Riley's Tavern
New Braunfels, Comal County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Rileys Tavern, Hunters oldest business, is housed in a circa 1895 building that was the Galloway Saloon and later home to the Bernardino Sanchez family. In 1933, Texas was the 23rd state to vote for the repeal of Prohibition. Shortly thereafter, J.C. Riley and his uncle drove a Model T to the steps of the state capitol in Austin to obtain the first license issued in Texas number 00001. At the stroke of midnight on Sep. 14, 1933, 3.2% beer could be sold and Comal County had sufficient stock available to meet the demand. Riley operated the business until his death in 1992. His tavern, midway between Austin and San Antonio, has been a popular destination for decades of travelers, with many from neighboring dry counties. (2013)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Set in a circa-1895 building that began as the Galloway Saloon, Riley's Tavern claims to be Hunter's oldest business. When Texas voted to repeal Prohibition in 1933, J.C. Riley and his uncle drove a Model T to the state capitol to grab Texas liquor license number 00001, and at the stroke of midnight on September 14 the beer began to flow. Midway between Austin and San Antonio, the tavern drew travelers—and thirsty patrons from surrounding dry counties—for decades under Riley's hand until his death in 1992.
Why it matters
It marks the end of Prohibition in Texas at a single, still-standing tavern, a small window onto how the nation's grand experiment with alcohol quietly closed at the local level.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
Riley's Tavern belongs to one of the strangest chapters in American life: the years when the entire country tried to swear off alcohol by law. National Prohibition, in force through the 1920s and into the early 1930s, banned the manufacture and sale of most alcoholic drinks. It was called the "noble experiment," and by the time it neared its end, plenty of Americans had decided it was neither noble nor working.
The setting itself is older than that fight. The building dates to around 1895, when it opened as the Galloway Saloon — later a family home — in the little community of Hunter, in Comal County. This is Central Texas Hill Country, roughly midway between Austin and San Antonio, and even in the saloon's earliest days the spot sat on a natural line of travel between the two growing cities.
By 1933 the national mood had shifted decisively. The Great Depression had made the lost tax revenue from legal liquor look foolish, and enforcement had bred more crime than sobriety. State by state, the country moved to repeal Prohibition — and Texas, as it turned out, was ready to make its choice count in a very memorable way.
People & events
The hero of this marker is J.C. Riley, and his moment came the instant Texas voted to end Prohibition. Texas was the twenty-third state to vote for repeal in 1933, and Riley clearly did not intend to waste a second of the opportunity. He and his uncle climbed into a Model T and drove to the steps of the state capitol in Austin to secure a license to sell — and not just any license, but the very first one issued in Texas: number 00001.
Then came the clock-watching. At the stroke of midnight on September 14, 1933, the sale of 3.2 percent beer became legal, and — as the marker proudly notes — Comal County had laid in enough stock to meet the demand. You can almost hear it: the county ready and waiting, the taps prepared, the first legal beer in years poured the moment the law allowed. It was a small-town celebration of a nationwide relief.
Riley did not treat this as a one-night stunt. He ran the tavern for the rest of his life, keeping it going until his death in 1992 — nearly six decades behind the bar. In doing so he turned a single dramatic night into an institution, a place whose identity was permanently stamped by being first out of the gate when the drought finally broke.
Its place in the American story
Prohibition is usually told as a national story — Congress, constitutional amendments, gangsters, and speakeasies. But it ended, as it began, one community at a time, and Riley's Tavern lets you see that local reality up close. License number 00001 is a piece of Texas history you can point to: the paperwork moment when a state rejoined the legal drinking world, captured at a single still-standing building.
The detail about patrons arriving from neighboring dry counties opens a window onto something that outlasted Prohibition itself. When national Prohibition ended, the power to allow or ban alcohol dropped down to states and localities, and much of the country — Texas very much included — became a patchwork of "wet" and "dry" jurisdictions. A tavern sitting in a wet county could draw thirsty travelers from dry counties all around, and many did for decades. That patchwork is a distinctly American compromise, and this place lived it.
There is a broader lesson in the tavern's endurance, too. The "noble experiment" is often remembered as the story of a law that failed; Riley's Tavern is the story of what came after — ordinary life resuming, a business reopening, a road between two cities carrying travelers who wanted a cold drink and a place to stop. Sometimes the most telling monument to a grand national experiment is the modest establishment that simply outlasted it.
If you visit
Look first at the building itself, because its age is part of the point. This is a structure from around 1895 that began as a saloon, became a family home, and returned to serving drinks — the kind of place where you can feel more than a century of Central Texas life soaked into the walls. Take a moment to think about everything those walls have seen, from horse-and-buggy days to the night the beer legally flowed again.
The location tells its own story. Set roughly halfway between Austin and San Antonio, this was a natural waypoint for travelers long before interstates, and the marker's mention of visitors from dry counties reminds you that people once made a real trip to reach a legal drink. Standing here, you're standing on an old line of travel and an old line between "wet" and "dry" Texas.
It makes a wonderful, offbeat stop on a Hill Country road trip — a chance to toast the end of Prohibition at what claims to be the very spot where Texas restarted the tap. Come for the history and the atmosphere, let the story of license 00001 sink in, and enjoy the rare pleasure of a historic marker attached to a place that has been welcoming travelers, in one form or another, for well over a hundred years.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · J.C. Riley
Related events
- · Repeal of Prohibition (1933)
Themes & tags
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