The Raven Grill: 91 Years on Mount Pleasant Street
At 3125 Mount Pleasant Street NW, the Raven Grill has been a Washington DC dive bar since 1935. The booths are still the originals.
Prohibition
Washington went dry before the rest of the country, with DC adopting prohibition in 1917, two years before the national ban took effect. The capital’s proximity to wet Maryland and Virginia made enforcement a constant battle, and the city’s speakeasies, bootleggers, and blind pigs became a defining feature of 1920s Washington. These posts explore prohibition’s particular impact on DC’s bars, restaurants, and social life.
Tune Inn Capitol Hill: 79 Years of a DC Dive Bar
Three blocks from the Capitol dome sits a 1947 dive bar with deer butts on the wall and a Nardelli behind the counter.
Martin’s Tavern Georgetown: JFK, Booth 3, and 93 Years
The man whose name is over the door at 1264 Wisconsin Avenue was a Boston Braves shortstop in the 1914 World Series before he opened a Georgetown tavern the year Prohibition ended. Ninety-three years and four generations later, it is still open, still owned by the same family, and still has a brass plaque on the booth where John F. Kennedy proposed to Jacqueline Bouvier.
Francis Aebersold, the 19-Year-Old Rum Runner Shot at 13th and D Streets NE
Before dawn on March 11, 1926, 19-year-old Francis Aebersold blazed out of Anacostia in a Peerless touring car carrying 180 quarts of corn whiskey, four DC officers chasing him north at 60 miles an hour, guns drawn.
Criminal Automobiles: A Letter to the Editor
The most practical remedy is to establish government dispensaries for limited sales to good citizens who are not drunkards. This will eventually be done.
Prohibition Officer Charged With Drunk Driving
A rum squad MPD prohibition officer was arrested for drunk driving in 1930. Isn’t it ironic? Don’t you think?
The Last New Year’s Eve Before Prohibition: December 31st, 1919
It’s hard to believe that 2020 is nearly upon us, but it’s also hard to imagine what it must have been like on December 31st, 1919 – the last New Year’s Eve before Prohibition was enforced. Take a look at this mildly amusing cartoon from The Washington Times.
The Wild Story of Good Old Tom Brady’s Murder During Prohibition
During the depths of Prohibition, an infamous crime was committed in a near-beer saloon in Washington, DC. Read the wild story of Good Old Tom Brady’s murder, as told in December 1924 edition of The Washington Post.
The 1928 Prohibition Raid Gone Wrong at an Adams Morgan Oyster House
In 1928, Prohibition agents raided an oyster house on 18th Street in Adams Morgan. The raid led to legal complications, a trial, and the bizarre disappearance of a jury member.