A Century After Prohibition, Owners Make Huge Discovery Behind Their Home's Walls
Two men who moved into a century-old old home in upstate New York a little more than a year ago got a physical reminder of the country’s past while doing renovation work in the fall.
And it held a lesson for the country’s present and future, too.
Nick Drummond and his partner, Patrick Bakker, knew their fixer-upper in Ames, New York, was thought to have belonged to a German bootlegger. But when they discovered more than 60 bottles labeled “Old Smuggler Gaelic whisky” while revamping the house — some of them still intact and full of the liquid — the men knew the stories were true.
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The discovery confirmed the tale Drummond and Bakker were told when they purchased the house.
“OUR WALLS ARE BUILT OF BOOZE! I can’t believe the rumors are true! He was actually a bootlegger! I mean I thought it was a cute story, but the builder of our house was ACTUALLY a bootlegger!” Drummond wrote on Instagram.
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Their Instagram page (@bootleggerbungalow) has been showing not only the process of renovating the home, but also a glimpse of what some of the bottles look like.
Of 66 bottles found, 13 were full, the page states; of those, nine are probably a condition where the contents are suitable for drinking.
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“I’m like holy crap. This is like a whiskey stash. And this is like, all of a sudden, the whole story of the bootlegger,” Drummond told CNN.
The original owner was known as Count Adolph Humpfner and was known locally as a “mystery man” who owned several properties in New York and New Jersey, according to CNN.
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Prohibition was the result of the 18th Amendment, which outlawed the sale of alcoholic beverages in the United States starting in 1919.
It was fired by the temperance movement, which was itself part of the Progressive Era in the early 20th century.
Ultimately, of course, the effort by progressives to use the national government to try to wipe out part of the culture ultimately backfired in the face of widespread opposition.
Upstate New York Couple Finds Dozens Of Bottles Of Whiskey Hidden In Walls Of Home https://t.co/dd4hlD6HYy
— CBS New York (@CBSNewYork) November 27, 2020
Speakeasies began emerging throughout the United States, and sales of illegal booze were common.
The era was even responsible for the establishment of the American Mafia, as organized crime operations in major cities used illegal alcohol trafficking to grow their underground business.
Alcohol sales later became a state issue in 1933, with the 21st Amendment.
This historical find serves as a lesson for the United States in the future: Making something illegal does not mean it will not happen behind closed doors.
And putting the awesome powers of the government into the service of a cause that does not have popular support, as modern progressives demand on causes ranging from climate change and the Green New Deal to gun control laws that infringe on the Second Amendment is going to mean problems down the road.
And that could mean some unintended, very unpleasant, consequences.
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