The Ghosts of Walter's Brewery - Eau Claire Wisconsin

While getting ready for an upcoming talk on local breweries I happened to drive past the site of one.  And I noticed a few things I had not seen before.  First a bit of history.

The Walter's Brewery was Eau Claire's last survivor from the 19th century, finally going under for good in 1985.  But John Walter was hardly a pioneer brewer only coming to town in 1889.  He bought a brewery on the corner of Hobart and Elm street, one that had been established in 1875.  It had gone through the usual dizzying array of owners and destructive fires.  

After Walter took over the brewery part of it burned again in 1892, but in general it was a prosperous operation that expanded into a rather large establishment.

Here is a photo, probably from the 1890s, showing the employees of the brewery.  Like many such it has the men holding the various implements of their trade.  The cooper wields a hammer, the guy with the rake worked in the malting operation, I'm pretty sure the fellow holding the glass up and studying it is the brew master.  It must be John Walter holding the Big Mug.  Love those advertising signs by the way, they'd be worth good money today.

This shows the brewery at a later date.  Since the new bottling house seen below is not present I'd place this at before 1913.  The perspective is from the hill side to the east of the brewery.  This advertising tray from the 1930's gives the same view.  The brick bottling house is to the right.

The main building is long gone and now just a parking lot.  But the three story building seen on the left in the above images.  Hmmmm, lets take a closer look.

It looks to me as if this newer building housing a sheet metal company is built on top of an old foundation.  

Seen close up this is pretty rough, crude masonry.  I don't think this is from the Walter's era but from the earlier 1870's brewery that stood on the same site.

Below is the "Bottlery", this appears to be the only building that survives from the brewery.

Unless.....this is across the street and rather looks like an office.  I've read that it was a saloon with apartments.  If the latter it may have had some connection with the brewery.  Or maybe it was just made at the same time.

Of course given my interest in brewery caves I had to look about a bit.  There is a substantial hill across the street from the brewery site.  And down a little alley I see this...

Just a little one car garage but oddly built into the hill side.  Could this be a conversion of a previous cave ante chamber?  The structure looks too new...but is in such an odd location.  Some warm summer day I'll stroll by, find the owners amiably sitting out front, strike up a conversation and learn more.

(Or maybe not, there is some reason to believe that this brewery had an above ground ice house fairly early on).