The prevalence and popularity of drinking on Cornell’s campus today is undeniable. More than half of Cornell’s undergraduates are under the legal drinking age, yet they still frequent fraternity houses and congregate in Collegetown’s bars. But this willingness to flout federal law in regards to alcohol is not unique to the current generation of college-goers. During the Prohibition era from 1919 to most of 1933, alcohol was banned across America with the passage of the 18th Amendment. Regardless, from 1919 to 1933 at Cornell and in much of America, the alcohol continued to flow, albeit, in a more discreet fashion.

In 1934, The Sun described Prohibition as “passed in a burst of enthusiasm to reform the world after the moral debauchery of the War, [and as] most cursed and most revered of all statutes.”

Prior to the turn of the century, drinking at Cornell was done mainly to celebrate sports victories, according to Morris Bishop’s book, A History of Cornell. Bishop wrote that at Cornell “the drink problem was a minor one … [At the time] the beer taps were opened; but they flowed only downtown, and mostly on Saturday nights, as a ceremonial observance of athletic victory.”

To celebrate and drink, students of the time found places such as the Alhambra, the Senate, Ithaca Hotel’s Dutch Kitchen and Zinck’s, according to Paula Fuchsberg ’79 and Linda Roubik’s ’79 article, “1920’s: Prohibition Forces Cornell Drinking Underground.”

Even before the 18th Amendment was passed on Jan. 16, 1919, Bishop wrote on Oct. 1 of the previous year that the town of Ithaca voted to go dry, indefinitely ending these celebrations. While the amendment did not ban the consumption of alcohol, it prohibited the manufacture, sale and transportation of alcohol, making it difficult to obtain.

Fuchsberg and Roubik wrote of Prohibition’s effect on Cornell students when combined with rampant post-war disillusionment on campus: “[The] Prohibition of liquor in the 1920s, with its accompanying lawbreaking and radical rebelliousness, only served to promote [the already growing] cynical mood at Cornell.”

The conservative city of Ithaca initially rejoiced with the ratification of the 18th Amendment. On Jan. 15, 1920, The Sun wrote about the “jubilations” of local prohibitionists. “Christian Temperance Unions from all over the county will gather at the First Baptist Church Friday, to spend the day in victory celebrations. Prayers, songs and thanks, and jubilation will be the program of the opening meeting tomorrow morning.”

The Ithaca Journal even went so far as to predict that America would soon be “bone dry in fact as well as in name and [that] all of its people will be much the better for it.”

In addition to the City of Ithaca’s approval of the 18th Amendment, many at Cornell approved of Prohibition as well, according to Fuchsberg and Roubik. They wrote that with Prohibition, Cornell saw a significant decrease in alcohol consumption, and a resulting decrease in suspensions of students. In his book, Concerning Cornell, Prof. O.D. Von Engeln 1908, geology, wrote that it was no longer the “thing to drink moderately even [but that] down town dissipation consist[ed] much more often in an evening at the movies.”

According to Bishop, for a brief period in 1919, Prohibition was observed because many viewed abstinence positively. In December of 1921, the Student Council insisted upon the enforcement of anti-liquor rules in fraternities, and the abolition of uncontrolled fraternity dances. “Soon, however, the mood changed,” he wrote.first broke the laws of Prohibition. “[They] infringed the laws to satisfy old cravings or out of mere bravado. Noisisome brews bubbled in many a professorial cellar … furtive speakeasies sprang up.”

Students soon followed suit. Oftentimes, they blatantly ignored the laws of Prohibition and even expressed their disapproval of the federal law, according to Fuchsberg and Roubik. “Students joked about it in campus publications, attacked it in editorials and resolutions and flaunted their ingenuity in concocting their own spirits and sneaking liquor into their homes and parties,” they wrote.

Bishop cited that in 1921, the Alumni News acknowledged the changing and modern values among the student body. “This community ... has become aware that the combined elements of totally undisciplined stages, jazz music, synthetic spirits, girls and powerless chaperones form an unstable compound. It has discovered that the gin man is almost as regular and faithful as the milk man.”

Students managed to obtain alcohol by concocting their own brews, buying illicit blends from bootleggers and frequenting speakeasies. “Chemistry majors brewed beer in their vaporizing systems during the two week vacation period when no one would come by to check the apparatus.” Unfortunately, homemade drinks often had less than enjoyable tastes and presented the possibility of contracting wood alcohol poisoning.

Speakeasies were numerous by the railroad station. Yet, during the Depression years, “most of the students found these illicit brews far too expensive for their purses.” According to Fuchsberg and Roubik, a bottle of liquor might have cost as much as $20. A February 1920 Sun article about a local man caught running a still described the unaffected attitude towards the 18th Amendment in Ithaca. “The enforcement of the measure has come to be looked upon more or less as fiction, and not to be seriously considered … Because of the lack of local arrests and non-enforcement of the bill. It has come to be regarded as harmless.”

Morris emphasized that not all students abused alcohol during Prohibition. “At the same time one must not picture the 15-year period of prohibition as one long gin soak. Most of the students came here for an education, toward which, they found sobriety conduced … for most of them one experience of a prohibition hangover was plenty.”

According to Fuchsberg and Roubik, the repeal of Prohibition in December 1933 was met with overwhelming approval at Cornell. A 1934 Sun editorial wrote, “America has been relieved from the tension of the Prohibition years.” Quickly, Ithaca and Cornell’s campuses were once again spotted with bars. Curious students frequented these new establishments, including the Chapter House, which still exists today.

Today, one can still find relics of Prohibition Era activity at Cornell in old houses and fraternities around campus. Fuchsberg and Roubik wrote that Theta Delta Chi fraternity has a secret barroom, and that one can find a door behind a closet at 115 The Knoll that leads to an area previously used as a speakeasy.