When we were traveling across the USA with the “Illegal of The day,” posts, I completely forgot about Washington DC.
OH NO, “say it ain’t so, JOE!!”
Surely there could not have been illegal joints within spitting distance of the Capitol dome.
Well maybe a couple.
I guess congressmen had to have some place to spend our money in those days.
Enough of that:
Ritz Hotel
John Croft
1511 Rhode Island Ave NE
Franklin Apt #104K
Washington, DC
1933
Printers Literary Club – 2 different fonts on the PLC.
John W Donald
1305 Eye St NW
Washington, DC
1937
This is one of Allan Meyer’s homemade record cards. Made from an emailed ID.
2nd font:
Below you will see the Printers Literary Club was raided in 1937 and again in 1938. But you can see from the chip order dates it was still operating in 1942.
Here is the real kicker the cops might have left this one alone if not for the angry wives!
Maybe we can get the wives after today’s congress and their wild spending.
John William Donald, died Mt. Rainier, Maryland (suburb of DC) in 1981 age 82.
1306 I St. NW was the address of the club and 4445 13th St. NE was his residential address.
Donald practiced the trade of printing most of his life.
Two raids on the club, over a year apart, both instigated by complaints of players wives (the Herbert Donald mentioned in the articles was John's younger brother):
Washington Post--20jan1937:
Washington Post--9march1938:
Geez, was it right next to the White House?
Map from 1928--looks like the the club probably catered to printers who worked in the area:
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