Prohibition history
Prohibition in Massachusetts.
Massachusetts had no statewide prohibition before 1920. The 18th Amendment, which the state ratified, closed its legal liquor trade on 17 January that year. Today we list 23 speakeasies and hidden bars in Massachusetts.
Prohibition in Massachusetts, in order
| 1917–19 | Congress passes the 18th Amendment and sends it to the states. |
|---|---|
| 16 January 1919 | The amendment is ratified nationally. Massachusetts ratified it. |
| 17 January 1920 | National Prohibition begins. |
| 7 April 1933 | The Cullen–Harrison Act legalises 3.2% beer. |
| 5 December 1933 | The 21st Amendment repeals Prohibition. |
What Prohibition looked like here
Massachusetts came to Prohibition late, with a legal liquor trade still running on the day the amendment took effect. States in that position lost a visible industry overnight — breweries, distilleries, saloons, the men who worked in them — and the resentment that followed shows up in how little local enforcement there was to speak of.
It also meant there was plant. Breweries that had made beer in 1919 could make it again in 1920 if anyone was willing to risk it, and a good deal of what the federal agents found in the first years was simply the old industry carrying on quietly.
The Watch and Ward State, and a very long coastline
Massachusetts ratified the 18th Amendment but was never enthusiastic about it. Boston’s Irish and Italian populations had no interest in the project, the state’s political machine had less, and the coast from Gloucester to Buzzards Bay is almost entirely edge.
Rum Row ran off Massachusetts as it did off New York and New Jersey, and the state’s fishing fleet provided both the boats and the crews who knew where to land. Several of the period’s better-known rum-running cases were prosecuted here.
The state is also where Joseph P. Kennedy’s alleged bootlegging career is usually set. It is one of the most repeated claims of the era and it has never been documented; historians who have looked for evidence have not found it. We note it because you will encounter it, and file it as unproven.
What Massachusetts’s own newspapers printed
The Library of Congress has digitised a large slice of the American press, and it is searchable. Between 1920 and 1933, papers published in Massachusetts used the word “bootlegger” 1,086 times, “speakeasy” 204 times, “blind pig” 10 times. Every link below goes to the scanned page itself, free and in the public domain — you are reading the primary source, not our summary of it.
One caveat worth stating plainly: these counts measure what has been digitised as much as what happened. A state whose papers were scanned in bulk will out-score a state whose were not, and a low number here is evidence about an archive rather than about how dry anybody was.
| Date | Term | Newspaper |
|---|---|---|
| July 28, 1921 | “blind pig” | Springfield weekly Republican, Springfield |
| March 1, 1923 | “bootlegger” | Springfield weekly Republican, Springfield |
| July 19, 1923 | “bootlegger” | Springfield weekly Republican, Springfield |
| July 26, 1923 | “bootlegger” | Springfield weekly Republican, Springfield |
| August 23, 1923 | “bootlegger” | Springfield weekly Republican, Springfield |
| November 22, 1923 | “bootlegger” | Springfield weekly Republican, Springfield |
| December 20, 1923 | “bootlegger” | Springfield weekly Republican, Springfield |
| January 1, 1925 | “bootlegger” | Springfield weekly Republican, Springfield |
| February 3, 1927 | “blind pig” | Springfield weekly Republican, Springfield |
| March 1, 1928 | “blind pig” | Springfield weekly Republican, Springfield |
| January 3, 1929 | “blind pig” | Springfield weekly Republican, Springfield |
| March 27, 1930 | “bootlegger” | Springfield weekly Republican, Springfield |
Where to drink in Massachusetts now
We currently list 23 speakeasies and hidden bars in Massachusetts. The densest are Boston (4), Cambridge (3), Somerville (2), Peabody (1), Brookline (1), Salem (1). Those are present-day licensed bars — nothing on this site is illegal, and a modern hidden bar is a design decision rather than a legal necessity.
A handful of rooms in most states genuinely date to the period and can show it. Far more claim to. Where a venue’s page makes a historical claim, we label it Documented, Reported, Legend or Venue marketing, and we do not promote marketing into history because it makes a better paragraph.
Where they are in Massachusetts
Listings cluster where the building stock and the licensing both allow it. These are the Massachusetts cities and towns with the most in the directory today.
| Boston | 4 listed |
|---|---|
| Cambridge | 3 listed |
| Somerville | 2 listed |
| Peabody | 1 listed |
| Brookline | 1 listed |
| Salem | 1 listed |
The documented buildings in Massachusetts
2 of our Massachusetts listings sit on property recorded on the National Register of Historic Places. That is a federal nomination document with a reference number, written by somebody who had to show their working — a very different kind of evidence from a bar saying its building has a past.
It does not make the bar historic. It makes the building documented, which is the most we can honestly claim and more than most directories claim at all.
| Area 1 | Old Cambridgport Historic District, Cambridge · NRHP ref. 83000820 |
|---|---|
| Eden Blue | Old Town Hall Historic District, Salem · NRHP ref. 72000149 |
Where this state fits
We group Massachusetts with the Northeast for editorial purposes — regions tuned to drinking culture and Prohibition history rather than to Census divisions, because those are the lines that actually explain what happened. Its neighbours here: New Hampshire · Rhode Island · Maine · Connecticut · Vermont.
The parts of the national story that bear most directly on Massachusetts: Rum running and Rum Row.
How to read these pages
Each state chronology sets the local dates against the national ones, because Prohibition was never one story. Thirty-three states had already banned liquor before the federal government did; two refused to ratify the amendment at all; and repeal in 1933 handed the question straight back to the states, which is why American liquor law is still fifty systems rather than one.
The newspaper evidence is drawn from Chronicling America, the Library of Congress’s archive of digitised American newspapers. It is public domain, it is free, and we link to the scanned page rather than quoting it, so you can check us.