Thirsty? Just Whistle: 1923

The Volstead Act passed in October 1919 (over Woodrow Wilson's veto). However, DC went dry in 1917 due to the Sheppard Act, three years before the 19th amendment went into affect.

http://www.rustycans.com/HISTORY/prohibition.html#top

Fantastic photo! This is a portion of the old Jueneman Brewery - a few blocks from where I live.

The Brewery complex took up an entire block in northeast Washington bounded by 4th, 5th, E and F streets. George W. Juenemann started his brewery business in 1858. After George passed away in 1884, his wife Barbara ran the brewery for a few years before selling to Albert Carry in 1886. Carry in turn sold the brewery to the Washington Brewery Company in 1890 and started his own brewery in southeast Washington. The Washington Brewery Company brewed beer until the the Volstead Act was passed in 1917. In addition to brewing, the complex included a beer garden for many years. This photo seems to be looking south across F street just east of 4th.

The large tower of the Brewery is visible with the mournful sign "This Property for Sale". In 1925 the brewery complex was completed razed. In its place was built the Stuart Junior High School, now the Stuart-Hobson Middle School. Whistle Bottling works relocated to much smaller facilities on North Capitol Street.

I've become accustomed to the periods in vintage signage, but the closed quotation mark after Farber's is puzzling. And I'm not sure if that's a Star of David after the name or if it is a German logo used by brewing guilds, as a previous commenter to Shorpy indicated. Perhaps Farber also operated a brewery?

The "ghosts" in the upper windows are also a mystery, although the ones on the left side must be a character logo used for the soda, a policeman with--you guessed it--a whistle.

The resident ghosts may be seen in the upper windows of the works...

...as you drive that solid-tired truck down the cobblestone road with all those soda bottles in the back to rattle around. Not good for the carbonation, either.

With help from inventors.about.com:

In St. Louis in 1919, Charles Grigg invented and marketed his first soft drink, an orange flavored beverage called Whistle. After a dispute with management he moved on to invent another orange drink, but still couldn't compete well with Orange Crush. He then toyed with lemon-lime flavor and in 1929 formulated "Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Soda." The name was quickly changed to "7-Up."

[Fascinating! Thanks. Some more Whistle tidbits in the comments here. - Dave]