Prohibition was enacted 96 years ago this month, and these 8 Mass. towns never repealed it
Don’t go to Mount Washington to buy your Sam Adams.
Massachusetts is not the most booze-friendly state. Though we have plenty of local beers and watering holes, we also have plenty of Puritan regulations around drinking. And, surprise, a few towns that never made it past Prohibition.
The United States made liquor illegal in January of 1920, and went back to the bottle in 1933. However, eight cities and towns in Massachusetts have stayed dry. (The term “dry’’ means that the sale of any kind of alcoholic beverage is banned.)
Alford, Dunstable, Chilmark, Gosnold, Hawley, Montgomery, West Hampton, and Mount Washington don’t serve alcohol, according to a 2012 Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission report cited on Tuesday by Boston magazine.
Though there are still no happy hours in Mass., this is progress for the state: there were 20 dry towns in 2000, compared to the eight we have now, Boston reports.
Massachusetts isn’t alone in avoiding the booze; an Atlas Obscura map recently highlighted municipalities across America that forbid the sale of alcohol. It’s always 1920 somewhere.
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