The Rise of Hospitality Culture in Columbia
Transformation through Transportation: From Tavern to Hotel
The first half of the 19th century was the era of Columbia taverns. The westward expansion after 1815 brought travelers along the Boon’s Lick trail, and from 1825 to 1835, Boone and neighboring counties drew travelers participating in the Santa Fe trade. Taverns were originally established along trails rather than in towns and they only offered the bare essentials for a traveler’s stay. These taverns played a very important role in the pioneer age of Boone County. The taverns on the trails were established about a day’s journey apart and towns grew up around them.
In 1821, Columbia was chosen as the county seat, and Richard Gentry moved his tavern to Columbia from Smithton. It was sold to Samuel Wall in 1831. Wall’s Tavern, as well as Gentry’s tavern, established in 1832, were the center of activity in town. Bells were rung at meal times to call in the traveling lawyers, politicians, and pioneer preachers. North Todd Gentry recounted how “Mrs. Ann E. Campbell wrote a Christmas letter to the Columbia Missouri Herald, in which she told of being in Samuel Wall’s tavern, on Broadway, the night of the Meteoric shower, popularly spoken of as the ‘night the stars fell,’ in November 1833; and how earnestly the slaves in the tavern prayed, for they and a good many white people believed that the world was coming to the end…” Slaves provided labor for cooking meals and entertaining tavern guests during this period.
In the golden age of the old tavern, there were no local prohibition laws, and liquor sales were a major source of income for taverns. As local option laws occasionally popped up throughout the late 19th and early 20th century, giving the liquor business a bad image, tavern prosperity was interrupted.
According to John Crighton’s A History of Columbia and Boone County, “the development of transcontinental railway system, which bypassed Columbia, the freeing of the blacks, and the depletion of the wild game resources of the West, were factors in bringing about the decline of the old tavern.”
The rise of hotels came after the Civil War. The railway connection with the North Missouri Railroad system was completed in 1867, making travel to Columbia easier than ever. Columbia had a large transient population including visitors for commencement at the universities and state conferences or meetings, families who moved temporarily for the public schools or universities, and professors who preferred to rent. The major shortage of rental properties around the turn of the 20th century led to the establishment of several boarding houses and small hotels, including especially the Powers, Gordon, and Athens hotels. These were all centrally located in Columbia’s downtown, near the universities and the Wabash train station.
When the Daniel Boone Tavern was completed in 1917, it was said in the Missourian that “as a hotel city, Columbia entered the big-city class.” The building far exceeded the town’s expectations, and provided modern accommodations near the sites of the old taverns and the old Boon’s Lick trail.
 The Powers Hotel |  The Gordon Hotel |  The Athens Hotel |
|---|---|---|
 The Daniel Boone Tavern |  The Daniel Boone Tavern |  Booche's Billiard Hall1911 Savitar |
 Booche's Billiard Hall1903 Savitar |
Prohibition in Columbia
Prohibition in Columbia began with a vote for the local option: a controversial vote that was the largest in Columbia history at the time. The vote passed on February 5, 1908 with the “drys” succeeding in outvoting the “wets”. The local newspaper, The Columbia Daily Tribune, had conflicting reports until the final votes were tallied and Columbia was declared a local option city. The saloons had closed the month before, leaving a lot of their patrons high and dry.
Campaigning for the local option, the legal and government action that must occur to allow Columbia to go dry, took place with much vigor before the vote. The Women’s Temperance Christian Union (WCTU) sent out speakers, as well as other interested parties. Mayor Clinkscales was anti-prohibition at the time and frequently spoke out against it. Several meetings were held to secure the vote of Columbia African-Americans, and the women were invited to pray for local option with the other women of Columbia.
National prohibition, the 18th Amendment, was passed in January of 1920 and barely changed a thing in Columbia. At that time, the newspapers were more concerned with foreign events involving the Soviet Union and Japan.
Judging from the police records, prohibition did not curb anybody’s drinking, and instances of unlawful drinking stayed about the same from the 1908 local option vote all the way until 1933 when prohibition was repealed. The only additional arrests were for possession or transportation of alcohol.
No sign of an underground speakeasy network was evident, albeit there is some evidence of whiskey prescription fraud. A much bigger concern for Columbia was the growing incidence of automobile infractions, and large scale gambling busts. The people of Columbia in the 1920’s seem to have enjoyed shooting craps.
The repeal of prohibition with the 21st Amendment also seemed to have been not a great concern of the people of Columbia. There was very little action against it, although Mayor Clinkscales did warn that the sale of liquor in hotels and cafes would lead to university students getting high on cracked ice. The town instead seemed supportive of the extra revenue that the sale of intoxicating liquors would bring, being deep in the Great Depression.
Sources on this page include:
The Columbia Daily Tribune 28 Jan. 1908. Front page. Sec. Print. The Columbia Daily Tribune 5 Feb. 1908. Front page. Sec. Print. The Columbia Daily Tribune 16 Jan. 1920. Front page. Sec. Print. The Columbia Daily Tribune 30 Oct. 1933. Front page. Sec. Print. The Columbia Daily Tribune 5 Dec. 1933. Front page. Sec. Print Columbia, Missouri police court dockets. Jan. 1908-Jan. 1934.