Former Pat's Place owner David Patterson remembers rummaging through the basement of 700 W. Main St. one afternoon in the 1970s and stumbling upon a wooden case containing half-pints directly underneath the bar.
"I was told that's where they used to keep half-pints of liquor and that they sold them out of that during Prohibition," Patterson said.
Jan. 17 marked the centennial of the beginning of Prohibition in the United States, and even decades later, remnants of the alcohol-free spell are still hidden in Jefferson City.
Prohibition went into effect Jan. 17, 1920, after the states ratified the 18th Amendment banning the manufacture, transportation and sale of alcohol.
This led to 13 "dry" years littered with bootlegging and speakeasies that have come to define the Roaring Twenties.
Even 100 years later, Prohibition's legacy remains in Jefferson City, leaving a lasting impact on a couple of local businesses.
A Prohibition roller coaster
Having operated as a well-known saloon until the start of Prohibition, the building at 700-702 W. Main St. was the site of multiple run-ins with the law during the 1920s and 1930s, despite trying to reinvent itself as multiple non-alcoholic businesses.
While today's residents know 700-702 W. Main St. as the home of Paddy Malone's Irish Pub, it served as a popular saloon between 1873-1920, according to the National Register of Historic Places nomination for 700-702 W. Main St.
An 1890 photo of the brick building indicates it was known as the West End Saloon. Following the construction of a bridge over the Missouri River in 1896, owner John P. Raithel renamed the saloon the Bridge Exchange Saloon.
Alcohol was a "cornerstone" of many residents' identities, especially among the German population in Cole and Osage counties, said Sean Rost, the oral historian with the State Historical Society of Missouri and the Missouri Humanities Council.
Up until Prohibition, the Bridge Exchange Saloon was a popular gathering spot for men to drink, eat and socialize.
"We're a country that was built on by European immigrants, and alcohol plays such an important part of the social fabric going back centuries," said Allen Tatman, owner of Paddy Malone's. "It's really phenomenal to me, looking at the history of it, that we took a country based in drinking culture, and we went from that to we're going to be dry. It was such a huge mistake, and it was almost felt immediately."
The ban on alcohol manufacturing and sales in 1920 led to the demise of the Bridge Exchange Saloon, which closed shortly after the start of Prohibition.
Throughout Prohibition, the building took on many faces, including a soft drink establishment, drug store, bakery and restaurant. By the end of Prohibition, it was vacant.
Despite a national ban on alcohol sales and manufacturing, Jefferson City and Cole County remained fairly wet throughout the 1920s and into the early 1930s.
"From time to time there were some crackdowns, but they were only done very seldom and only to make a political point," Tatman said. "They weren't widespread. There was a lot of corruption - if you paid the right people, no one was going to bother you."
There were dozens of arrests for alcohol-related offenses during Prohibition in Cole County and several dry raids that included regular residents and prominent political figures, according to Jefferson City News Tribune archives.
While the businesses at 700-702 W. Main St. didn't outwardly advertise alcohol, they certainly added to the dampness in Jefferson City.
After several neighborhood complaints, police raided the soft drink parlor at 700 W. Main St. in 1922 and found evidence the owner was selling alcohol, according to the National Register nomination. In 1923, police conducted raids on several businesses, finding once again the soft drink parlor was selling alcohol, leading to the business closing.
"You see the attempts to skirt the laws as best as they could so they could see what the legal limit was for alcohol in terms in the container and try to figure out how to make beverages that had alcohol but not at the line where you were technically brewing alcohol," Rost said.
The concept of Prohibition wasn't new to Missourians. Since 1887, the state offered a local liquor option law that allowed individual cities and counties to decide whether to permit alcohol sales and use within their borders, according to the National Register nomination.
By 1917, 96 of Missouri's 114 counties - including Callaway County - opted to go dry, according to the Missouri Historical Review.
Nevertheless, residents in dry counties found ways to circumvent the liquor option law. After the construction of a bridge over the Missouri River, Callaway County residents regularly visited Cole County - which remained a wet county - to purchase and drink alcohol.
"The Bridge Exchange Saloon hung a sign identifying itself as the 'First Chance, Last Chance,' pointing out the Bridge Exchange Saloon as a person's first chance to buy alcohol after driving across the bridge from Callaway County into Cole County and the last chance to buy alcohol before driving across the bridge from Cole County into Callaway County," according to the National Register nomination.
Despite its popularity among residents, the Bridge Exchange Saloon did not return after the 18th Amendment was repealed in 1933, ending Prohibition.
Another historic moment was happening in 1933 - the Great Depression. Many businesses that weathered Prohibition shuttered during the economic crisis.
Despite the risks involved, Edward "Pat" and Della Conrad opened Pat's Place - a restaurant, bar, packaged liquor store and apartments - at 700-702 W. Main St. in 1933, according to the National Register nomination.
For the next 50 years, Pat's Place became a well-known hub in Jefferson City, even after Della Conrad sold the building to her grandson, David Patterson, and his wife, Victoria, in 1969.
"They took it out of Prohibition and kept it alive," Tatman said. "If that family hadn't done what they did, I wouldn't have been able to do what I did."
From beer to Coca-Cola
Prohibition forced another local company to reinvent itself in order to stay afloat - Capitol Brewery Company is now known as the Jefferson City Coca-Cola Bottling Company.
Jacob F. Moerschel started Capitol Brewery Company on Dunklin Street in 1892. His sons, Jacob W. and Ernst Moerschel, eventually took over the family business.
Capitol Brewery Company was doing well up until Prohibition, forcing Jacob W. and Ernst Moerschel to change their business plan, said Edith Vogel, co-owner of Jefferson City Coca-Cola Bottling Company and granddaughter of Ernst Moerschel.
The brothers changed the business name to Moerschel Products Company and delivered ice and coal, offered cold storage to grocers and bottled soft drinks, according to the Jefferson City Coca-Cola Bottling Company's website.
In the midst of Prohibition, Jacob W. and Ernst Moerschel also purchased a "Bottlers Franchise for Genuine Coca-Cola," according to the website.
Once the federal government repealed Prohibition in 1933, the Moerschels excitedly re-incorporated Capitol Brewery Company. Due to stiff competition, the brewery shut down less than 15 years later.
While Capitol Brewery Company eventually met its demise, the Coca-Cola business flourished. The Moerschels moved the business to Jefferson Street in the early 1940s and renamed Moerschel Products to Jefferson City Coca-Cola Bottling Company in 1944.
"When my brother (Carl M. Vogel) was still alive, he would say, 'It's too bad that the brewery didn't stay in business, but now, we are a distributor for over 500 different products,'" Vogel said. "It's mindboggling that the beer franchise, Capitol Brewery Company, started by my great-grandfather, is still in our family because we're up to the fifth generation of being owned by the same family."