The Basement-Jax

09/24/2024

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05/12/2024

Open at 10 tonight until whenever, DM for entry.

01/27/2024

Florida, 1910...

Caption
Dinner hour on the docks, Jacksonville, Fla...

Source
Detroit Publishing Co.

11/20/2023

10/06/2023

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09/20/2023

Rum-running, or bootlegging, is the illegal business of smuggling alcoholic beverages where such transportation is forbidden by law. Smuggling usually takes place to circumvent taxation or prohibition laws within a particular jurisdiction. The term rum-running is more commonly applied to smuggling over water; bootlegging is applied to smuggling over land.

A liquor raid in 1925, in Elk Lake, Ontario

Look up bootleg in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
It is believed[citation needed] that the term bootlegging originated during the American Civil War of 1861-1865, when soldiers would sneak liquor into army camps by concealing pint bottles within their boots or beneath their trouser legs. The Oxford English Dictionary records the word-form "bootlegger" as in use from 1889 onwards.[1] According to the 2011 PBS documentary Prohibition, the term bootlegging was popularized when thousands of city dwellers sold liquor from flasks they kept in their boot legs all across major cities and rural areas.[2][3] The term rum-running was current by 1916,[4] and was used during the Prohibition era in the United States (1920–1933), when ships from Bimini in the western Bahamas transported cheap Caribbean rum to Florida speakeasies. However, rum's cheapness made it a low-profit item for the rum-runners, and they soon moved on to smuggling Canadian whisky, French champagne, and English gin to major cities like New York City, Boston, and Chicago, where prices ran high. It was said[by whom?] that some ships carried $200,000 in contraband in a single run.

09/07/2023

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09/07/2023

Advocates for prohibition thought that once liquor licenses were revoked, reform organizations and churches could persuade the American public not to drink, smugglers would not oppose the new law, and saloons would disappear. However, the opposite effect would happen.

The Whisper Sisters

During Prohibition, Jacksonville was a major port of entry and manufacturing center for h***h. It was a very easy way to turn $200 into $2,000, according to one North Florida still operator. What is not known is that for every male in the business, there was an opportunistic female to meet his match. It can be argued that the Whisper Sisters were the best.

Quote
Virtually impossible to apprehend, the Whisper Sisters brewed beer in private dwellings, often renting fashionable apartments solely for that purpose. The Times-Union said the Whisper Sisters made "quite good" beer, the reporters having a professional obligation to find out for themselves.

Nobody could get into the apartments without a search warrant, the agents complained. The law protects many a dwelling that shelters a flagrant violator of the Volstead Act," the Times-Union said.
Source: The Florida-Times Union archives

William Ostner: Father of the Six Pack

What would a Prohibition-era story be without mentioning the brewmaster who brought a full-scale brewery to town? Jax Beer was said to be the beer of the common man and the woman who smoked menthols, of the bon-vivant in a blue collar and the siren in Evening in Paris.

This brewery's start dates back to Moncrief Park, a full decade before Prohibition. In 1910, Moncrief Park's horse racing track drew spectators from all over the country. One of those spectators was William Ostner, a German-born brewmaster living in St. Louis.

Soon, Ostner would move to Jacksonville and set up the Jax Brewery Company on 16th Street, only to see the racetrack close and Prohibition enacted. During Prohibition, the company's name would change to Jax Cold Storage Company. In 1933, a week after the repeal of Prohibition, brews were rolling off the production line once again. After World War II, the Ostners bought 100,000 durable stacks from Towers Hardware, emblazoned Jax Beer on them, and sold beer six to a sack, and the concept of the six-pack is history. In 1957, the company was sold to Jax Brewing of New Orleans and the plant was converted into a major cold storage warehouse.

Article by Ennis Davis.