly facing the U.S. Capitol Building. It was built in 1923 to house the Methodist Board of Temperance, Prohibition and Public Morals and to remind Congress of the Methodist roll in Prohibition. The board disbanded in the 1950s as the country lost interest in the dry crusade and the older temperance leaders were passing away. This coincided with the ordination of women in the Methodist Church. Today the building houses the Board of Church and Society.
New York City
Photos by Garrett Peck
Henry Cogswell erected the Temperance Fountain in Tompkins Square Park in Manhattan's East Village in 1891. At the time, this was the center of a 50,000 person neighborhood known as Little Germany (Kleindeutschland). No doubt the beer-drinking Germans were not happy with such heavy-handed, in-your-face moralizing. The Temperance Fountain still functions today: you can get a drink of water from it, unlike the one in Washington, DC. The M.S. just below the statue stands for Moderation Society.
The East Village neighborhood became run-down during the 20th century and became known as Alphabet City for the Avenues A, B, C, and D that run through it. This area was the setting for the musical Rent. In recent years the neighborhood has been revitalized and gentrified.
Photo by Garrett Peck
Speaking of drinking, one of New York's oldest surviving bars is just two blocks away from the Temperance Fountain: McSorley's Old Ale House, established in 1854 by an Irish immigrant. It's located at 15 E. 7th Street. (Sadly I didn't get to go in...the World Series was on, and the line was down the street. Fortunately the cocktail bars Death & Co., Louis 649, and a German beer hall, Zum Schneider, are nearby.)
Rehoboth Beach, Delaware
The Woman's Christian Temperance Union followed Henry Cogswell's lead in building drinking fountains around the country. Quite a number still survive, and the WCTU publishes a booklet cataloging them. One of these drinking fountains is in Rehoboth Beach, founded in the 1870s as a Methodist camp, and now one of the main beach resorts in the Mid-Atlantic. The drinking fountain there was erected prominently on the boardwalk at Rehoboth Avenue in 1929 - that is, during Prohibition.
Photos by Garrett Peck
Washington, DC
The nation's capital has a fair number of temperance monuments, particularly since the movement had a strong political bent to it. You can see a number of these by accompanying me on the Temperance Tour that I give several times a year (see the link to the left). Best known is the Cogswell Temperance Fountain, strategically located halfway between the Capitol and the White House and near Rum Row, where it could symbolically proclaim that people should drink water instead of whiskey. The four sides of the fountain read: FAITH, HOPE, CHARITY, and TEMPERANCE. This was a way of tying in the dry cause with the Bible.
Color photo by Garrett Peck
Henry Cogswell funded about 50 of these nationwide; only a handful survive, including a similar one in New York City (see below). You can read more about Cogswell on Wikipedia. As you can see from the historic photo (probably taken in the 1940s), the statue once sat prominently at the corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and 7th Street. Ironically it stood in front of the Apex liquor store for years. It was moved about 50 feet north when Indiana Plaza was created during the rehabilitation of Pennsylvania Avenue, and a monument to the Grand Army of the Republic took its place. The Temperance Fountain is now across from a Starbucks.
Photo by Garrett Peck
A few blocks north from Temperance Fountain is Calvary Baptist Church in Chinatown. This is a truly grand church that hosted the Anti-Saloon League's first national convention in 1895. The organization was founded in Ohio two years before, and it used pressure politics to force through the 18th Amendment during World War I. The ASL collapsed upon Repeal in 1933: much of the nation blamed it for pushing Prohibition on an unwilling people. Today the Anti-Saloon League Museum and the organization's archives are kept at the Westerville Public Library. Westerville is a suburb of Columbus, Ohio, where the ASL had its publishing house, the American Issue press.
Photo by Garrett Peck
The halls of Congress have many statues in them, but the first statue dedicated to a woman was a gift from Illinois, the home state of Frances Willard. Willard was a social reformer who led the Woman's Christian Temperance Union for more than 20 years. Her home in Evanston, Illinois is now a museum. The statue above is in Statuary Hall of the U.S. Capitol Building.
Photo by Garrett Peck
One of my favorite buildings in DC is the Library of Congress's Thomas Jefferson Building, built in 1897. The Great Hall is a stunning temple to learning, a marble room that can rival the Vatican for stateliness. Numerous frescoes adorn the walls in the style of the ancient Romans, where the muses would free float on a color background. One of them is Temperance, who pours a liquid into a drinking bowl. It appears to be water, though in the classical world it undoubtedly would be wine. Temperance in the ancient world was associated with moderation, not abstinence.
Photo by Garrett Peck
The United Methodist Building is at 100 Maryland Avenue, NE, across the street from the U.S. Supreme Court, and directly facing the U.S. Capitol Building. It was built in 1923 to house the Methodist Board of Temperance, Prohibition and Public Morals and to remind Congress of the Methodist roll in Prohibition. The board disbanded in the 1950s as the country lost interest in the dry crusade and the older temperance leaders were passing away. This coincided with the ordination of women in the Methodist Church. Today the building houses the Board of Church and Society.
New York City
Photos by Garrett Peck
Henry Cogswell erected the Temperance Fountain in Tompkins Square Park in Manhattan's East Village in 1891. At the time, this was the center of a 50,000 person neighborhood known as Little Germany (Kleindeutschland). No doubt the beer-drinking Germans were not happy with such heavy-handed, in-your-face moralizing. The Temperance Fountain still functions today: you can get a drink of water from it, unlike the one in Washington, DC. The M.S. just below the statue stands for Moderation Society.
The East Village neighborhood became run-down during the 20th century and became known as Alphabet City for the Avenues A, B, C, and D that run through it. This area was the setting for the musical Rent. In recent years the neighborhood has been revitalized and gentrified.
Photo by Garrett Peck
Speaking of drinking, one of New York's oldest surviving bars is just two blocks away from the Temperance Fountain: McSorley's Old Ale House, established in 1854 by an Irish immigrant. It's located at 15 E. 7th Street. (Sadly I didn't get to go in...the World Series was on, and the line was down the street. Fortunately the cocktail bars Death & Co., Louis 649, and a German beer hall, Zum Schneider, are nearby.)
Rehoboth Beach, Delaware
The Woman's Christian Temperance Union followed Henry Cogswell's lead in building drinking fountains around the country. Quite a number still survive, and the WCTU publishes a booklet cataloging them. One of these drinking fountains is in Rehoboth Beach, founded in the 1870s as a Methodist camp, and now one of the main beach resorts in the Mid-Atlantic. The drinking fountain there was erected prominently on the boardwalk at Rehoboth Avenue in 1929 - that is, during Prohibition.
Photos by Garrett Peck