Voters in Collingswood, New Jersey, a Camden County borough just outside Philadelphia, chose on Nov. 3 to lift a ban on alcohol sales that had stood in some form for more than 150 years.
The ballot measure asked whether “the retail sale of all kinds of alcoholic beverages, for consumption on the licensed premises by the glass or other open receptacle” should be permitted in the municipality. According to election data obtained by Fox News Digital from Camden County, 3,635 residents voted yes and 2,381 voted no, a roughly 60.4% to 39.6% result and a margin of 1,254 votes. All 12 precincts reported, with 6,016 total votes cast on the question.
Collingswood’s dry history stretches back to 1873, when residents — then part of Haddon Township — first voted to ban alcohol sales, according to a 2019 environmental resource inventory published by the Borough of Collingswood. The town stayed dry even after national Prohibition ended. In 1935, residents rejected a measure to allow retail alcohol sales and liquor licenses by a lopsided 3,859 to 774, per a New Jersey Alcoholic Beverage Control bulletin from that year.
Collingswood Deputy Mayor Amy Henderson Riley celebrated this year’s outcome in a social media post, calling it “historic.”
“After 91 years, Collingswood is no longer a dry town,” Riley wrote, referring to the 1935 vote. “That’s historic.”
The decision had been debated for weeks beforehand on a South Jersey-themed Reddit forum, where residents split over whether ending the ban would help or hurt the borough’s reputation as a dining destination. “Collingswood is an epicenter of food in South Jersey and deserves a liquor license,” one user argued, while another called the ban “dumb,” saying “people are scared of change.”
Others pushed back, crediting the dry status with forcing restaurants to compete on food quality rather than liquor licenses. “Restaurants succeed or fail based on the quality of their food and not their ability to finance a license,” one person wrote. A different commenter said simply, “I like the whole BYOB vibe. I’d rather spend my money on good food.”
The repeal arrives as other century-old federal restrictions on alcohol face renewed scrutiny. The U.S. Supreme Court recently agreed to review a federal ban, dating to 1868, on distilling spirits at home — a law that currently prohibits Americans from making whiskey or other spirits for personal consumption.
Add comment