"A fine beer may be judged with only one sip,...
but it's better to be thoroughly sure." Czech Proverb
HA! Bet you thought I would be taking off for reading week! Well, you-thought-wrong.
However, I will be writing about a rather relaxed topic that is A) about beer and B) relevant to class. Yes, I can do that, but in true Jessica blog writing style, it's going to take me a second to get to the beer part.
In my current manic state as I try to compile as much information about my heritage designation property for my theory class as I can, I couldn't help but let my mind wander just a bit to how my own hometown deals with old buildings.
Depending how you look at it, development can be good as it improves infrastructure, creates jobs, and can be something a city or town can be proud of. But on the other hand, you risk getting rid of beautiful victorian mansions and sturdy warehouses that could be turned into something useful and replace them with glass structures that break up a brick and stone skyline.
Reading, PA in its heyday was a shopping and entertainment hub. There were resorts on the mountains and of course, it was all supported by everyones favorite monopoly square, the Reading Railroad.
Now of coarse, the mines began to fizzle out and so too did the railroad. Businesses began to leave and Reading was left with little industry. In present day, there are empty warehouses that have been left abandoned so long, that there is little hope for finding an owner or renovating them, so they are torn down.
I really do not like seeing old things destroyed like that. I mean, that's literally part of the job. Old buildings provide character and definition to a community; they place the community in a specific time period. So who can revive these old buildings? There are very few industries (I have noticed) that are able to flip an old building and turn it into something everyone can enjoy, but the ones that can are those who are members of the craft brewing industry.
Exhibit A: Franklin Station Brewpub - Saucony Creek Brewery
The most recent addition to the Reading Brewery/pub scene is the Franklin street station. This is a bit of a cheat since it was the transit authority that issued a 5 million dollar renovation on the station. It was completed in 2015, but again, left empty. So what else to do? The Saucony creek brewing company purchased the building and created a restaurant in it. No cheesy posters, no excessive music, just you, sitting in a beautiful historic train station, sipping on sours and enjoying the occasional glass of "Diesel Breath".
Exhibit B: West Reading Motor Club - Nitro Bar
Founded in 1914 as the West Reading Motor & Hardware Co., this location has had a rich history of being a car dealership...then it became a vacuum store... a historic vacuum store! History is crazy right? Anyway, the building was whitewashed and definitely had seen better days as it was abandoned for several years before it was beautified. The result is an amazing (I think) transformation. The facade is amazing and the inside is, well, funky fresh. It's decorated with murals by local artists, historic photos, and collages of car parts. The beer on tap is fantastic too.
Exhibit C: Taphouse at the Knitting Mills - Sly Fox
I am not going to lie, the knitting mills are turning into a super hipster destination, but in my opinion, it's doing it with grace. The knitting mills were of course, knitting mills, and when those shut down, they became the shopping destination. Then all the stores left, leaving VF outlets. Unfortunately, due to most of the building being run down, no one wanted to open up shop there. That was until a power company renovated (most) of the original building and the rest of the old factory buildings were turned into apartments. Sly Fox's new site was an outbuilding to the mills, then, during the outlet days, a Dooney & Bourke store. A deck was added on and voila, a new taphouse.
Coming Soon:
Lititz Shirt Factory - Collusion Tap Works
Fine, Lititz is not in my exact area, but I love the town. It has been voted as having the best shopping street in the US a few years and its development is amazing for a town of its size. Its most recent renovation was of the Wilbur chocolate factory, which unfortunately closed its doors several years ago. Rather than to see the building decay, a majority of the factory was kept and renovated to be apartments. Meanwhile, an old shirt factory that has been empty for some time is currently being renovated to house Collusion Tap Works, a brewery based out of York, PA. The process is incredible to watch. There's been a bit of a face lift on the facade and anything on the inside (including an old, hazardous looking elevator) is being reworked into the final design. The photos are amazing, and I am extremely excited to visit once the work is complete.
In the end, breweries are incredibly sustainable. Not only do they recycle buildings, but they recycle grains used in brewing into dog treats or give the leftovers to farmers as pig feed. The businesses are also benefiting from impassioned beer lovers. Craft breweries are the ultimate form of local business. By supporting them, you aren't bowing to the industry giant of InBev. Not that I don't enjoy a Shock Top on occasion, but craft breweries (in the US at least) pay local taxes and those taxes end up seeping back into the community. With small brands becoming well known regionally and sometimes nationally, people frequently seek out the best brews to add to their "repertoire"; thus benefitting the local community.
My favorite thing breweries do though, is honor the history of their site or the area's history. One of my personal favorites is Schaylor Brewing Company's "Killed by a Daewoo". What's a Daewoo you
ask? Daewoo is actually the name of a car dealership (and South Korean car manufacturer) in my hometown that had been sitting abandoned for nearly as long as I can remember. Today it is a small brewery that still pays homage to its predecessor. And yes, it still looks like the original car dealership on the outside.
There's also "Ludwigs Revenge" by Roy Pitz Brewing Company in Chambersburg. If you read a previous post, you already know about the burning of Chambersburg and Roy Pitz has an amazing way of honoring that:
It's funny that of all the things to make such a change in preservation, it is beer. For years it was seen as a vice; having been banned even for a decade in the states and constantly monitored through acts and legislations. Breweries prove to be incredibly beneficial. The can and tap art supports local artists, their membership in a community support the economy, and as far as preservation goes, they are a historians best friend.
Cheers my friends
--Jess--
HA! Bet you thought I would be taking off for reading week! Well, you-thought-wrong.
However, I will be writing about a rather relaxed topic that is A) about beer and B) relevant to class. Yes, I can do that, but in true Jessica blog writing style, it's going to take me a second to get to the beer part.
In my current manic state as I try to compile as much information about my heritage designation property for my theory class as I can, I couldn't help but let my mind wander just a bit to how my own hometown deals with old buildings.
Depending how you look at it, development can be good as it improves infrastructure, creates jobs, and can be something a city or town can be proud of. But on the other hand, you risk getting rid of beautiful victorian mansions and sturdy warehouses that could be turned into something useful and replace them with glass structures that break up a brick and stone skyline.
Reading, PA in its heyday was a shopping and entertainment hub. There were resorts on the mountains and of course, it was all supported by everyones favorite monopoly square, the Reading Railroad.
Now of coarse, the mines began to fizzle out and so too did the railroad. Businesses began to leave and Reading was left with little industry. In present day, there are empty warehouses that have been left abandoned so long, that there is little hope for finding an owner or renovating them, so they are torn down.
I really do not like seeing old things destroyed like that. I mean, that's literally part of the job. Old buildings provide character and definition to a community; they place the community in a specific time period. So who can revive these old buildings? There are very few industries (I have noticed) that are able to flip an old building and turn it into something everyone can enjoy, but the ones that can are those who are members of the craft brewing industry.
Exhibit A: Franklin Station Brewpub - Saucony Creek Brewery
The most recent addition to the Reading Brewery/pub scene is the Franklin street station. This is a bit of a cheat since it was the transit authority that issued a 5 million dollar renovation on the station. It was completed in 2015, but again, left empty. So what else to do? The Saucony creek brewing company purchased the building and created a restaurant in it. No cheesy posters, no excessive music, just you, sitting in a beautiful historic train station, sipping on sours and enjoying the occasional glass of "Diesel Breath".
Exhibit B: West Reading Motor Club - Nitro Bar
Founded in 1914 as the West Reading Motor & Hardware Co., this location has had a rich history of being a car dealership...then it became a vacuum store... a historic vacuum store! History is crazy right? Anyway, the building was whitewashed and definitely had seen better days as it was abandoned for several years before it was beautified. The result is an amazing (I think) transformation. The facade is amazing and the inside is, well, funky fresh. It's decorated with murals by local artists, historic photos, and collages of car parts. The beer on tap is fantastic too.
Exhibit C: Taphouse at the Knitting Mills - Sly Fox
I am not going to lie, the knitting mills are turning into a super hipster destination, but in my opinion, it's doing it with grace. The knitting mills were of course, knitting mills, and when those shut down, they became the shopping destination. Then all the stores left, leaving VF outlets. Unfortunately, due to most of the building being run down, no one wanted to open up shop there. That was until a power company renovated (most) of the original building and the rest of the old factory buildings were turned into apartments. Sly Fox's new site was an outbuilding to the mills, then, during the outlet days, a Dooney & Bourke store. A deck was added on and voila, a new taphouse.
Coming Soon:
Lititz Shirt Factory - Collusion Tap Works
Fine, Lititz is not in my exact area, but I love the town. It has been voted as having the best shopping street in the US a few years and its development is amazing for a town of its size. Its most recent renovation was of the Wilbur chocolate factory, which unfortunately closed its doors several years ago. Rather than to see the building decay, a majority of the factory was kept and renovated to be apartments. Meanwhile, an old shirt factory that has been empty for some time is currently being renovated to house Collusion Tap Works, a brewery based out of York, PA. The process is incredible to watch. There's been a bit of a face lift on the facade and anything on the inside (including an old, hazardous looking elevator) is being reworked into the final design. The photos are amazing, and I am extremely excited to visit once the work is complete.
In the end, breweries are incredibly sustainable. Not only do they recycle buildings, but they recycle grains used in brewing into dog treats or give the leftovers to farmers as pig feed. The businesses are also benefiting from impassioned beer lovers. Craft breweries are the ultimate form of local business. By supporting them, you aren't bowing to the industry giant of InBev. Not that I don't enjoy a Shock Top on occasion, but craft breweries (in the US at least) pay local taxes and those taxes end up seeping back into the community. With small brands becoming well known regionally and sometimes nationally, people frequently seek out the best brews to add to their "repertoire"; thus benefitting the local community.
My favorite thing breweries do though, is honor the history of their site or the area's history. One of my personal favorites is Schaylor Brewing Company's "Killed by a Daewoo". What's a Daewoo you ask? Daewoo is actually the name of a car dealership (and South Korean car manufacturer) in my hometown that had been sitting abandoned for nearly as long as I can remember. Today it is a small brewery that still pays homage to its predecessor. And yes, it still looks like the original car dealership on the outside.
There's also "Ludwigs Revenge" by Roy Pitz Brewing Company in Chambersburg. If you read a previous post, you already know about the burning of Chambersburg and Roy Pitz has an amazing way of honoring that:
I love it, it's just great.This dark brew was inspired by the historical Civil War burning of our hometown of Chambersburg, PA in July 1864. During the raid, Ludwig's Brewery, operated by George Ludwig, was burned to the ground by Confederate soldiers under Gen. McCausland's orders. In remembrance of this truly buzz-killing event, we created a German style Rauchbier, or dark smoked lager. This beer uses all its ingredients from Bamberg, Germany, which is where the style was born (coincidentally, the same area where Ludwig himself was born and taught to brew)...We believe this beer resembles how Ludwig himself might have brewed it over 100 years ago and is enjoyed today by Yanks and Rebs alike.
It's funny that of all the things to make such a change in preservation, it is beer. For years it was seen as a vice; having been banned even for a decade in the states and constantly monitored through acts and legislations. Breweries prove to be incredibly beneficial. The can and tap art supports local artists, their membership in a community support the economy, and as far as preservation goes, they are a historians best friend.
Cheers my friends
--Jess--
Hey Jess,
ReplyDeleteThis was a great read! Anything that combines beer and history is likely to pique my interest. We have a similar history of prohibition Canada, except it was enacted on a province by province basis and didn't last as long.
Anyway, I always admired breweries for turning unused buildings around and making them a part of the community again. One of the most famous examples in Canada would probably be the Steam Whistle brewery in the John Street Roundhouse, a national historic site that is right next to the CN Tower. You can see the same sort of thing happening in London as well in terms of reusing older buildings and supporting the local community. London Brewing and Anderson Craft Ales are great examples, they are both located in Old East warehouses. I recommend checking them out if you're a fan of craft beer. Powerhouse Brewery is located in the powerhouse of the old Kellog's factory in Old East, so that is another example but I haven't been there yet.
Erik,
DeleteI'm glad you enjoyed the post! It's amazing to see how these breweries are able to have such an impact! I looked up powerhouse and that looks like an amazing place. There's just something about breweries taking over an old warehouse; it's just neat. I know of a couple breweries around Pennsylvania that have taken up home in abandoned warehouses and I really wish it happened a bit more to the warehouses in the Reading, I just think they might be a bit too big for startups. Either way, the buildings that they occupy really mean a lot to the culture of the area and we're lucky to have community leaders and members that support their efforts.
Bravo!
ReplyDelete