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Breaking up was easy to do - after the police raided a speakeasy during Prohibition

Speakeasy being dismantled in Boston during Prohibition

On Feb. 11, 1932, news photographer Leslie Jones watched federal agents dismantle an illegal speakeasy, "the most elaborate joint ever built in Boston," at the corner of Causeway and Haverhill streets, across from the Garden and North Station.

About a year and half later, on Dec. 5, 1933, President Roosevelt issued a proclamation declaring the end of Prohibition - an era that in Boston spawned hundreds of illegal speakeasies, local gangsters and a corrupt Vice Squad cop.

Photo from the BPL's Leslie Jones collection, posted under this Creative Commons license.

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Comments

Repeal Day is celebrated every year at the Gibson House Museum on Beacon Street, with a cocktail party to benefit the museum. (This year's benefit was Friday night, make note of this for next year!) Charlie Gibson, the last member of the Boston Brahmin family to live at the house, was famous for hosting bathtub gin parties during prohibition. (He also designed the granite octagon-shaped building on the Common (not far from the bandstand) that is now a sandwich shop.

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... when I have more time (after I retire).

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An ex took me there for an early date once (not on Repeal Day, alas - that would have been really fun), and I discovered that I share an ancestor with the Gibsons. I've always joked that my family is so old money that we don't have the money anymore - but then I found proof!

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Though I highly recommend a regularly scheduled tour to get the full experience, three of the four public floors will be open 12/13 in the afternoon.

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I cannot wait until Massachusetts lawmakers hear that prohibition has ended.

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a suspiciously popular shoe store during Prohibition. I presume that was a benefit of cultivating the custom of the BPD.

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IMAGE(http://www.poppyloves.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/gettyimages_79777203.jpg)

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Which sold "medicinal alcohol" during Prohibition - and continued to do so long after Prohibition ended (hmm, do they still do so?).

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And it looks like some of its patrons turned into zombies and still stumble around the same location, up and down causeway. LOL

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