The Temperance Tour

Garrett Peck leads the Temperance Tour, a tour of sites in Washington, DC related to the anti-alcohol movement that culminated in Prohibition. It involves 1-1/2 miles of walking and a few staircases.  You can read a Washington Post interview with Garrett about the tour, as well as another on the DCist website.

The Temperance Tour is now available as an iPod or MP3 audio download on AudioSteps! It even comes with a very cool map, which you can download.

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.

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 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.

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 1862.  The Anti-Saloon League had its national kickoff meeting 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. 

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 White House 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. Check out the Rolls Royce in the garage! There is an entrance fee for the house, which is owned by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

The Brickskeller
1523 22nd Street, NW (near Dupont Circle Metro station)

   

Photos by Garrett Peck

Additional temperance-related sites in Washington, DC
(not included in the Temperance Tour)

The Methodist Building
100 Maryland Avenue, NE
This prominent Capitol Hill location, just a block from the Supreme Court, was built by the Methodist Board of Temperance, Prohibition and Public Morals in 1923. The board disbanded in the 1950s, and the building is now home to the United Methodist General Board of Church and Society.

Heurich Mansion
"The Brewmaster's Castle"
1307 New Hampshire Avenue, NW
This high Victorian mansion was built near 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. His last brewery was torn down in 1956 to make way for the Kennedy Center. There is an entrance fee for the house.

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.