The Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) held its state convention in Boulder in August 1881 under the leadership of Mrs. Adrianna Hungerford. As a result, 30 Boulder women concerned about alcohol use started the Boulder chapter amidst the local and national pushes for sobriety. In only a month, its membership quadrupled to 139 ladies and the WCTU gained enough power to successfully raise the price of liquor licenses to $1,000 a year in 1888. Consequently, many bars across Boulder had to close to avoid bankruptcy.
Members of the WCTU believed ending drinking could also rid society of all vice and this sentiment was echoed by many other citizens as well. The formation of the Better Boulder Party (BBP) stemmed from the WCTU around 1900 and served to unite temperance and prohibitionist groups. In addition to being antiliquor, the BBP were also against antigraft, against the use of chlorine in the city's drinking water, for strong Sabbath laws, and, incongruously, for municipal ownership of utilities.
The Women’s Christian Temperance Union won its fight when Boulder citizens voted to close the City’s saloons in 1907. Statewide alcohol Prohibition took effect in 1916 and national Prohibition followed close behind in 1920. Boulder finally lifted its ban in 1967 and became a ‘wet’ city again.
References: A Look at Boulder by Phyllis Smith, Boulder County: An Illustrated History by Thomas J. Noel & Dan Corson and the Carnegie Branch Library for Local History.
