City Speakeasies -- 1920 to 1933
Posted by:
nordsider
(---.hsd1.il.comcast.net)
Date: October 06, 2013 07:26PM
I've read, that Chicago had, during Prohibition, some twenty thousand saloons that remained in business. My great uncle was an owner of a saloon located at 1600 Wells St., in 1918. However, in the 1920 Census he is listed as a proprietor of a cafe, without an address given. What I know about his personal life is only what I've been able to glean from genealogical research, but I wondered if in 1920, when Prohibition was enacted, whether his cafe was in reality one of the many thousands of speakeasies.
I have also read of two Prohibition era speakeasies, that existed in my old neighborhood in Lincoln Park; one that was well known and located at Willow and Howe streets; and the other, at Halsted and Willow.
I wonder if anyone has a story, handed down from relatives, that lived in that 20s and early 30s era, about speakeasies in Chicago . . . I would be most interested.