Mid-Week History: DeKalb Drinking Laws Question
Decatur Metro | June 2, 2011A question this week from HistoryJoe to all the Decatur/DeKalb history experts out there…
I was trying to confirm a story I’ve heard on historical tours about liquor laws in DeKalb County. I’ve heard that it was pretty much dry until “recently” but cannot confirm many real dates. I found one reference that said in 1971 the county allowed whiskey sales (not sure if that was retail or by-the-drink).
Via microfiche at the library, I found Decatur commission allowed Sunday by-the-drink in 1986. If anybody has some approximate dates for when DeKalb went “wet” and when Decatur went "wet" I would be much appreciative.
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City of Decatur had a referendum for liquor by the drink in the early ’70s and it failed. Then DeKalb County had a referndum for liquor by the drink and it passed. City of Decatur then had another referendum for liquor by the drink (Wiley Ansley was Mayor at the time and I think the referendum was in 1973 ) and it passed this time.
Do you remember the first restaurant in Decatur to serve alcohol? I was thinking it was Buck’s but that was much later than 1973, maybe 1989. It could have been Claudettes in the old First National Bank. Did the Sky Room ever serve alcohol?
I believe it was Claudette’s in the old First National Bank of Atlanta building (315 W. Ponce de Leon). Shortly after that Conversations opened in the old Belk Building and it was a good restaurant, and had a great bar.
I think you are thinking of the Executive Club of Decatur, which was at the top of Decatur Federal Building. The Sky Room was also on the 8th floor (now architect Robert Brown’s offices) but it was a room that was used for groups, and not a separate restaurant. In its final days the Executive Club did serve beer and wine.
Wasn’t the Executive Club a private club and therefore exempt anyway?
cool! Which building is the Belk building?
The one with Sammiches on the ground floor and Eddie’s upstairs.
The Belks building also extends toward Church Street, as well the arm that goes to Sycamore that houses part of Several Core Dancers.
Don’t remember the year. I think DeKalb went wet when I was living out of state.
I DO remember having to drive to Happy Herman’s on Cheshire Bridge Rd to get booze when I was in college. That was the closest place.
Executive Club was a private club but it chose not to serve alcohol until much later.
’71 sounds right about liquor sales. I think beer/wine package sales might have been allowed a bit earlier — perhaps the very late ’60s. I know that in the 50s and most of the 60s, when we lived in S. DeKalb (Columbia/Glenwood area) my dad had to drive to Candler Road for beer. There were several establishments placed specifically on the west side of the street (a few feet inside the Atl. city limits) to service the vast swath of suburbia that remained dry.