Future topics in the series of history talks that Tony Brooks is giving include architecture, Revolutionary War veterans, leading women, and the Agnes Flood of 1972.
Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader Photo
Anyone familiar with beer brewing history probably would have easily guessed why Charles Stegmaier dug into a hillside to build his Wilkes-Barre brewery in the 1800s. It was the same reason part of the Yuengling Brewery is in caves in Pottsville, Pa.: Getting at least part of your brewery underground can give you a steady, cool temperature regardless of outside fluctuations.
Our local brewmaster and Mr. Yuengling both dug out “beer caves” for fermentation and storage in an era when the electric refrigeration we all take for granted didn’t exist. Of course, if you’re not an aficionado of the art of beer making, this could be news to you. We expect it was to at least some of the people attending a presentation by Tony Brooks at the Friedman Jewish Community Center on Tuesday afternoon.
We also suspect most people would be surprised at the explanation Brooks gave for a 1920s political phenomenon. Back then, Wilkes-Barre was a staunchly Republican enclave, yet Democrat Dan Hart got elected mayor three times. Why? Maybe it had to do with the fact that Hart ran a speakeasy on the third floor of his family’s mansion, Brooks suggested.
These days, of course, it’s hard to imagine the value of running an illegal, secret watering hole, since bars are bountiful and even the state’s stodgy liquor sale laws have been relaxed enough to let grocery stores sell wine. But from 1920 to 1933, the United States prohibited the production, importation, transportation and sale of alcoholic beverages through the short-lived 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
“Short-lived” because pretty much every town and population center of any note had a house of illicit alcohol hidden in back alleys or secret underground rooms. The ban arguably backfired, pushing sales and use of alcohol into the hands of organized crime, leading to a surge of police corruption, and ultimately being repealed because the federal government developed a ravenous appetite for the tax dollars legal booze could generate in the wake of 1929’s stock market crash and ensuing Great Depression.
Stegmaier and Hart were just two of the local historic figures Brooks discussed during Tuesday’s session, the first of five such talks scheduled at the JCC for Tuesday afternoons, from 1 to 2:30 p.m., through Aug. 4. This one was titled “History of Wilkes-Barre and the Wyoming Valley Through Portraiture Art,” and as you likely can guess, he projected portraits for the people he mentioned, offering background on both the people and the artists who painted them.
Future topics include architecture, Revolutionary War veterans, famous women and the Agnes flood. The $50 cost to attend the series supports two good causes: Sara’s Table, a food pantry operating out of the JCC, and the Wilkes-Barré Preservation Society, which Brooks himself founded.
Our area has a great deal of history that remains largely hidden to most, from Charles Miner’s introduction of legislature to abolish slavery in 1828 — something Brooks touched on Tuesday — to a canal and lock system that flowed through downtown Wilkes-Barre, a topic covered by former Times Leader writer/editor Joe Butkiewicz during an equally informative “Y Walk Wednesday” on June 24 (Y Walks leave from the YMCA in downtown Wilkes-Barre at 6 p.m. each Wednesday through Aug. 19).
We think Brooks and all those involved in these history-telling events deserve thanks, and encourage residents to participate as often as time allows.