Despite the devil-may-care attitude at the end of the 19th century, which included the first golden era of the cocktail, a storm was brewing on the horizon. Across Virginia, and across the whole country, a call for temperance rose from a few meetings of the like-minded who thought alcohol consumption should be curbed to a national movement that was calling for complete prohibition.
In 1901, the Virginia Anti-Saloon League was founded at a meeting in Richmond. The Virginian-Pilot (dated June 7, 1902) reported, “The Anti-Saloon League of Virginia is preparing to establish temperance saloons in various portions of the state. They will consist of reading rooms, parlors and soft-drink counters. Several have already been established, and there has been a decrease in drunkenness in those localities.”
Going Dry
Four years before the national ban on alcohol sales, Virginia went dry on November 1, 1916, with the Mapp Law, thanks to the efforts of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union and the Anti-Saloon League. Laws like the 1903 Mapp Law and 1908 Byrd Law set many industry-killing restrictions in place.
This affected a wide group of Virginians: most bar and saloon owners, brewers, distillers and winemakers were forced out of business if they were not able to adapt to another line of business. It also affected restaurant owners, who had to forfeit alcohol on their menus. The Mapp Law was strict, defining “ardent spirits” as “alcohol, brandy, whiskey, rum, gin, wine, porter, ale, beer, all malt liquors, absinthe and all compounds or mixtures of any of them.”
On the last day before Prohibition, folks made one last effort to stock up at home, says the Alexandria Gazette on Oct. 31, 1916: “With but a few hours left in which intoxicating beverages may be sold legally in Virginia, reports from all parts of the state tell of vast quantities of the liquor being stored away in the homes of citizens for further use.
Neighboring states like Maryland had yet to go dry, and those that lived close to the border procured alcohol there, too.
The alternative was to drink nothing at all, or, perhaps, one of the many soft drinks that proliferated during this time. If one product blossomed during this time of temperance, it was bubbly, carbonated, sugary drinks.
Fast forward a few years… on Jan. 17, 1920, the whole nation went dry with the enactment of the 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which prohibited the manufacture, sale or transportation of intoxicating liquors in the United States.
“Dry’s Dream Comes True After Fight For Years,” was a headline in the Richmond Times-Dispatch on Jan. 17, 1920. It continued, “Nation-Wide Prohibition Effective at Last by Decision of Forty-Six Sovereign States.”
Consumption Continues
Interestingly, the law did not prohibit folks from drinking alcoholic beverages, but it made it nearly impossible to legally get them. Alcohol flowed.
In homes and in the back of businesses, speakeasies – serving spirits on the sly – popped up everywhere. Many roads in Virginia were rural and much of the coastline in the eastern part of the state was desolate, making transportation, especially at night, difficult for authorities to prevent smuggling.
Smugglers brought in contraband from the sea. Folks had doctors write prescriptions for whiskey for various ailments. Some folks turned to making small batches of alcohol in their homes, and others had larger-scale operations. Some turned to moonshine.
From stills in the marshes and swamps of Coastal Virginia, to deeply wooded areas through the Piedmont and Northern Virginia, to the hollers and valleys of the mountains, moonshine in Virginia hit its peak during Prohibition. By the 1930s, Franklin County became known as the Moonshine Capital of the World, producing far more of the spirit than anywhere else in the country.
Prohibition Repeal to Today
Then, nearly fourteen years later, it was over.
“What America needs now is a drink,” said President Franklin Roosevelt, echoing the sentiments of many as the 18th Amendment establishing Prohibition was repealed on Dec. 5, 1933 by the 21st Amendment. It is the only constitutional amendment to be repealed in its entirety.
Virginia voted by a 63% margin for Repeal.
Immediately following Repeal, America had to catch up with its liquor production. In Virginia, that began with A. Smith Bowman.
A. Smith Bowman established the 7,200-acre Sunset Hills farm in Fairfax County in 1927 to operate a dairy and granary. The rich fields yield a lot of grain, and Bowman needed a use for the excess.
The answer came in 1934 when he built a distillery on the farmland and crafted Virginia Gentleman; until the 1950s, A. Smith Bowman Distillery was the only legal producer of spirits in Virginia. The distillery relocated to Fredericksburg in 1988.
A legacy of Prohibition remains in Virginia today: the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC), established on March 7, 1934.
This state agency regulates all aspects of alcohol sales in the state, even running all the retail liquor stores across Virginia, although beer and wine can be sold in shops such as convenience stores and supermarkets. The liquor sales extend to Virginia’s restaurants, too: all spirits must be purchased through Virginia ABC.
The agency also restricts the amount of alcohol a restaurant can serve based on a formula of how much its overall sales include food and regulates the marketing of alcoholic products.
Following Repeal, some areas of the state remained dry, although that number has decreased over the decades. Nine Virginia counties do not or have limited permits of alcohol sales – although beer and wine may be served – according to a report from Virginia ABC in 2021.
What began as America’s “noble experiment,” largely ended in failure, hence the burgeoning Virginia Spirits scene today.
Patrick Evans-Hylton is a Johnson & Wales-trained chef, food historian and award-winning food journalist covering tasty trends since 1995. He is the author of Virginia Distilled: Four Centuries of Drinking in the Old Dominion. Visit VirginiaEatsAndDrinks.com for more.