Restoration of the American Brewery

I apologize, it appears that a Columbia-based non-profit organization called Humanim are responsible for the restoration of the American Brewery and not the National Park Service. I was a little skeptical about this myself because the National Park Service is horribly funded and why would they spend money on restoring an old brewery in Baltimore. According to an article from the Baltimore Sun by Jacques Kelly $21.2 million dollars went into the restoration of the building. The project is not only a large step in reserecting an historical industrial icon but a big step towards the rebuilding of the community around the brewery. The communties population has declined almost twice its size in the past three decades and is considered one of the cities worst areas for crime. The whole restoration process is one of the first steps in rebuilding the community by sparking some motivation in its residents to work together for a better future. Cindy Truitt, chief development officer says, "This iconic building is a symbol of hope for us, in it, we saw the combination of the physical structure with the amazing human captial in this neighborhood. The neighborhood needs work force development and has the motivation for change." This quote and this information was provided from Baltimore Sun reporter Jacpues Kelly article - Jacques Kelly, "Splendor restored: Long-neglected American Brewery building becomes a 'symbol of hope' for a blighted city neighborhood," Baltimore Sun, August 18, 2008. http://www.humanim.org/library/splendor.pdf (accessed November 24, 2009).

The American Brewery

The first brewery I will focus on is the American Brewery which was built in 1863 by John Frederick Wiessner who was a German immigrant. The brewery still stands today and is located on 1701 North Gay Street although it is closed and not open to the public. It was vaccant for years after it closed down sometime in 1973. The building that you see today looks much like it did when it was reconstructed in 1887 and was restored by the National Park service of Historical Places. The Wiesnner family was forced to shut down the brewery during prohibition and was later on bought out by the Allegheny Beverage Company. The Brewery is special to Baltimore history because it represent how much European immigration had on the brewing industry in Baltimore. The brewery employed tons of German immigrants which supported their community and their presence in the city. No Author Given, "Baltimore: A National Register of Historic Places Travel Itinerary, American Brewery," National Register of Historical Places, http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/baltimore/b37.htm (accessed November 24, 2009).

More Good Finds

I found a very interesting website called www.baltimorebeerweek.com that has a nice little section about the beer history of Baltimore. I didn't even realize it but Baltimore's Beer Week is October 8th-18th and I really wish I would have attended it. I would have been able to spend time with my girlfriend, have a beer or two... or three, and get some research done at the same time. Here are some recap videos on what I missed out on during that week in the Inner Harbor on the homepage of the website http://baltimorebeerweek.com/index.shtml. This was footage of the opening tap celebration although you apparently had to subscribe to the website to win tickets to this event but afterwards there was a kickoff party at the Pratt Street Ale House. I found two interesting articles on the website that are very useful to my research called, "History of Beer Making in Baltimore" by Stephen Demczuk and, "Is Baltimore a Beer Town?" by Thomas Cizauskas. Demczuk is the president of the Baltimore-Washington Beer Works and Cizauskas is a writer for the Mid-Atlantic Brewing News. Demczuk looks like he has a lot of knowledge about Beer History in Maryland and Baltimore and has an email on his website so perhaps I could contact him for information http://ravenbeer.com/home.html. I also found another website that has more information on Baltimore's Brewing History and it appears to be pretty credible for its information and pictures http://www.kilduffs.com/American_Brewery_Baltimore.html.