DETROIT (WXYZ) — Detroit sat at the center of the nation's battle over booze in the 1920s, with smugglers, speakeasies and the Purple Gang all playing a role in keeping alcohol flowing despite the law.
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Michigan was ahead of the national curve when it came to prohibition. Before the 18th Amendment took effect in 1920, the state passed the Damon Act, which outlawed alcohol in Michigan two years earlier.
"That act became the blueprint for the 18th Amendment," said Billy Wall-Winkel, a field curator with the Detroit Historical Society.
Wall-Winkel traces the roots of prohibition back to the 1800s, when Detroit became what he describes as the epicenter of a pastime many saw as deeply problematic.
"A lot of drinking," Wall-Winkel said.
Those who drank clashed with those who didn't, creating what Wall-Winkel calls a moral conundrum. Many believed alcohol was the source of the nation's troubles.
"Many people believed it to be the source of all of the issues the nation was currently facing and if they could stamp it out, they would fix all of those problems," Wall-Winkel said.
But for many Michiganders — particularly automotive industry factory workers — the so-called war on alcohol was widely unpopular. Detroit's position as a border city gave residents a distinct advantage: access to Canada.
"If Detroiters drank all of the booze that got imported from Canada, there would be a lot of dead Detroiters," Wall-Winkel said.
Much of that cross-river smuggling was carried out by the Jewish-led Purple Gang, which moved spirits across the country — from Al Capone in Chicago to gangsters in Ohio and Indianapolis. Much of it ended up in speakeasies, the underground bars that popped up throughout the city.
"They were in closets, they were in basements, they were in attics, they were in abandoned buildings, they were anywhere you could fit them," Wall-Winkel said.
One of those speakeasies operated in the basement of Tommy's Detroit Bar and Grille, a nearly 200-year-old building that also served as a point to smuggle booze from the Detroit River. The bar even has a secret entrance that dates to its days as an underground drinking spot.
Tommy Burelle has owned Tommy's Bar and Grille for 15 years. Century-old bottles remain stashed in the walls, and archaeologists uncovered that the space also operated as a safehouse for the Underground Railroad.
Burelle considers himself a steward of its preservation.
"There is a lot of history here and I'd like to think we are making our own history along the way," Burelle said.
He says the history lingers in other ways, too — including what he describes as prohibition-era paranormal activity. Burelle has his own story.
"No, I did not have a buzz on or anything. I did see what I swear to God was Al Capone in the middle of the night," Burelle said. "I'd love to go back in time to those days, be a fly on the wall, just to see who was in here."
"This place has been the most interesting place I've owned, that's for sure."
Prohibition came to a close in 1933.
"And people went back to drinking," Wall-Winkel said.
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