Prohibition knocked it out of business. Progress will knock it down.
Although its time of operation was relatively brief, the Akron Brewing Co. left behind a red-brick complex that has been a distinctive feature on the city’s skyline for more than a century.
It won’t be around much longer because it stands in the path of the Ohio Department of Transportation’s $96 million project to revamp the Interstate 77/76 interchange along South Main Street and South Broadway.
The impending demolition will be the last call for a plant that was once hailed as “the most modern brewery in the country.”
More than 50 local saloonkeepers joined forces in October 1902 to establish a brewery that would compete with the Burkhardt and Renner breweries of Akron. Complaining that they were constantly being overcharged, the bar owners hoped to secure beer “at reasonable prices” by brewing their own product and reaping the profits of manufacturing.
In April 1903, the business incorporated for $200,000 (about $6.2 million today) with veteran saloon operators and brewery men as officers: President John Koerber, Vice President Fred Horix, Treasurer John Lamparter and Secretary F.W. Fuchs.
The company purchased property at 841-869 S. High St. between Voris and South streets to build a brewery. Today the address is located on South Broadway because the city realigned and renamed that section of the street in the early 20th century.
The Heutteman & Cramer Co. of Detroit won a contract in July 1903 to build the brick-and-steel complex. Detroit architect Richard Mildner designed a five-story brewhouse with a two-story office building and bottling plant.
“This plant will be one of the best in the country and will be far superior to the older plants now in operation, as it will be of steel construction throughout and practically fireproof,” the Beacon Journal reported. “It will have all the latest improvements that are known in brewery building, as the people to whom the contract was awarded make a specialty of brewery building and have erected many modern plants in this part of the country.”
Ground was broken Sept. 3, 1903, with “an old-fashioned German celebration.”
One improvement in construction was the incorporation of “first-class enameled steel cooperage” in the brewing cellars instead of the usual wood, “thereby doing away with the work of varnishing the cooperage and the danger of the beer tasting like wood,” the Beacon Journal noted.
The plant’s initial capacity was 30,000 barrels per year, but it had the potential to expand to 100,000 barrels. In February 1904, brewmaster John Hau produced the first beer, which would be aged for three months before being served to the public in June.
“Here’s to Akron!” the company advertised in May. “For family use, no beer will excel our bottled beer, which will be ready for delivery in ten days. It will be pleasant and delicious to the taste, full of nutriment and tonic qualities and absolutely pure.”
The company’s high-grade lager, made of “pure imported hops, pure barley malt and pure water,” made its debut at “all first-class bars of Akron.”
“The plant of the Akron Brewing Company is a magnificent example of modern science in building and equipment,” the brewery advertised. “The public is invited to call and be shown.”
The signature brand, White Rock, touted as “Akron’s Great Summer Beverage,” was described “as wholesome and bracing in its coolness as a breeze from the north in summer.”
The company pledged that businessmen who became debilitated from heat would regain strength and appetite by quaffing White Rock. In other dubious claims, the company boasted:
• “It is alive with health and goodness.”
• “Your doctor will tell you it is a good tonic.”
• “It is practically non-intoxicating and can be taken with safety by anybody.”
Business was quite good during the first decade. In 1910, the company built a $50,000, two-story bottling plant north of the factory. In 1916, it began work on a $45,000, four-story brewhouse with the company’s name carved in triangular sandstone atop a brick pediment.
The solid, imposing complex was ready to conquer the world, but then the bubble burst in 1919. With a federal ban on the sale of beer, Prohibition walloped the Akron Brewing Co.
The company changed its name to Akron Beverage and Cold Storage Co., and tried to survive with the manufacture of cereal beverages, root beer and ginger beer. The bottling plant converted to the White Rock Dairy, and other areas of the complex were leased for cold storage.
In 1925, however, People’s Dairy bought the dairy business and equipment, bringing an end to the former brewing company. After Prohibition ended in 1933, the sprawling complex welcomed such prominent companies as Beatrice Foods, Sumner Butter and Tasty Pure Food Co.
The exterior of the old brewery looks remarkably unchanged a century later except for the loss of the original office building, which was demolished in the 1950s to accommodate construction of the South Expressway in Akron. The red-brick landmark has towered over the exit ramp ever since.
Now the interstate will come back and finish the job. With the demolition of surrounding buildings in the neighborhood, the former brewery’s days are numbered.
Motorists will be navigating a brand-new intersection within a few years.
As the brewery once proclaimed, “Here’s to Akron!”
Copy editor Mark J. Price can be reached at 330-996-3850 or mjprice@thebeaconjournal.com. His new book, Lost Akron, is available from The History Press.
