A look back: Bootlegging in Broadview 1916-1933

by William Murray

Longtime Broadview residents share old stories of tunnels leading to secret underground rooms, midnight rendezvous at beaches north of town and houses on Greenwood burnt to the ground. These are the stories of bootlegging days in Broadview during prohibition.  On January 1st 1916 a state law was passed that prohibited sales of alcohol in Washington.  On the very next day Rumrunner boats outfitted with oversized engines and large fuel tanks began making trips from Canada, flying through the dead of night heavily loaded with cases of whiskey. The distance between Canadian gulf islands and northern puget sound beaches is roughly 60 nautical miles and was covered in a little over an hour, in good weather, by the rumrunners.

 “Lazy-S” [a 28’ Baby Gar] was used to illegally smuggle liquor down the Pacific Coast from Canada. Powered by a big 1414 Cubic Inch 300 HP V-12 Kermath Sea-Raider engine and 310 gallon fuel capacity which made her fast and hard to catch in 1928. “Lazy-S” is fully restored and still cruises the waters of Puget Sound

 Broadview’s bootlegging past has been documented in the Broadview/Bitterlake Community history.  Several bootleggers reputedly lived along Greenwood Avenue north of 130th street. The rumrunners’ boats ran from Canada to the Highlands area north of Seattle, from which point the ‘loot’ was surreptitiously trekked through Broadview woods. One local house, rented by bootleggers burned down when a basement still blew up. When prohibition ended in 1933, a Greenwood Avenue bootlegger, Mr Melby, opened Melby’s tavern near Echo Lake.

  Melby’s tavern is still in business today above Echo Lake as Woody’s tavern.

Bootlegging was big business during the height of national Prohibition, a well-organized operation working at times in Broadview was delivering 200 cases of Canadian liquor to Seattle every day, and grossing $200,000 a month. Today’s craft cocktail movement owes some of its cachet to Prohibition era bartenders who learned to make libations from homemade alcohol.