Joseph Knoble Brewery, Fort Smith Arkansas
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- Arkansas
- Industrial
- Brewery
The Joseph Knoble Brewery in Fort Smith Arkansas is the only surviving example in Arkansas of a mid-nineteenth-century brewery. Joseph Knoble, as builder and owner of this building, was an important figure in the socioeconomic history of the City of Fort Smith, Sebastian County and the State of Arkansas.
A native of Wittenberg, Germany, Joseph Knoble settled in Fort Smith, Arkansas in 1851. In all probability the large German population which had emigrated to the area was one of the factors that influenced the brewmaster to establish his home and brewery in Fort Smith.
Shortly after he arrived in Fort Smith he purchased. the land upon which the brewery is now situated. He immediately commenced the construction of a substantial house to shelter his family. Once Joseph Knoble's family had moved into the house, Knoble immediately began building the brewery adjacent to the house. He constructed both of these buildings of native stone.
Joseph Knoble was one of the leading German merchants in the Fort Smith area. He actively pursued his profession until his death in 1881. He is interred in the Catholic Cemetery on Lexington Avenue in Fort Smith.
Building Description
The Joseph Knoble Brewery building looks today very much as it did in 1851. Mr. C. H. Wortz, Jr., has restored the building to its original appearance and re-equipped it for its original purpose.
The building is rectangular in shape, of three stories, and is constructed of native cut stone, coursed, and with a natural finish. The first floor window and door surrounds consist of native stone sills and arches with radiating voussoirs. The second and third floor window surrounds are of stone with flat lintels and sills.
There is one door, on the west side, located midway between the first and second stories, which was used to load and unload wagons. Its treatment, as regards arch and sill, conforms to that of the first floor.
Windows are, generally, double hung sashes with 12 lights. The exceptions to this are on the third floor, east and west sides, where the windows are single hung sash with 6 lights.
The roof framing is of wood, with (at present) a composition roof. Cornice fascia, soffit and frieze are of very Simple design. There are eaves returns on the north side of the building, but not on the south side. The roof itself is a medium gable type.
A street entrance on the north side of the building leads to a family beer garden which was constructed on the second-floor level of the building. The outside beer garden was built over a beer vault which is on the same level as the first floor of the building, but not part of the building. The beer vault is to the east of the main structure and is connected to the main building by a stone tunnel. After construction, the beer vault was covered with earth and the surface was later developed into the outdoor beer garden.
The beer vault was constructed to store the beer kegs. At one end of the vault there is an inclined opening which leads to the surface. Ice, cut from the Arkansas River, was placed in this vault by means of this opening and inclined ramp.
The third floor of the building was the brewing floor of the brewery. The malting floor and mash tank, wort tank, cool slip tank, and fermentation tank is located here. The floor below was the kegging room. A pipe leads from the fermentation tank on the third floor to the kegging room on the second. The beer was kegged here and then stored in the beer vault.
The first floor was used as a tavern or beer garden during the winter months.
This building has been restored and equipped to almost the same state that it was in between 1851 and 1885.
