The Reedsburg Brewery is a historic

brewery A brewery or brewing company is a business that makes and sells beer. The place at which beer is commercially made is either called a brewery or a beerhouse, where distinct sets of brewing equipment are called plant. The commercial brewing of b ...

located in

Reedsburg, Wisconsin Reedsburg is a city in Sauk County, Wisconsin, United States. Its population in 2020 was 9,984. The city is located northwest of Madison, Wisconsin, Madison within the Madison metropolitan area, Baraboo micropolitan area. The city is surrounde ...

. The company was founded in the 1860s, during the hops boom. The building was rebuilt in 1904, after a large fire destroyed the original structure. The Reedsburg Brewery served as the primary manufacturer of beer for the city, up until

Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic b ...

, in the 1920s. It reopened again in 1933, but eventually had to close in 1950 due to decreasing sales. In 1984, it was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

. With The building sat unused for over 30 years, occasionally being used as a warehouse. In 1987, after pressure from the city, a developer remodeled the interior of the structure into apartments. The building still serves as apartments, with most of the exterior kept intact.

Description

Reedsburg Brewery is located at 401 North Walnut Street in Reedsburg, Wisconsin. The property is and originally contained four buildings–a

, office, bottling works, and a house. The house no longer exists and the office and bottling works have been connected. The complex is built out of brick in a "simplified" Romanesque style according to the National Register of Historic Places. The Wisconsin State Register calls it an astylistic utilitarian building.

History

Old building

The hop boom of the 1860s brought the first Reedsburg Brewery to town. Frank and Florin Meckler built a brewery on North Walnut Street. The business would burn down several times and be sold to several owners. In 1880 the business was sold yet again and become the Reedsburg Brewing Company. The brewery was only producing 350 barrels of beer per year as compared to the 1,000 barrels in previous years. A large fire burned down this building in 1904.

New building to present

On the same site in 1904, the new Reedsburg Brewery building was built, out of

brick A brick is a type of construction material used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a unit primarily composed of clay. But is now also used informally to denote building un ...

. This new building was able to produce 5,000 barrels of beer every year. The business closed in 1950, after sales declined heavily. For the next 30 years, the building was left unused. In 1984, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and was remodeled into apartments in 1987.

References

Sources

* * * * {{NRHP in Sauk County, Wisconsin Reedsburg, Wisconsin National Register of Historic Places in Sauk County, Wisconsin Industrial buildings and structures in Wisconsin Commercial buildings completed in 1904