Dry Evanston
Four years after the State of Illinois granted a charter to Northwestern University, an amendment prohibited alcohol sales in Northwestern and the City of Evanston for more than a century.
Prohibition in 1855
In 1855, the year students first enrolled at the new institution, Northwestern's trustees asked the Illinois General Assembly to amend Northwestern’s charter to prohibit the manufacture or sale of "spirituous, vinous or fermented liquors within four miles of the location of said University."
Trustee Grant Goodrich, one of the nine founders of Northwestern, played the key role in winning passage of the amendment. Goodrich was a natural for the task; he was a lawyer, lay leader of the Methodist Church, a mover and shaker in Chicago political circles and the only founder who was a teetotaler.
Goodrich engineered an accord that kept the sale of alcohol off campus and out of Evanston, launching a "dry" period that would last for more than 120 years.
The amendment provided that the act banning sales of alcohol "may be repealed by the general assembly whenever they think proper." However, the wording set forth the only instance in which the General Assembly could change a provision of the Northwestern charter without the consent of the University.
The “Wet” Influence Prevails
After Prohibition was repealed, the Illinois General Assembly approved a local option amendment to the Illinois Liquor Control Act. Soon taverns sprung up along Howard Street in Chicago and in Skokie. There is no evidence that law enforcement officials tried to enforce the four-mile ban.
Evanston and Northwestern maintained their "dry" status. However, members of private clubs in the city could imbibe from their own bottles on club premises. Some restaurants allowed patrons to bring and consume their own liquor with meals. “Blind pigs” — known in Prohibition as speakeasies — were also available near Evanston during this time, and nearby liquor stores offered delivery service to the town.
The changing culture and economic hard times in Evanston led the City Council in 1972 to approve the sale of liquor by an 11 to 8 margin, with one abstention. Supporters said liquor licenses would help businesses such as hotels and restaurants in the central business district
Northwestern followed the trend in 1975, after the State of Illinois began allowing the sale of beer and wine to persons 19 years old. Northwestern students, who wanted a bar at Norris University Center, were the impetus for Northwestern’s lawsuit, which asked the Cook County Circuit Court if the local option law implicitly repealed the charter ban on alcohol sales within four miles of the campus.
The University won its case, applied for a liquor license from Evanston and began serving liquor on campus, ending the ban on alcohol sales that had survived more than 120 years.