24 JANUARY 11, 2018 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
OUR NEIGHBORHOOD: THE WAY IT WAS
How Prohibition forever changed
Ridgewood and Glendale
Banzer’s Lake was part of Cypress Hills Park, a picnic park in Glendale that went out of business during Prohibition.
BY THE OLD TIMER
EDITORIAL@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
@RIDGEWOODTIMES
Ninety-nine years ago this Tuesday
— Jan. 16, 1919 — something
happened halfway across the
country that would forever change
Ridgewood and Glendale in a profound
way.
On that date, Nebraska’s legislature
approved what would become the 18th
Amendment of the U.S. Constitution:
the prohibition of mass production
and sale of alcoholic beverages. It
was the 36th state to do so, and with
three-fourths of the states having approved
it, the amendment was ratifi ed
nationwide.
The 18th Amendment gave Congress
the authority to enact what would become
the Volstead Act, which would
take eff ect Jan. 16, 1920 — one year to
the date of the amendment’s ratifi cation.
The act defi ned what constituted
an alcoholic beverage in the eyes of the
federal government, and included limits
on how much beer and wine could
be produced for home consumption.
Prohibition would impact every
corner of this country, but it had a particularly
striking eff ect on Ridgewood
and Glendale. Before Prohibition, the
neighborhoods were home to many
breweries that employed hundreds of
local residents; restaurants, taverns
and inns that served locally brewed
beer; and a few of the remaining bucolic
picnic parks that were popular
among city dwellers for weekend
getaways from urban life.
In the wake of Prohibition — which
would be repealed in 1933 — many of
those breweries, establishments and
picnic parks were gone or slowly fading
into history.
Why would Americans prohibit the
mass production and consumption
of alcoholic beverages? The amendment
came out of the Temperance
Movement; its followers believed
that intoxication led to myriad social
problems including poverty, violence
and lewdness.
While the Temperance Movement’s
origins date back to the early 1800s,
the movement picked up steam in the
years immediately before and aft er the
United States’ entry into World War I,
which occurred in 1917. Many state legislatures
had already passed their own
forms of Prohibition legislation prior
to the 18th Amendment’s ratifi cation.
The aforementioned Volstead Act
defi ned an alcoholic beverage as being
one with 1/2 of 1 percent or more
alcohol by volume (which is about 4/10
of 1 percent by weight). The Volstead
Act permitted a limited amount of beer
and wine to be produced for home
consumption.
In 1918, American breweries produced
32 million barrels of beer; in
1919, with the breweries closing at the
end of April, just 7.4 million barrels
were made. Local brewing companies
either signifi cantly altered their recipes,
recreated their entire business or
simply shut down.
S. Liebmann’s Sons, which brewed
Rheingold beer, and Obermeyer &
Liebmann switched to producing soft
drinks and near beer, with the latter
being classifi ed as a cereal beverage
with less than 1/2 of 1 percent alcohol
by volume.
Near beer was a relatively bland
beverage and had limited appeal. In
1921, a number of consumers tried it
and the equivalent of 9.7 million barrels
was sold. However, by 1932, which
was the last full year of Prohibition, it
had declined to 2.7 million barrels.
Near beer was similar to today’s socalled
non-alcoholic beers which actually
have a small amount of alcohol.
In 1924, Obermeyer & Liebmann
was merged into S. Liebmann’s Sons,
and the name of the parent company
was changed to Liebmann Breweries
Inc. Rheingold would be resurrected
following Prohibition.
Ridgewood Times archives
Diogenes Brewery, which had been
located at the corner of Wyckoff Avenue
and present-day Decatur Street,
ceased operations once Prohibition
took effect. The company tried to
rebrand itself the Malt-Diataste Company.
It produced malt syrup for home
brewers, as the Volstead Act permitted
such practice.
Another brewery that succumbed
to Prohibition was the Frank Brewery
located at the corner of Cypress
Avenue and Hancock Street. The City
Brewing Company would reactivate
the business following Prohibition,
but it would only last 17 years thereaft er.
The changes on the local brewing
scene also impacted businesses at local
restaurants and taverns. Samuel Liebmann’s
Sons Brewing Company had operated
a saloon at 770 Onderdonk Ave.
in Ridgewood to serve their beer which
ultimately closed due to Prohibition. It
found a second life aft er Prohibition’s
repeal as Two Kioodles bar.
The Brockmann Brothers’ hotel and
saloon at the corner of Myrtle Avenue
and present-day 69th Place in Glendale
converted their business to the Brockman
Brothers Restaurant and survived
Prohibition.
But Prohibition served as the death
knell of the local picnic park. In the
years leading up to Prohibition, these
