In 1919, Congress ratified the 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution, enabling national Prohibition to begin the following year. During Prohibition, most manufacture, sale, and transport of alcoholic beverages was illegal. Many people kept private stocks of alcohol, and large quantities were smuggled to satisfy consumer demand. Prohibition remained in effect until Congress repealed the 18th Amendment in 1933.
Charles Deering’s Prohibition Wine Cellar
A connoisseur of art, antiques and fine liquor, Charles Deering included a large Prohibition wine cellar in the design of the Stone House, constructed in 1922. The entrance to the wine cellar was secured with a three-ton bank vault door and hidden behind shelving that swung away from the wall.
Charles Deering’s heirs reported that the vault’s outer door jammed shut during a 1945 hurricane, and the combination was lost. The wine cellar remained sealed for forty years. It was reopened in the summer of 1985 as part of the purchase agreement negotiated by the State of Florida and Metropolitan Dade County. Rocky McGiboney was retained by an attorney to do the job.
Rocky McGiboney, The Safe Cracker
Mr. McGiboney has written a book entitled The International Safe Cracker, scheduled to be released in December 2011. In preparation for the publication of his life story, he returned to the Deering Estate at Cutler to share details surrounding the opening of the wine cellar. Mr. McGiboney will also be featured on Wednesday, February 22, 2012 at the “Icon of a Moment” program during the Deering Estate at Cutler’s SoBay Festival of the Arts.
Early on a Wednesday morning more than twenty-five years ago, McGiboney and his assistant, Jose Carminate, met the Estate’s caretaker at the main gate and were driven to the Stone House. Once inside, they descended a narrow staircase tucked away in the corner of a small staff room. At the bottom, illuminated by a single light bulb, the vault waited.
“It was a work of art,” said McGiboney of the nickel-plated outer door. He described the black crane hinge and intricate scrollwork decorating the outside. When he tried the dial, it still moved but was very stiff. McGiboney spent the first day turning the dial…spraying it with oil…loosening it to feel for the tumblers.
McGiboney said “All I kept thinking was: If I don’t get this door open soon, it’s going to ruin my whole weekend. It was really hard to concentrate with all the mosquitoes. We used a lot of bug spray.”
He was sure of the first number on Thursday morning, and by that afternoon, he had the entire combination. On Friday, he unlocked the safe, turned the submarine-style pressure wheel, and pulled down on the handle. The door was unlocked but would not open.
Mr. Carminate brought in a Come Along winch to slowly pull open the outer door. McGiboney picked the lock on the Day Gate, pulled the key lock on the inner plate doors and opened the vault, revealing for the first time in decades a roomful of wooden wine racks filled with thousands of carefully arranged wine and spirits bottles. Some of the shelving, particularly the lower portions, had collapsed, but most were still intact. A survey team working for archaeologist Robert Carr later counted approximately 4,500 bottles in the collection.
Although the Estate opened as a park in 1985, the wine cellar was initially off limits to the public. The original stairs offered only one means of fire egress, and the discovery of mold, lead and asbestos kept the historic houses closed until those materials could be safely removed. Sadly, during the abatement, a clean up crew used wire brushes to scour the labels from all the bottles.
On August 24, 1992, Hurricane Andrew’s storm surge completely flooded the cellar, ruining original shelving and contaminating any remaining liquor with salt water and sediment. During restoration efforts, bottles were removed, and the cellar was modified for public access. The vault door was primed and painted to protect against corrosion (it was designed to fit into the frame with such precision that the paint now prevents it from closing). A new staircase and second egress were added, and modern wine racks with fold-away tasting tables were installed to display a representative selection of the different original bottles.
Today, the cleverly hidden vault is the highlight of Historic House Tours, conducted twice daily by the Estate’s Education and Interpretive Staff. Visitors smile in amazement as Charles Deering’s wine cellar yields its secrets – its door forever unsealed.