From 1864 to some time in the 1880s, it was used to age beer. Its use is unclear then until a reported stint as a cave for growing mushrooms, celery and cabbage beginning in 1908. As we saw last time, it was used to store illicit hootch during Prohibition.
At some point after that it was leased by a floral company and used to "force" bulbs to start in the winter months. They built a modern building that now covers the entrance to the cave. It has in recent years been used for storage, or not used at all.
Lets have a look at a few Post Beer Cave modifications....
It has electric light. When I visited that was light, singular! I was able to get some decent flash photos of details but dim light and a surprising mist that formed from our breath made distance shots spooky. Note the series of wooden shelves left over from the floral business days.
Its hard to say exactly when electric lights were added. I have seen evidence of a system in a cave that I can confirm was put out of commision in the mid 1880s when the associated brewery burned down. But I think the wiring I saw in place here was newer, probably from a 1940's refurb.
I have always wondered what brewery caves did for light before or instead of electricity. Probably they had lanterns. This neat little feature is a chiseled niche with soot rising up from it. But not from an early use of the cave. This is from a candle that was part of a "spook house" use associated with one of LaCrosse's early Oktober Fests!
Here you can see the carved wall of the cave, the original front of stone, and the back wall of the modern building. I think that when the modern building was attached that a front "ante chamber" was destroyed. It was pretty common for both security and temperature control reasons to have a front room to a cave. You sure did not want to have torrid mid summer hot air streaming into your cave every time you opened the door. A picture I saw that showed the construction of the modern building had a large pile of rubble and what I think are the remains of side walls projecting out from the cliff face.
Said to be the original creosote coated timber over the door way. But perhaps from more recent work. The insulators for the wiring are probably 1950s or even later.
Another addition associated with later use. A water faucet. Overall this cave was surprisingly dry despite the unusual feature of a floor that slopes downwards from the front of the cave to the back. The temperature is said to hold in the low 50's year round. One wonders if this cave used ice at all? If it did, how did the melted water get out? The floor is now gravel so there might be a drain system buried under it.
There was one other feature of this cave that was so peculiar I decided it warrented its own post. Come back Friday and help me figure it out!
1 comment:
Excited to see another installment of brewery cave exploration.
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