Speakeasies, bootleggers, and jazz at the West End Museum

Back in the days of Prohibition, there were speakeasies all over Boston…including Beacon Hill and the West End. Emily Sweeney, Boston Globe journalist and author of several nonfiction books, including ‘Boston Organized Crime’ and ‘Gangland Boston,’ notes that a speakeasy known as the “Lighted Lamp” was located in the basement of a building at the corner of Myrtle and Grove streets. On the night of Jan. 22, 1921, explains Sweeney, officers from the Joy Street police station raided the club using sledgehammers to break down the doors. There were more than 50 young people partying there that night. Police found a half dozen empty whiskey bottles, a half-empty bottle of brandy, and took several flappers away in a patrol wagon.

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