The next time you’re in Fell’s Point, Baltimore, stroll by the corner of Shakespeare and South Broadway. Once there, look up directly at the building across the street and see a cool, historical “Vote Against Prohibition” sign from the 1920s.

Though the elements have faded the sign throughout the years, this nearly century-old painted sign is still visible if you know where to look. 

The weathered sign is a relic from an era when Baltimore, and most of Maryland, opted to defy the anti-alcohol laws that blanketed the United States from 1920 to 1933. Government and private citizens had little desire to hop on the booze-less bandwagon. The state opted to defy the new prohibition legislation, and even fought against having to enact a state law that would bar its continents from imbibing.

Alcoholic bootlegging businesses boomed, making Maryland one of the “wettest” states at a time when the rest of the country increasingly ran dry. Baltimore in particular was an epicenter for back alley booze.