The Larkin Terminal Warehouse was a center of attention on December 5, 1933, the day the Prohibition Amendment was repealed and this, the city’s only bonded warehouse, was expected to release 10,000 cases of imported whiskey and gin to Buffalo hotels and restaurants to mark the first night of legal liquor. Repeal Day, now celebrated in bars across the United States and undoubtedly in Hydraulics taverns like Sharkey’s and the Swan Lounge tonight, was anticipated to be a day of celebration, and commerce, in Larkinland in 1933, as well.

But there was a hick-up: Utah, the only state that was yet needed to ratify the amendment, delayed its vote until after 5 o’clock, meaning the flow of sweet goodness from the Larkin Terminal Warehouse would be held back until the next day. Doh!

A December 6, 1933, article from the Buffalo Evening News has the story:

Large supply of liquor held until today: Larkin Warehouse closes few minutes before word comes from Utah of the official end of the 18th Amendment

Possibility of release of a part of the flood of legal liquor stored in the Larkin company bonded warehouse in time to stock hotels, restaurants and clubs for sale tonight vanished when Utah delayed its vote until after 5 p.m. The warehouse closed sharp at 4:45 p.m. in accordance with usual custom. More than 10,000 cases of choice whiskeys and gin are reposing in the warehouse. The McKesson-Buffalo Drug company, which has a federal license, pro-rated its entire supply of liquor among licensed hotels downtown. The supply which was shipped to each hotel within a half-hour after ratification was described by executives of the McKesson company as “reasonable.”
Nearly fourteen years of Prohibition may have been bad enough, but yet another day without fine, legal Canadian liquor must have been intolerable.

The news was probably of no note to the owners of “soda bars” throughout the Hydraulics. Dozens of these “soda bars” operated in the neighborhood in former taverns as speakeasies, and likely continued business as usual that night, as they did all over the city… But the fine hotels, restaurants and night clubs of Buffalo appear to have lost out, at least until the evening of December 6th, which must have been some party night!

So next time you’re in Sharkey’s or the Swan Lounge, look out the bar window, raise a jigger of Seagrams, and cheer the Larkin Terminal Warehouse and its role on a day the following became the law: “The eighteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.”

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