Vancouver Goes Dry: The Day the Saloons Quit
In a display of industrial solidarity, Vancouver's saloon keepers shut every business in town to protest the enforcement of Sunday closing laws.
The threatened move of the saloon keepers in Vancouver has come to pass, and Sunday marked the first time in the city's history that every business house under the state Sunday closing law was shuttered. Only two lunch counters remained open in defiance of the saloon men's mandate. There are 20 saloons in the city, and all have closed their front and rear doors. Cigar shops, confectionery establishments, and restaurants followed suit. The city was left remarkably quiet, as most residents traveled elsewhere to spend the day. The saloon keepers have declared that as long as they are forced to keep their doors shut, no other business shall operate. Even baseball games have been prohibited.
“The saloonmen say that so long as they are compelled to keep their doors shut not a single place of business shall run.”
This event captures the volatile period of moral reform and temperance battles in Washington State, decades before federal Prohibition. It highlights the peculiar way business owners used collective action to protest regulatory pressure—even when that protest meant effectively shutting down their own community.
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