Exhibit focuses on Prohibition

For decades, President Woodrow Wilson has received much of the blame for starting Prohibition, a movement that banned the establishment of saloons to reduce drinking among Americans.

Now, Mark Benbow, a historian at the Woodrow Wilson House in Northwest, wants to set the record straight about the former president’s role in the movement.

“Prohibition started during his presidency [so people think] it must be his fault,” he said. But “it wasn’t him and it wasn’t his fault.”

The museum, at 2340 S St. NW, is hosting an exhibit to dispel the popular misconception that Wilson pioneered the Prohibition movement.

And, on Tuesday, Mr. Benbow will host an invitation-only, 1920s-style holiday celebration where beer will be the featured beverage.

“I think [Wilson would be] be amused,” Mr. Benbow said.

Some Prohibitionists purported that saloons were “sleazy” institutions where men picked up prostitutes and spent all their cash.

As a result, Congress in 1920 passed the 18th Amendment, which prohibited the manufacture, transportation or sale of intoxicating beverages. Wilson could not veto a constitutional amendment.

Previously, Wilson vetoed the Volstead Act, which attempted to define the term “beer, wine, or other intoxicating malt or vinous liquors” to mean any beverage with greater than 0.5 percent alcohol by volume. Congress overrode Wilson’s veto.

Still, Prohibition opponents associated the 18th amendment with the president.

“Wilson took kind of a middle position, which was known as Temperance [which said] let’s control alcohol to prevent abuses and let’s not ban it,” Mr. Benbow said. “He was a believer in local option … where different counties, towns or states could vote for themselves.”

Many think Wilson supported Prohibition partly because he had signed a bill that banned alcohol distillation to conserve grain for the war effort, and partly because his “stern schoolmaster look” didn’t paint the picture of a fun-loving person, Mr. Benbow said.

In fact, Wilson was “a very light social drinker,” known to throw back an occasional scotch at dinner or at an outing with friends, Mr. Benbow said.

In 1917, Wilson signed a law that banned alcohol sales in the District.

“He signed the bill to make D.C. dry because he believed local governments had the right to make their communities dry, and for Washington, D.C., the local government was Congress,” he said. “He thought basically unless you could convince the vast majority of Americans that they couldn’t have a glass of wine with dinner, it was doomed to failure, and he was right.”

The Prohibition era ushered in a period of increased crime and death, Mr. Benbow said, pointing to a black-and-white photograph of a 1922 car crash, which was the result of a police chase led by bootleggers.

Alcohol could still be obtained legally through a doctor’s note as a flu remedy or brewed on home stove tops, Mr. Benbow said.

“All it did was close down illegal saloons. I don’t even think it slowed down drinking in D.C.” Mr. Benbow said.

Deaths by alcohol poisoning jumped during Prohibition, as a result of bootleggers making moonshine improperly or selling poisonous wood alcohol, which led to blindness or death, Mr. Benbow said.

Canadian and British distillers often hawked $40 bottles and $150 cases from ships anchored in the Atlantic or other international waters, he said.

Maryland and Virginia found it extremely difficult to control alcohol consumption.

“Virginia found it impossible,” Mr. Benbow said. “Maryland didn’t even try. … Baltimore and other areas [along the East Coast] were the wettest in the nation. … They said if this is federal law, let the feds enforce it.”

The passage of the 21st Amendment in 1933 repealed Prohibition nationwide. The amendment explicitly gives states the right to restrict or ban the purchase and sale of alcohol.

The exhibit at the Wilson House features 1930s music and authentic collector’s items including postcards, pictures and the first lady’s 1930s electric refrigerator filled with period beer bottles.

The exhibit ends April 10. The Wilson House is open to the public Tuesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The Brewmaster’s Castle, a historic building near the museum, is expected soon to open an exhibit called “Capital Brew” in conjunction with the Wilson House on the history of beer brewing in the District.

The castle, at 1307 New Hampshire Ave. NW, was built by Christian Heurich, one of the city’s most prominent brewers.