Taverns aka "Places of Entertainment"
1754: John Newberry, taverner, purchased land to erect a gristmill and start settling what would become downtown Fayetteville.3
1756: 10 Taverns are in operation during this, Cumberland's first year as a county.3
1763: Local courthouse and jail located at Cambellton.3
1767: Petition signed by businessmen to relocate the courthouse and jail to Cross Creek. One reason being that Cambellton lacked a "House of Entertainment."3
1788-1790: 13 Taverns are in operation.3
1789, September 14: Fayetteville Gazette: "The subscriber begs leave to inform the public that he has opened a Public House in Fayetteville near the Cool Spring. Every exertion will be made to oblige those who may please to favor him with their custom." Located at 119 Cool Spring Street, it is the oldest known building in Fayetteville.2
1803: $56.00 collected in taxes on taverns.3
1897: End of the saloon.3
Spirits
1799: "The Brewery" located at the foot of Hay Mount offers the "best beer in bottles," barrels or gallons.3
1825: Merchants of Fayetteville received 7,888 barrels of spirits.3
1850: J.T. Wadill advertised William's Rectified Whiskey for 75 cents a gallon.2
1852: 17 places selling liquor in Cumberland County.3
1859: Brands for sale at a town whiskey dealer include "Dew-Drop, Magnolia, Family, Excelsion, and Reserve;" "...other common brands...such as Coffin, Rifle, Monumental, Blue Ruin."3
1864: Graham D. Baker convicted of 'distilling whiskey from grain' due to flour becoming scarce during the Civil War.3
1889: Fayetteville Observer, special edition, speaking of the Tokay Vineyards: "the most extensive vineyard in the South or indeed at any place this side of the Rocky Mountains."2 Commercial grape-growing began in the Fayetteville area in the decades before the Civil War and was revived after the war.1
1896: 400 acres of Cumberland County devoted to growing grapes. 100,000 gallons of wine produced annually.2,3
1901: Total prohibition. Manufacture of bootleg whiskey becomes a 'major occupation.'3 (During early form of liquor control, spirits were sold from a single dispensary store located in a structure which would be replaced by the tallest building in Fayetteville.)1
1937: Legal liquor sales resume. Trafficking in "woods whiskey" curbed - bootlegging will continue to be significant in county's underground economy for another twenty years.3
Shenanigans
1921, July 13: Fayetteville Observer: "Drive Immoral Women Out City, Officers Plan." Article reveals that commander of Camp Bragg met with Fayetteville mayor and lawmen "to confer on women, liquor and speeding situation, and plans to end it all!"; a few weeks earlier: Fayetteville Observer: "Immoral Women and Liquor are Easy to Secure." "Poe's Bottom" and "Blount Street" notorious for prostitution and bootleg whiskey.3
1930's: Roadside district, "Sugar Hill," offers "women, drink, and the 'one-armed bandit' - the slot machine."3
1940's: "...proliferating array of beer joints, roadhouses and houses of prostitution." Army establishes four off-post VD treatment clinics. Post guidebood urges "soldiers to visit a clinic as soon as possible after visiting with prostitutes."3
1950: Three entrepreneurs convicted of displaying "indecent films."3
1960's-1970's: Fayetteville gains reputation as "sin city" with drugs, pornography and prostitution as major problems.3
1970's: Bare-breasted dancers entertain in neon-lit array of beer parlors on the notorious 500 block of Hay Street.3
1980's: Said notorious 500 block of Hay Street demolished and replaced with new hospital and pedestrian mall.3
References
1. Fayetteville & Fort Bragg in Vintage Postcards. Cumberland County Historical Society, Inc. 2001.
2. Cumberland at 250. Fayetteville Observer. March 25, 2004.
3. Cumberland County: A Brief HIstory. Roy Parker, Jr. The North Carolina Division of Archives and History. 1990.
