You'll never guess what historical gem is hiding in the basement of the Belle Isle Aquarium

CBC

30-01-2025

While the historic Belle Isle Aquarium is known for its beautiful freshwater fish, and for being the oldest aquarium in the United States, there's a hidden gem tucked away in the building's basement that is sure to delight history buffs: a speakeasy from the 1920s.
Decades later, the original bar still stands.
It's a "weird little piece of Detroit history," explained Summer Ritner, the director of the aquarium.
During the Prohibition era, when alcohol was illegal in the United States, Belle Isle was "the perfect spot" for booze smuggling into the United States, from Windsor.
"Bad influences over there, I guess," Ritner joked.
Windsor's Marty Gervais, the author of The Rumrunners, explained that 80 per cent of all the liquor and booze that went into the United States during prohibition came through Windsor.
"All along the riverfront, we had I think 26 breweries that were running. Now, why do you think they would be on the riverfront? Because they were close to the United States," he said.
While he had never heard of the speakeasy underneath the Belle Isle Aquarium before, he wasn't surprised, given that bootleggers would often stash liquor on the island.
'Interesting piece of the building's history'
The original bar in the aquarium's basement was concrete, and that concrete remains. A few years ago staff added a wooden top and wooden panels along the sides to make it "more esthetically pleasing" but you can still see the concrete peaking through.
It sat unused for decades, but in 2019, the team at the aquarium decided to revive the space for their annual staff party at the time. And since then, it has been used for volunteer appreciation events and occasionally it gets rented out for private events. There have also been times when they have incorporated it as a feature to their aquarium events so that the public can also have a chance to experience it.
"We make sure that she's taken care of," Ritner said, crediting Belle Isle Conservancy volunteers for leading the preservation effort.
She says they "love this space and really saw this is such a great asset and such an interesting piece of the building's history — history that needed to be preserved."
The space is decorated with antiques, old liquor bottles, and glassware. Hanging on the wall is a list of House rules, playfully imagined and written by a volunteer.
The first rule? "Check all your weapons with the doorman."
The last rule? "We never saw you, you never saw us, that's how we like it, that's how it's stayin."
The goal it to keep its original intent in tact, Ritner explained: a bar in a working space. The bar is surrounded by boxes and work equipment like fish nets.
"It's a real authentic speakeasy. So there's, you know, there's dirt on the floors, there's people working in here," she said.
"So we're trying to also preserve that kind of cultural aspect of what a speakeasy is, which is not, you know, always beautiful and luxurious.... It's a little bit rough."
When can the public see it?
According to the folklore surrounding the Belle Isle Speakeasy, the big wigs of the time would gather in the Aquarium's basement.
"As well as yes, some of the more organized crime folks, I imagine have also maybe sat here and, you know, sipped away at whatever, maybe, Canadian Club whiskey, I guess!" Ritner said with a laugh.
She added that the old police station in the Isle also is said to have played a role in the whole operation at the time.
"The myth goes that police officers were probably somewhere intertwined in the success of this program, considering the fact that they were just right down the street, and this seems to have been a pretty good stronghold during the Prohibition era," Ritner said.
Gervais agreed that police at the time "made a lot of money just looking the other way."
As for whether the Aquarium might be holding an event soon that would allow the public to visit the Speakeasy in the basement?
"Not yet. But stay tuned," Ritner said.