Prohibition history
Prohibition in New York.
New York 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 97 speakeasies and hidden bars in New York.
Prohibition in New York, in order
| 1917–19 | Congress passes the 18th Amendment and sends it to the states. |
|---|---|
| 16 January 1919 | The amendment is ratified nationally. New York 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
New York 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 state that stopped enforcing it
New York repealed its own state enforcement act — the Mullan–Gage Law — in 1923, four years into Prohibition, and after that the federal Bureau was on its own in the largest city in the country. Governor Al Smith signed the repeal and spent the next decade as the most prominent wet politician in America.
The estimates of how many speakeasies New York City held run from 20,000 to over 100,000, and none of them should be quoted with confidence — they come from police commissioners and newspapermen with every reason to inflate, about a trade that kept no books on purpose. What is certain is that it was more than the city had held legal saloons in 1919.
The city also sat behind Rum Row, the line of ships anchored beyond the territorial limit off Long Island and New Jersey, which is why New York drank better than most of the country. And it produced the period’s most famous rooms: the 21 Club with its two-ton door, Texas Guinan’s clubs on West 45th, the Cotton Club and the Savoy in Harlem, and the rent parties that made stride piano.
What New York’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 New York used the word “bootlegger” 3,871 times, “speakeasy” 180 times, “blind pig” 66 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 |
|---|---|---|
| September 16, 1920 | “speakeasy” | The evening world, New York |
| December 19, 1920 | “bootlegger” | The New York herald, New York |
| January 9, 1921 | “bootlegger” | The New York herald, New York |
| January 16, 1921 | “bootlegger” | The New York herald, New York |
| February 12, 1921 | “bootlegger” | The evening world, New York |
| February 13, 1921 | “blind pig” | The New York herald, New York |
| May 5, 1921 | “blind pig” | The evening world, New York |
| February 12, 1922 | “bootlegger” | The New York herald, New York |
| June 24, 1924 | “blind pig” | The daily worker, New York |
| April 7, 1925 | “blind pig” | The daily worker, New York |
| March 19, 1926 | “blind pig” | The daily worker, New York |
| February 18, 1927 | “speakeasy” | The daily worker, New York |
Where to drink in New York now
We currently list 97 speakeasies and hidden bars in New York. The densest are New York (62), Farmingdale (2), Albany (2), Buffalo (2), Syracuse (2), Lake Ronkonkoma (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 New York
Listings cluster where the building stock and the licensing both allow it. These are the New York cities and towns with the most in the directory today.
| New York | 62 listed |
|---|---|
| Farmingdale | 2 listed |
| Albany | 2 listed |
| Buffalo | 2 listed |
| Syracuse | 2 listed |
| Lake Ronkonkoma | 1 listed |
The documented buildings in New York
13 of our New York 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.
And 3 more.
| Big Deal Speakeasy Casino Events | Prince George Hotel, New York · NRHP ref. 99000195 |
|---|---|
| Bon Courage | Cary Building, New York · NRHP ref. 83001719 |
| Lantern's Keep | Webster Hotel, New York · NRHP ref. 84002806 |
| Lost Hours | Old Grolier Club, New York · NRHP ref. 80002707 |
| Manhattan Cricket Club | 79th Street Subway Station (IRT), New York · NRHP ref. 04001018 |
| Mulberry Project | Van Rensselar, Stephen, House, New York · NRHP ref. 83001751 |
| Room 52 | Greenacre Park, New York · NRHP ref. 100002076 |
| Speakeasy Charters | West Strand Historic District, Kingston · NRHP ref. 74001314 |
| Speakeasy NYC | German Evangelical Lutheran Church of St. Mark, New York · NRHP ref. 04000296 |
| The Grain | Decker Building, New York · NRHP ref. 03001179 |
Where this state fits
We group New York with the Mid-Atlantic 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: Pennsylvania · New Jersey · District of Columbia · Maryland · Delaware.
The parts of the national story that bear most directly on New York: Canadian whisky and the northern border · Rum running and Rum Row · Moonshine and backwoods stills · Near beer and the breweries that survived.
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.