Speakeasies in Pittsburgh

Most people think "speakeasies" were a 1920's Prohibition-era invention, when in fact the very first American speakeasies — including the term — originated in Pittsburgh in the late 1880s.1,2 

Pittsburgh has had a long and tumultuous relationship with alcohol regulation. Tensions started in 1791, when Alexander Hamilton convinced the 1st US Congress to sign the Excise Whiskey Tax into law. This was the first tax imposed on a domestic product in the US and was deeply unpopular in Western Pennsylvania, the largest whisky producing region in the country at the time. Long story short, no one paid, and President George Washington dispatched 13,000 militiamen to put down the "Whisky Rebellion", in what many historians view as the first test of federal authority.3,4

Over the next century, Pittsburgh's population exploded, as did its saloon scene. Saloons were not just drinking spots, they were they were social hubs and labor organizing spaces. To regulate the sale of "intoxicating liquors", the Allegheny County Liquor Law was passed in 1872 (April 3, P.L. 804). This instituted alcohol licenses, set closing times, prohibited sales to minors, and in general, tried to bring a rowdy scene under control. For the most part, Pittsburgh barkeeps complied with the new regulations, until 1888, when the Brooks High-License Act raised the annual license fee from $50 to $500 (roughly $17,000 inflation adjusted). Although the Act was presented as an effort to reduce the number of drinking establishments, in practice it targeted working-class and immigrant saloons while favoring more “respectable” venues. A few bars paid, a few shut down, but most simply went underground. This set the stage for the emergence of speakeasies. In 1889, we see the first recorded use of the word "speakeasy", dubbed "a Pittsburg[h] Invention", in local papers:1

“Whisper! Speak easy! The police are watching. [...] "Speak-easies” have always existed, no matter who first called them by that name. They have been “holes in the wall” and various other things descriptive of their leading peculiarities, but it is only within very recent times, and in the city of Pittsburg[h], that they have been dubbed “speak-easies.” [The Pittsburg Dispatch, June 30, 1889]

By 1890, Pittsburgh had roughly 700 speakeasies, but only 92 licensed liquor establishments.5 The most famous of the barkeeps who refused to pay the license fee was Kate Hester, who ran a unlicensed saloon in McKeesport. As a widow and mother of nine children, running an illegal bar was a great way to make money. In fact, many proprietors at the time were women, unable to enter mainstream professions. Hester is notable not only for her long running legal battle with Allegheny County for a license,6,7 but also for being credited with the popularization of the term "speak easy" in the United States, credited to her in this 1891 New York Times article:8 

"Her customers were a boisterous lot. When their conviviality became too noisy it was her custom to approach with warning finger up-raised and awe inspiring look and whisper: 'Speak easy, boys! Speak easy!' Soon the expression became common in Mckeesport and spread to Pittsburg[h]. Here the newspaper men accepted the term as filling long-felt want. It now passes current all over the country as descriptive of a resort where strong drink is sold without license. Some day, perhaps, Webster's Dictionary will take it up." [The New York Times, July 6, 1891]

Webster's did indeed take it up, and soon the term was commonplace throughout the United States. Speakeasies continued to proliferate in Pittsburgh throughout Prohibition (1920-1933) and some real ones continue to exist today. And of course, let's not forget Pittsburgh's illustrious after hours clubs that charge one-night "memberships" in order to serve alcohol past 2am, continuing Pittsburgh's long standing tradition of innovation in evading alcohol regulation.