Hempstead Town ended WWI by revoking prohibition imposed for troops

As the nation commemorated the end of World War I a century ago, the Town of Hempstead was also focused on ending its first foray into prohibition.

The 1918 Town Board instituted prohibition for four months near the end of the war as the local population boomed with the convergence of soldiers at Camp Mills in Garden City and other military camps preparing to leave New York for the battlefields of Europe.

The Town Board held a special meeting in June 1918 to suspend liquor licenses and ban the sale of alcohol at the military’s request “to maintain proper efficiency at the camp,” according to board minutes from the time.

The resolution was repealed by the town four months later as the war was nearing its end.

“There were so many military personnel and the town had an interest in curtailing the use of alcohol,” said Molloy College Professor Paul van Wie, who serves on the Hempstead Landmarks Commission. “There was an issue of behavior because you had a critical mass of so many people to keep order and this was used to try to stem bootlegging.”

Military sites such as Camp Mills were one of the first great waves toward suburbanization and boosting Long Island’s economy, van Wie said. Hempstead’s population surged from 44,000 in 1910 to 186,000 by 1930.

Current Hempstead Town officials and veterans’ groups marked the anniversary of Armistice Day with a series of tributes, including Supervisor Laura Gillen unveiling a plaque and a poppy garden at Town Hall.

"In many regards, the war put the Town of Hempstead on the map,” Gillen said. “The Hempstead plains would be transformed into the largest and most active training center for American forces anywhere in this country.”

The Camp Mills memorial reads, “We pay tribute to the millions of brave service members who mobilized, trained and departed from the Town of Hempstead to the fields of Europe during WWI. Our histories are forever linked.”

Veterans of the 42nd U.S. Infantry Rainbow Division laid a wreath at a Camp Mills monument in Garden City last week  to recognize the Rainbow Division troops that gathered at the camp during the war.

The 1918 ban on alcohol was also prompted by the nation’s conservation of wheat and grain to send to Europe to feed troops during the war, van Wie said. The 18th amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibiting the manufacture, sale or transportation of alcohol nationally was passed three months later in January 1919. But bootlegging flourished.

“If it was left to New York, we would have never had prohibition,” van Wie said. “During wartime, it was considered a necessary measure. On Long Island and in Hempstead, taverns were a part of life out here.”

By John Asbury

john.asbury@newsday.comJohnAsbury

John Asbury is a breaking news and general assignment reporter. He has been with Newsday since 2014 and previously worked at The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, California.