As I mentioned in the recent series on Mayville Wisconsin brewery caves, off site storage caves are the toughest to research. Breweries are relatively visible, well documented and usually in predictable locations. But what if the brewery had a cave somewhere on the edge of town? There would be nothing on the maps and if you think about it they would not want to advertise that there was a cellar full of beer tucked away out of sight!
Similar to Mayville this story begins with a house for sale. At this point it is probably best that I just turn this over to my friend Gabe, one of my Underworld Contacts. His video is used with permission. Feel free to skip over the parts that don't interest you. Like the $500,000 price tag for the house.
Well. It's hard to know what to make of that. It is clearly in an area of previous stone quarrying. But that's not a deal breaker...where else would you find the geology to build a storage cave? The general configuration and the multiple vents make it difficult to buy this as say, a sand mine. The visible pick work looks 19th century. The water tower and the Plummer House above are 20th century. It is a bit confusing to have the newer pipes running through but that's part of what makes this one interesting.
There were three breweries in Rochester during the 19th century. There is, alas, little to point to one as a prime suspect for this cave. My Google Earth fly through suggests that all three were on flat ground and would be candidates for off site caves. By size alone I should think the Schuster brewery which was around from circa 1857 up to Prohibition would be the best candidate. Alas, none of the maps of 19th century Rochester extend this far out into what looks to have been a dreary industrial area.
Now of course it is quite tony. In fact this neighborhood having once been called Quarry Hill has become in local slang "Pill Hill" as it is where the physicians of Mayo Clinic have built and maintained some very nice houses over the years. I'm out of that world now but there was a time when it was a major status symbol to own a home built by an early Mayo physician. And near the pinnacle of social standing, and of the hill physically, was the Plummer House.
The property with the caves behind it was once the pump house for the Plummer Estate. Dr. Henry Plummer built the house in the style of an English Manor house in 1924. The water tower on the property is said to be earlier, circa 1919. The pump house proper was built a couple of years later in 1926. With the Plummer house being so over the top architecturally it is of course possible that they could have hand excavated a cave just for the heck of it in the mid 1920's, but the otherwise pointless side tunnels make it unlikely that it was simply a place to run pipes. A much smaller service tunnel could have been drilled mechanically and with much less effort in the 20th century. One small detail from the video that caught my eye was an abortive attempt to hand drill a vent. It's something I've seen a time or two - Brownsville for instance - and has always struck me as very labor intensive.
A definitive answer? We might not get one. The enigma of the cave has attracted some attention and I did find a commentary that references information from the local historical society. On the one hand a Plummer daughter opined that her father intended to grow mushrooms but never got around to it. On the other hand the son of a man who helped design the house wrote in a 1980 letter that the cave was pre-existing. I find this more plausible.
A couple of side notes. Gabe is clearly a kindred spirit. His Youtube channel shows a man having a great deal of fun in life. I recommend it as a day brightener.
And I mentioned that the Plummer House was near the pinnacle of Rochester social circles. At the very top of course was Mayowood, an elegant mansion built on 3000 acres by Charles Mayo in 1911. In the Mayoverse this is something akin to the Vatican or the Pantheon. Many years ago in an interesting phase of my career I was actually invited to a private reception at Mayowood. I thought it was OK, they served some very nice wine. I don't recall much else, in fact I found it rather boring. But our friends employed by Mayo Clinic were astonished. My blasé attitude aside a private invite to Mayowood apparently was an honor to which many aspired but few were accorded.
Meh. The wine was good.
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