Brewery Ghost Eau Claire

Like pretty much any city in Wisconsin Eau Claire had an active brewing industry in the 19th century.  There were four good sized breweries and a number of smaller players.  Surprisingly, given the substantial nature of brewery buildings, there are virtually no physical remains in 2021.  In fact, until recently I'd have said none.  But then some stucco started peeling off a non descript building at the corner of Elm and Hobart....

Like the old song says, "there's something happenin' here".

This was a rough stone foundation, presumably once supporting something much bigger.  Whatever it was it had a "window".  I wonder what else is hiding under the remaining hideous modern camo.

The location has a long and shall we say heated history.  To attempt to piece it together you need to see the modern alignment of the building and compare it to 19th century images.  Just how far back was it set?  And just how accurate are these early maps and drawings?

Most of what I know about the site comes from Doug Hoverson's "The Drink that Made Wisconsin Famous".  I'll take his narrative and combine it with such images as can be found in the State Historical Society map collection.

Things on the edge of town don't always show on early maps, so the earliest depiction of the place in 1872 just shows trees.  Is this accurate?  Probably.  It was not until 1874 that a certain Michael Welter, or Wettner left the nearby Mattias Leinenkugel (Eagle) Brewery and went into business on his own.  Oddly he had Henry Leinenkugel as a partner.   Our next peek at the location dates to 1875:

This shows a building of not at all the correct dimensions, but correct in that there is no set back from either Elm or Hobart.   Interestingly there was a "Garden" one block north.  This the Olinger Garden run by a local farmer of that name since the mid 1860's.  It was practically speaking a beer garden, which may not have had a direct link to any of the various breweries operating in this neighborhood.   

The brewery then went through events common to such ventures, ownership changes and fires.  Henry Sommermeyer took over the venture in 1878.  A rather nice Birds Eye View from 1880 shows us much.

There now seems to be a large setback from Hobart street...unless the latter was widened at some point.  There is as expected a slope just as today, but that would be the case in any event.  We also start to see intriguing clues such as doors and windows.  Is this our brewery ghost building?

Hard to say, as Sommermeyer's brewery was destroyed by fire in November 1880, probably after this drawing was made.  It was rebuilt, sold to Frank Huebner who was a Sommermeyer employee, then it burned down again in 1883.

An 1888 map shows this:

Probably the same building, and with street dimensions looking pretty well defined it is hard to buy the widening of Hobart theory.  I will say that I don't trust any map of this era implicitly, well other than Sanborn Fire Maps.  Notice that the setback from Elm looks to be much bigger now.

The place burned again in 1892, although it is mentioned that it was just the wooden portions that went up.  A foundation still in situ from earlier is quite plausible. 

By this point the brewery was owned by John Walter.  He bought it in 1889 and remarkably it remained The Walter Brewery until 1985!  Now the 1897 Sanborn map comes to the rescue...

This is certainly what we are looking at, but with some real puzzlers.  The "window" seen above would seem to be looking right into the malt kiln!  It describes four floors, malting floors in basement and 1st story, grain storage second and third.  What we are seeing what would be considered the basement.  Photos of the Walter Brewery are always taken from the east corner to show the main brew house, but the malting facility with the needed vent stack can be seen clearly in this 1895 view.

There is very little written on the brewery remains.  There is a brief mention in the Eau Claire Landmark Commission website that says the foundation we are discussing is from the 1890 post fire rebuild.  That would seem to make the most sense.  But I am still just a bit suspicious that it might be all or in part from an earlier rebuild in the 1880s.  It was mentioned for instance that the 1890 fire only burned the wooden portion of the structure.  Was the foundation damaged enough that it had to be demolished and rebuilt as well?  Then there is that darned window into the malt kiln.  Was this bashed out later?   Was it not a window but some kind of flue for that big stack at about that location on the building?  If so the stack would have blocked the sidewalk!  Maybe there was a hatch in the basement level for ash pull out from the kiln on the first floor?  As I finish up these musings I note something very much like it at the base of the tower in the 1880 view of the Sommermeyer Brewery.....

Clearly I have to go take an inside look.   I figure I'll wait until the Covid situation improves a bit but certainly there will be an update and "inside information" when that happens.

Footnote.  When the John Walters Brewery finally went under in 1985 there was a brief revival under the name Hibernia Brewery.  Name aside they made mostly German brews.  They also revived the Olinger Garden one block to the north as their beer garden!  I've been there, it was nice.  Alas the obsolete physical plant was too heavy a burden and Hibernia did not survive to what might have been the better days of craft brewing.  Other than a 1913 vintage bottling house and the foundation we've explored today there is nothing left of note on the site.