Dateline: January 1924
Well, it wasn’t called the Funk Zone way back when, but the home business there was not exactly legal either. This was during Prohibition, when the “manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors” was against the law.
The home was located on Lawrence Avenue, which is now an industrial area in the Funk Zone, but what the local police discovered a century ago looked like the owner was running a serious business. Law enforcement officers “confiscated 600 pounds of raisins, 250 gallons of mash, 150 gallons of wine, several gallons of moonshine whiskey, and a complete bottling outfit.” – Santa Barbara Morning Press, January 6, 1924.
Presumably, the haul was properly disposed of. (I’m discovering lots of stories like this in the local paper during my research for my next “Way Back When” book about Santa Barbara in 1924, due out later this year.)
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