Photo: The Attic Speakeasy
In 1923, at the height of Prohibition, there was a place in Hickory to get a good drink, or three or four. In fact, it was in the upstairs attic of the most prominent house in town. And seemingly, the owner of the home did not care if you knew or not. As we used to like to say in the 1970s, he was very public about all that.
Since the 19th century, there had been a long campaign to ban alcohol from consumer use. Hickory would vote out drinking one year only to vote it in the next. That did not mean you couldn’t get spiritous liquor if you wanted it, even when it was banned. You just had to know where to look, and not look like a narc.
The state of NC outlawed drink in 1909, the nation followed in 1920. And yet, Finley Gwyn Harper, Sr. paid not attention. Instead, he paid for “special water” that he had delivered to the third floor of his home, the same one I mentioned last week with the two front doors. Up there, he invited friends to imbibe with him and his wife and adult children. With lights on, phonograph records playing, the Harpers threw regular parties, making sure guests always had some of the “remedy” in hand for a good time.
There was one odd quirk. If you were a trustworthy member of these regular get-togethers, you had to allow F.G. Sr. to draw a silhouette of you for posting on the walls of the attic. To do so got you into the club. It’s unlikely they compared your face to the cutout every time you ascended the steps. It was probably more like a membership badge. Since local officials were also part of the club, it’s unlikely the image would ever be used against you in a court of law.
Today, those silhouettes are still up on the third floor. Subsequent efforts to unmask the outlines have resulted in about half of the 32 faces being identified. And since all those partiers from a century ago have likely gone on to that great cocktail party in the sky, the secret of their identity remains safely concealed by time.
If you think about it though, for Finley Gwyn Harper, Sr. to engage in such a practice tells us a lot about the Roaring Twenties in Hickory. He owned the local Ford dealership which meant he was a prominent member of the business community. His gatherings must have been widely known since anyone walking by the house on party night could have seen what was going on, perched up there on the top floor. But like many Americans, he scoffed at the law banning the sale of alcohol. He bought it. He drank it and didn’t care if you knew it.
I got another video on this subject (just like the last one). Check out the Historical Association of Catawba County’s Harper House page on their website. See what I mean but more importantly, come see for yourself. An open house, the Unmasking of Harper House (a free event) is coming up on October 30, from 7-10pm. I’ve heard you can get a drink of wine there. But don’t tell nobody. It’s an open secret.
