Gunther Beer commercial that I found on Google Videos

Gunther Beer Advertisements from Baltimore Historical Newspaper

I thought I would go ahead and post a couple of old newspaper ads featuring Gunther Beer from the Historical Baltimore Sun. Unfortuately I can only post the link to the document oppossed to actually posting the document on my blog because I don't know how to do that. I really wish I could actually post them on this blog but the images are PDF files so it's impossible to copy and paste them. So all stundents will need to use their Library Card number to view these old newspaper ads. The first one is just really neat to look at and compare to today's beer advertisments.
http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1657584252&sid=1&Fmt=10&clientId=41152&RQT=309&VName=HNP

"Display Ad 5 -- No Title." The Sun (1837-1985), July 15, 1908, http://www.proquest.com/ (accessed December 10, 2009)

This newspaper ad is also really cool because it was published in 1933 when prohibition ended. According to the newspaper ad Gunther Beer was in high demand and couldn't supply Baltimore customers fast enough. This ad supports how popular the beer was to the city and how happy they were to have their beloved beer back. On the bottom of the ad it says "Brewed and Bottled in Baltimore since 1881." So now I know when the brewery was first established! http://proquest.umi.com.proxy-ub.researchport.umd.edu/pqdweb?index=5&did=1671037252&SrchMode=1&sid=2&Fmt=10&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=HNP&TS=1260505767&clientId=41152

"Display Ad 26 -- No Title." The Sun (1837-1985), April 8, 1933, http://www.proquest.com/ (accessed December 10, 2009).

Gunther Beer

It was difficult to find secondary sources on the Gunther Brewing Company but here is some basic information that I found. The name of the Brewery before prohibition was originally called "Guenther" which probably meant that German immigrants founded the Brewery much like the American Brewery. The location of the Brewery is on 1211 South Conkling Street and is now used for cold food storage by the Tulkoff Family Partnership. I could not find an exact date when the Brewery was established but it appears it was sometime in the 1850's and produced beer up until 1976. The Brewery was bought out by Theodore Hamm in 1959 who owned a large Brewery in Minnesota and wanted to expand his business to the east coast. Hamm eliminated the original Gunther Brand which turned out to be a horrible business move because he lost many of Baltimore's loyal customers. Hamm didn't stay in Baltimore for very long and sold the brewery three years later to the F & M Schaefer Brewing Company. Schaefer reintroduced Gunther Beer back to Baltimore and regained former customers for quite some time after that. F & M Schaefer realized over time that is was too expensive to constantly maintain and upgrade older facilities like the one in Baltimore and decided to build a brand new modern brewery outside of Allentown, Pennsylvania. They then sold their property and operations in 1976 and beer there was no longer produced.

No Author Given, "Facts About... Gunther Brewing. Parcel 5, 'Ale, Pilsner, Stout Buildings' (Voluntary Cleanup Program)," Maryland Department of the Environment, http://www.mde.state.md.us/assets/document/Gunther_Brewery_parcel_5.pdf (accessed December 8, 2009).
Anthony Pompa, "Gunther Brewing Company Baltimore, Maryland," Beer, Breweries, and Breweriana of Upstate New York, http://heritage575.tripod.com/gunther_history.html
(accessed December 8, 2009).
Will Anderson, "The F. and M. Schaefer Brewing Company," BeerHistory.com, http://www.BeerHistory.com/library/holdings/schaefer_anderson.shtml (accessed December 9, 2009).

Newly Restored American Brewery

This is a picture of the newly restored American Brewery thanks to the help from Humanim. This is such a great picture to post because it is probably what the brewery looked like during it's first few years of operation. There are more pictures to view from this link from the Baltimore Sun http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/bal-brewery-pg0522,0,7356115.photogallery and this photo is from the same photographer Jed Kirschbaum, “The American Brewery Building Restored,” Baltimore Sun, May 21, 2009. http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/bal-brewery-pg0522,0,7356115.photogallery (accessed December 1, 2009).

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.