Abandoned Brewery in Wisconsin

Blatz Brewery, Milwaukee Wisconsin

Date added: August 23, 2023

Categories:
Wisconsin
Brewery

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The Blatz Brewery rose from humble beginnings in 1852, when Valentine Blatz brewed 350 barrels, to become the third largest of Milwaukee's international giants of the industry. Valentine Blatz was born in Mittenberg-on-the-Main. The son of a Bavarian brewer, he worked in Milwaukee for three years as brewmaster in John Braun's small brewery located where the Blatz Stockhouse No. 3 is now. After Braun died in 1851, Blatz married Braun's widow and took over the business.

At first, Milwaukee brewers, including Blatz, manufactured their brew strictly for the local population, partly because of the lack of proper refrigeration techniques and partly because of the short shelf life of beer at the time. Little by little many Americans grew to prefer the German lager beer, which they initially disdained in favor of their traditional English style ales, and the market in Milwaukee expanded dramatically. By 1868 Blatz was producing 16,000 barrels of beer per year.

In the early 1870's, Blatz was one of the first Milwaukee brewers to recognize the potential of shipping beer to other metropolitan areas. It is on this exporting business that the fame of Milwaukee beer rests. Whereas New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia had such large populations that the large local brewers had all they could do to serve their immediate vicinity, Milwaukee brewers, with their smaller local market area, realized that in order to expand, they would have to embark on extensive shipping and advertising campaigns. In 1875, Blatz was the first Milwaukee brewer to establish a bottling department after bottle manufacturers perfected a cap which would withstand the pressure of carbonation within the bottle, and after Pasteur's discoveries became well known. This enabled Blatz to ship his product to far-away places more cheaply and safely than keg beer. By 1880 Blatz had established agencies in New York, Boston, Chicago, New Orleans, Memphis, Charleston, Savannah and most of the other principal cities in the nation, and was producing 125,000 barrels annually. Blatz continued to be a leader in technological progress. In 1889 he installed a pipeline between the brewery and the bottling works, the second such pipeline in the country and the first in Milwaukee. In 1894, the Blatz Brewery became the first in the country to run on electric power.

The period from 1890 until prohibition was a time of great growth for Blatz and the other big Milwaukee brewers despite the threat of the Temperance Movement. It was during this period, the zenith of Milwaukee's prominence as the nation's brewing center, that the present Blatz Brewery Complex was built. With the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment in 1919, however, the Blatz Brewery was forced to curtail its activities drastically. The production of near beer used 25% of the plant's capacity, but even this soon went out of favor as bootlegging became more prevalent. Blatz then turned to the production of "Blatz Gold Star Ginger Ale" and other types of soda water, keeping the organization on its feet until the repeal of prohibition. The brewery resumed full production in 1933 on the day prohibition ceased. In 1935, Blatz continued its leadership role by being one of the first breweries in the country to sell beer in cans. In the late 1930s and again after World War II Blatz enlarged and upgraded the old brewery with extensive new construction.

Blatz held its position as one of the major U.S. breweries until it was bought by the industry's giant, Pabst, in 1958. Blatz beer is currently produced by the Miller Brewing Company of Milwaukee, under contract for Pabst Brewing, but the brewhouse, millhouse, stockhouses and boilerhouse of the historic brewery have remained vacant since 1958 when the brewery was closed.

According to a brewing history in the 1892 Milwaukee Sentinel, Blatz's major contribution to the industry was in its quick adoption of technological advances: "it has been an innovator, patents and processes have been introduced which other breweries have afterwards adopted successfully."

Building Description

The Blatz Brewery complex is located on the northern edge of Milwaukee's central business district. The main production complex is on the block bounded by North Market Street, Highland and Juneau Avenues and Broadway. Other structures in the vicinity surviving from the once extensive Blatz plant include the Blatz Office Building (1890), 1120 North Broadway, the Washhouse (1891) 1101 North Market Street and the Bottling House (1946), 1000 North Market Street.

The Blatz Brewery production complex is a monumental German Renaissance limestone-trimmed cream brick complex of six distinct buildings built over a 15-year period. The complex consists of three major stockhouses, a millhouse, a brewhouse, and a boilerhouse. There are also three other brewery structures on the block: Stockhouse No. 4 built in the late 1930s, a dryhouse dating from 1947, and a 1946 addition to the Brewhouse.

Stockhouse No. 4, is a six-story, concrete and steel building constructed to fill in the former brewery courtyard. Originally completely surrounded with and abutted by other buildings, of which only Stockhouses No. 1 and 2, the Millhouse and the Brewhouse still survive, Stockhouse No. 4 had no architecturally articulated exterior elevations. The 1947 Dryhouse is a non-descript, 2-story, brick structure that abuts the north wall of the old 1904 Boiler House. Its only finished elevation, facing Market Street, is of utilitarian design. The addition to the Brewhouse is a utilitarian infill of four levels between the original Brewhouse and Stockhouse No. 4. Both the Dryhouse and Stockhouse No. 4 originally adjoined a series of modern brewery buildings to the north mostly built in 1947 - 1948 that filled the remainder of the block. Most of these structures were demolished in the late 1970s to make way for the present surface parking lot exposing the unsightly scarred back (north and west) walls of the remaining parts of the brewery complex. The only finished elevations of any part of the brewery complex front directly on Highland and Juneau Avenues, Market Street and Broadway.

The Broadway elevation is one of the complex's two equally-important, principal elevations, the other being the Highland Avenue facade. The three stockhouses present a continuous unified facade facing Broadway. Rising from a rusticated limestone base, the twelve-bay facade appears as though it could have been built all at one time, but is actually a series of separate structures built over a period of 15 years unified by common materials, belt coursing, blind fenestration, and detailing. The most distinctive features of the six to eight-story elevation are the arched metal emblem panels, the panel brick spandrels, the blind fenestration with limestone sills and lintels, and bands of arcaded blind fenestration on the upper levels. Originally, simple corbelled brick and stone cornices unified the upper stories, but these were removed at various times after 1930. Interestingly enough, the exterior architectural articulation of the stockhouse elevations bears little relationship to the interior arrangement of the buildings. The exterior floor levels implied by the blind fenestration for example, in no way correspond with the actual floor levels within the buildings. The exterior fenestral treatment was designed entirely for ornamental purposes and could never be made functional because, if opened up, the "windows" would bisect floor levels and occur at other impractical locations.

Stockhouse No. 3 the oldest structure in the complex, dates from 1891. It is located on the original site of the Blatz Brewery at the corner of Broadway and Juneau Avenue. It was originally built as a 6-story, brick, load-bearing structure and it established the first four bays of the motif used z for all subsequent construction. Above the sixth-story arch line was a simple stone cap along the parapet wall with elaborate triangular pediments punctuating the corner and alternate bays. In approximately 1930, when an additional floor was added, the pediments were removed, the pilasters were extended and another story of arcaded blind fenestration was added altering the proportions, rhythm, and detail of the original architect's design.

The north facade of Stockhouse No. 3 is similar to the east facade although it extends westward only three bays. As the grade drops away to the west, more of the limestone base is exposed. Similar alterations are evident at the top story where the additional row of blind arcades was added and much detail, including a cornice, was removed. Both facades of this building are irregularly punched with modern window openings, many with blatant disregard for the exterior design. The west facade of Stockhouse No. 3 was completely destroyed when in the late 1970's the adjoining Stockhouse No. 5 was razed and the remaining original common wall was destroyed to remove all the large beer storage tanks. The gaping holes in the wall were then infilled with concrete block.

Stockhouse No. 2, constructed in 1904, follows the design format set by No. 3. It appears from differences in weathering of the brick that the parapet may have been extended at a later date, probably in conjunction with the addition of its pitched metal roof, which is unique to the entire complex.

The southernmost bay of Stockhouse No. 2 extends up an additional two stories to form a square, flat-roofed tower. An existing oversized steel frame superstructure was constructed atop this tower in the 1940s as part of a giant lighted sign bearing the name of the brewery. The sign itself has been removed, leaving only the metal skeleton.

Stockhouse No. 1 was constructed in 1906 when the old icehouse on the site was razed. The addition of Stockhouse No. 1 completed the Broadway facade, carrying out the rhythm and detail of the previous stockhouses. It appears to have suffered the fewest alterations of the three stockhouses, losing only it's 5th-story cornice and the triangular pediments that once accented the corner bays and the third bay on the east facade. As it rounds the corner, the rhythm of the facade continues, but the details are simplified by eliminating the arched blind fenestration and dentil work. The facade extends 4 bays with the third bay arcaded to break the continuity of the sill lines and provide a central focus for the south elevation of Stockhouse No. 1.

The Highland Avenue facade is the complex's second principal elevation. It is more varied in architectural treatment than the Broadway elevation and the four separate structures that comprise it are more clearly expressed. All, however, are unified by the use of common materials, detailing and stylistic elements.

The Boilerhouse was built at the northeast corner of Highland Avenue and Market Street in 1904 on the site of an earlier boilerhouse. It is unified with the other buildings on Highland Avenue through its limestone base and its cream brick load-bearing wall construction. It is much plainer in design, however, with larger rectangular windows and simplified pilasters and cornices. The facade consists of three bays, the central one being one-story taller than the flanking bays, with a rectangular parapet above bearing the company logo and date of construction. Two additional stories were added over the easternmost bay, one in 1906 and the other coinciding with alterations to the adjoining Brewhouse in 1946-47. The most notable feature of the Boilerhouse is its dominant brick smokestack at the north end of the structure on Market Street. It towers well above the complex even though approximately 25 feet of decorative brickwork has been removed from its top.

In 1906, after the old icehouse that extended eastward along Highland Avenue to Broadway had been razed, a new Brewhouse was constructed. It extends three bays in width with its limestone base broken by an open driveway at the eastern-most bay that originally led to the brewery courtyard before Stockhouse No. 4 was built. It is sealed now by an overhead garage door. A pedestrian entry in the central bay is framed by concrete and stainless steel panels, the result of a 1946 renovation. From a simple stone string course above the entry level spring three large, three-story arches filled at each story with large rectangular windows. The openings of the center arch are filled with glass block, another feature of the 1946 alteration. Above a dentil cornice, are triple-sets of arcaded windows in each bay, the center bay also glazed in glass block. A copper cornice supports a parapet bearing the brewhouse name. Originally a triangular, brick and copper pediment topped the center bay, but has since been removed. Also visible from below is the copper-clad monitor which lights the atrium at the center of the brewhouse, and the flanking rows of tall, round copper smokestacks or ventilators.

Immediately to the east of the Brewhouse is the Millhouse, the tallest building of the complex. A brick load-bearing structure with steel columns, it rises 8 stories above a basement level. The facade is narrow comprising only one bay rising from a limestone base. The large windows and spandrel panels denoting the first six stories are enframed by a colossal double arcade motif above which a stone belt course marks the transition to the smaller scale, triple-arcaded fenestration of the upper two stories. A brick pediment trimmed in copper bears the Blatz name. The gabled roof of the Millhouse is broken by rows of regularly spaced dormers.

The interiors of all the stockhouses are utilitarian and lack any significant detail. Finish materials consist of poured concrete, brick and steel. At some places in the earlier stockhouses (2 and 3) there are vaulted brick ceilings. The Millhouse and Boilerhouse have similar industrial interiors. Only the Brewhouse has any interior detail at all, the result of its 1946 renovation in the Art Moderne style. The use of plaster, glazed wall tile, glass block and brushed stainless steel railings give the Brewhouse interiors a distinctively finished character, in contrast with the rest of the complex, although the detail is so sparingly used and is of such a common type as to be unexceptional. There is no historic machinery in the brewery since practically every piece of brewing equipment was removed and sold years ago.