Temperance Row Historic District

Here lived the reformers of the Anti-Saloon League of America who led the movement that turned the United States “dry” in 1920 with the 18th Amendment prohibiting the manufacture, sale or transportation of intoxicating liquor. Moving its headquarters to Westerville in 1909, the League built a publishing house that buried the liquor industry in a 10-year avalanche of books, pamphlets and periodicals that helped win Prohibition and made Westerville the “Dry Capital of the World.” Rev. Purley A. Baker (1858-1924), the League’s general superintendent, bought 11 acres and erected his rustic home at Park and Grove streets in 1910. (Continued other side)

[Side B]: (Continued from other side) League founder Howard Hyde Russell (1855-1946) built next door, a house later owned by Ernest H. Cherrington (1877-1950), general manager and chief of publications. These and four more houses along Grove Street were dubbed “Temperance Row.” The assemblage of mostly Craftsman-style houses grew during the 1910s into a park-like enclave of 27 homes and a row house built or occupied by League leaders and workers. Prohibition ended in 1933 with repeal of the 18th Amendment. Temperance Row is listed on the National Register of Historic Places for its national, state and local significance.