Westlake Cache

140 years ago, a handful of women met in Hillsboro, Ohio, to lay the groundwork for the first large-scale organization of women.  Focused on social reform through strict adherence to Christianity and a complete abstinence from alcohol and tobacco, the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) was declared the following year (1874) at a national convention in Cleveland.  By the time prohibition became official, the group had grown to over 300,000 members - a powerful force in favor of the Prohibition movement.  After Prohibition, numbers steadily declined, with an active membership today estimated to be around 5,000.

With a legacy as strong as the WCTU had maintained, it was a bit of a surprise when, in the 1970s, the heirs to the estate of an early member in Cleveland found nearly a dozen cases of unopened pre-Prohibition whiskey and gin  in her basement.  Hoping to avoid embarrassment if news of the cache went public, the heirs turned to her estate attorney for advice.  He quickly pulled together a group of friends to help the family quietly remove the clandestine liquor from the home and “make it disappear.”  

Flash forward to a Westlake estate, in the fall of 2012, when a portion of that liquor resurfaced.  Helping his father vacate their family home of more than 40 years, a son was directed to a hidden storage space in the basement that held his father’s portion of the 1970’s WCTU member’s cache.  With a bit of research, the son quickly discovered that the whiskey and gin, bottled in 1906 from two midwestern distilleries could be a hot commodity in today’s climate of boutique beverages.  In the fall of 2013, the “Westlake Cache” will emerge to the public and be split once again when Garth’s Auctioneers & Appraisers offers the well-aged 107 year old spirits at public auction.  

A portion of The Westlake Cache sold at Garth's First Annual Gentleman's Auction on November 1, 2013.  The collectible bottles labeled "Gin" sold for $150 (gavel) each.  Bottles labeled for "Whiskey" sold for approximately $900 each.