GROVE CITY -- This staid, conservative Mercer County community has a long history of temperance. Ninety years ago, it even put forth a gubernatorial candidate on the Prohibition Party ticket.

Home to Grove City College, which boasts of its "commitment to Christian truth" and the "ethical absolutes of the Ten Commandments," the borough moved quickly in 1933 to outlaw liquor when it became clear that Prohibition was about to end. A borough ordinance called alcohol "noxious" and "offensive."

But 12 days ago, an 81-vote majority of some 1,500 Grove City voters turned the town from dry to wet. The favorable vote came at the same time that voters rejected liquor referendums in the nearby towns of Harrisville, Butler County, and New Wilmington, Lawrence County, home to a large Amish community.

The Grove City vote was one of 13 out of 18 local liquor referendums statewide approved by voters. Not all were as sweeping as Grove City's, which asked voters to indicate, yea or nay, whether they wanted liquor in their town. Some, such as the one approved in Greene Township, Mercer County, were more limited, asking voters to decide whether to permit liquor to be served at a privately owned golf course and clubs operated for veterans.

With the results of the recent primary election, Pennsylvania's dry towns have been reduced to 677, seven of them in Allegheny County. A handful of counties have no dry towns at all. Bucks and Sullivan counties have one dry town each. Huntingdon County has the most with 34.

Grove City will get two liquor licenses, based on its population of just more than 8,000. The sale of the licenses, which have to be approved by the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board, are expected to cost $40,000 to $60,000 apiece.

The Grove City referendum was opposed by the administration of Grove City College, the campus of which abuts the downtown. In the week before the election, Dr. Richard Jewell, Grove City's president, wrote an opinion piece in the local newspaper expressing concern about the impact alcohol sales would have on the college's students and others in the community.

"Be careful what you wish for," Dr. Jewell wrote.

He declined to discuss the referendum after the May 15 primary election, but issued the following statement:

"This issue was debated fully and fairly in the Borough of Grove City and was a close vote, which is telling that the alcohol referendum was weighed in by many residents. In the final analysis, it is the voters who decide courses of action. And they have spoken."

In truth, like many municipalities in the state that are labeled "dry," Grove City has not been truly dry for quite some time.

"The joke has always been that Grove City is the wettest dry town there is," said Todd Wood, 42, a lifelong resident and former councilman.

There are many nuances in state liquor law that can limit alcohol sales. Some municipalities limit liquor sales to private clubs, to clubs on golf courses or to beer distributors or liquor stores. And, of course, some prohibit alcohol sales altogether.

Twelve years ago, Grove City voters approved a referendum that allowed alcohol to be served in clubs operated by national veterans organizations. The Grove City branches of the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars have served beer and liquor to their members ever since.

A beer distributor has operated for decades on the western edge of town near Grove City Area High School.

Mr. Wood supported the referendum, but he said he was not convinced it would pass, because of the town's history of temperance and its elderly population.

"I've lived in this town for 42 years and I know a lot of people and I was very surprised," he said.

But even Mr. Woods' elderly mother, who is a deacon in her church, voted for the measure, he said.

An examination of the vote in Grove City reveals the referendum lost in two of the town's five wards, but won by a nearly 2-1 margin in the affluent 4th Ward. Not coincidentally, the 4th Ward is home to Steve and Mindy Steigerwald, the local couple who spearheaded the referendum effort.

The Steigerwalds own a kitchen and bath store on two acres in downtown Grove City and have been involved in a $2.6 million downtown revitalization and modernization effort called Streetscape, funded by a combination of state and federal grants.

The issue of alcohol sales has been discussed in Grove City for years, with some business people coming to the conclusion that for the downtown to make a comeback, alcohol would have to be part of the formula. The ideal solution was to use the alcohol referendum, if successful, to attract a high-end restaurant, Mr. Steigerwald said.

Mindy Steigerwald's late father, Gale Christy, operated a restaurant downtown for several years, but sold the establishment and bought another restaurant outside the borough that had a liquor license because of the borough's restrictions.

"If we expect to get a decent restaurant, we have to get a liquor license," Steve Steigerwald said.

Facing a deadline to get the referendum on the ballot, Mr. Steigerwald and others circulated a petition in February and collected 811 signatures in a week and a half. The couple helped form a group, called Grove City Citizens for Economic Advancement, to push the referendum.

"We just believed it was time," Mindy Steigerwald said. "It has been talked about ad nauseum for years."

Though Grove City College opposed the referendum, there was no coordinated opposition in the three months before the primary. Ministers took to the local community cable channel to ask people to keep the town dry, but the borough council and its mayor, Randy Riddle, remained neutral on the issue.

"I honestly believe that the community needed to decide and vote as a whole on which way they wanted to go on this," Mr. Riddle said.

The Steigerwalds and other advocates of the liquor measure went door-to-door to gain support. By the time of the primary election, they were confident the referendum would pass.

"People who wanted it remained silent and did their talking in the voting booth," Mindy Steigerwald said.

Now that liquor can flow in Grove City, trying to attract a fashionable restaurant to the downtown business district is a top priority for business owners, Steve Steigerwald said.

"We want to jump on this right away," he said. "Whether we'll be able to seal the deal, time will tell."

Meanwhile, the borough council will begin to grapple with local ordinances to try to control liquor sales. What the town does not want is a corner bar-type establishment, Mr. Riddle said. But he acknowledged that state law limits a municipality's right to regulate liquor outlets.

"Grove City really wouldn't like a bar, but we only have so much control of that," he said. State liquor regulations permit the state Liquor Control Board to deny a liquor license if the business is within 300 feet of churches, hospitals, schools and playgrounds, but the decision is at the board's discretion, board spokesman Nick Hays said.

Council has had two workshops thus far to examine issues that include hours of operation and the percentage of food sales versus liquor sales in an alcohol establishment, Mr. Riddle said.