01/16/2026
On this day in 1919, Prohibition was ratified by the states, officially going into effect one year and one day later, on January 17, 1920, and lasting 13 years. But that didn't stop the new Biltmore Club from offering the most exclusive gambling, dining, dancing, and drinking establishment, opening its doors in 1929.
As reported by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Sunday, September 1, 1929, page 3), "With all the glitter of a Hollywood premiere, the Biltmore Country Club, on Gravois road south of Fenton, celebrated its opening last night. From the ornamental iron gates which barred the entrance, 600 feet up a steep slope to the rambling frame clubhouse, no swimming pool or golf course was visible, although the whole ten-acre tract was bathed in a glow of floodlights. The reason was that it isn't that kind of a country club. Limousines purred up to the gates and stopped. Membership cards were thrust out for the scrutiny of attendants in chauffeurs' attire, and members filed into the reception room of the most elaborate combination night club and gambling establishment around St. Louis."
You can read the entire article under the pictured headline on Newspapers.com through the library's website for free, using your JCL library card.
Images of the invitation to the "Formal Opening of the Biltmore Country Club" from the JCL Genealogy & Local History Room archives, viewable in our digital archives at jeffcolib.catalogaccess.com.
