This is one of this historic things about Pittsburgh that I think is so fascinating that I assume everyone knows. But I am amazed how many people don’t know that the new(ish) bar in the basement of the William Penn Hotel which is named Speakeasy, really was a speakeasy back in the day.
The prohibition era speakeasy at the William Penn, reopens as “The Speakeasy”
The Speakeasy is underneath the lobby, if you are entering from William Penn Way, instead of going up the stairs to the reception/Starbucks area, go down the stairs and to your right. After prohibition, the space was used as storage for a number of years. The hotel renovated the space and reopened it to the public as a bar/lounge on December 5, 2012, which was the 79th anniversary of the repeal of prohibition.
From the Trib’s article on the grand opening of The Speakeasy in 2012:
A rear exit opens onto a warren of hallways that led to Oliver Avenue. In the event of a police raid, customers could beat a discreet retreat, Page says.
Here is a video tour of the reopened Speakeasy by WESA in 2012:
Pittsburgh Prohibition Cocktail History
Last month, CityLab, the Atlantic’s blog about all things urban published “The Secret Lives of Speakeasies,” the entire article is about Pittsburgh and that the term “speakeasy” was first uttered right here in here in Western, Pennsylvania:
Whisper “speakeasy” into a search engine of your choice and odds are you will stumble across the story of Kate Hester, the Pittsburgh hotelkeeper at the center of the amusing, possibly apocryphal origin story for the word.
Hester appeared in what can only be described as a prototypical trend piece for The New York Times in July 6, 1891. The story goes like this: Hester owned a saloon in McKeesport, just southeast of the city, that sold booze in defiance of a state law that upped the costs of licenses for alcohol so much that it was nearly prohibited. When customers got too rowdy, Hester would hush customers with “speak-easy, boys!” to avoid attracting the attention of authorities; the expression soon spread to the city, and the nation. “Some day, perhaps, Webster’s Dictionary will take it up,” the yarn concludes.
CityLab’s Andrew Small traveled to Pittsburgh to visit our speakeasy inspired bars, including the Speakeasy at the William Penn and Accasia on the southside. Small also met up with John Schalcosky, who updates the Facebook Page, “The Odd, Mysterious & Fascinating History of Pittsburgh.”
New Book Explores Pittsburgh Cocktail History
Related articles
- Pittsburgh’s Most Iconic Bars (pittsburgh.cbslocal.com)
- Pittsburgh bar scene has thrived for years, with women at the helm (triblive.com)
- Wigle Whiskey’s WAM! project on Kickstarter (triblive.com)
UPDATE 4/24/2019:
