About
King’s County Distillery, established in 2010, claims to be the “oldest whiskey distillery in Brooklyn” because of how lasting the effects of prohibition were on alcohol production in this borough. We’re interested in knowing which Brooklyn neighborhoods felt the effects of prohibition most.
As our data source in this investigation, we've used digitized Brooklyn city directories found on Internet Archive. By using Python to read and parse these directories, then importing the results into Google My Maps, we mapped distilleries and breweries and residences of brewers and distillers living in Brooklyn in 1869, 1903 and 1912, visualizing areas of alcohol production prior to Prohibition.
Brewing in Brooklyn
“There are fifteen to twenty breweries in the eastern district, in the Neighborhood of Bushwick; these are the sources of the mighty outpourings of ale and lager beer, refreshing the thirsty lovers of those liquids in hot or cold weather.”
- Walt Whitman, 1862
By the 1870’s, Brooklyn was the beer-brewing center of NYC thanks to an influx of German immigrants to the neighborhoods of Williamsburg, Greenpoint, and Bushwick. By the 1880’s Brooklyn claimed 35 breweries, many of them located on “Brewer’s Row,” a twelve block stretch from Bushwick Place to Lorimer Street covering Scholes and Meserole Streets. Along with their lager recipes and brewing expertise, German immigrants brought “bier gartens,” or beer gardens, to Brooklyn, often opening up these outdoor gathering spaces next door to the breweries themselves.
A condensed timeline of Brooklyn history
1636 - Dutch purchase Brooklyn from Native Americans
1638 -- Kings County established
1801 - Brooklyn Navy Yard established
1827 - Slavery abolished in New York State
1840s-50s - First great wave of European immigration
1880s - Second great wave of European immigration
1883 - Brooklyn Bridge completed
1903 - Williamsburg Bridge opens
1909 - Manhattan Bridge opens
1920 - Prohibition begins
1933 - Prohibition ends
Project Creators
- Adrienne Lang
- Mary Mann
Project Resources
(1869). Brooklyn City and Business Directory for the year ending May 1, 1869. New York: J. Lain and Company.
(1903). Upington's General Directory of the Borough of Brooklyn, City of New York, for the year 1903. New York: Brooklyn Directory Company.
(1912). The Brooklyn City Directory volume LXXXVIII. New York: Brooklyn Directory Company.
Snyder-Grenier, S. (1996). Brooklyn: an Illustrated History. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Site Images
(1919). [Interior of a crowded bar moments before midnight, June 30, 1919, when wartime prohibition went into effect New York City]. Library of Congress.
Dominion Scientific Temperance Committee. (1912). Temperance poster promoting the prohibition of alcohol. Provincial Archives of Alberta.
National Photo Company Collection. (1921). Pouring whiskey into a sewer. Library of Congress.
J.B. Beers & Co. (1898). Map of the Borough of Brooklyn Published for the Brooklyn Directory. Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division, The New York Public Library.