Best Brewing Company of Chicago Building | |
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| Location | 1315-1317 W. Fletcher, Chicago, Illinois |
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| Coordinates | 41°56′19″N87°39′42″W / 41.93861°N 87.66167°W Coordinates: 41°56′19″N87°39′42″W / 41.93861°N 87.66167°W |
| Area | 0.3 acres (0.12 ha) |
| Built | 1893 |
| Architect | Oscar Beyer |
| NRHP reference # | 87001263 [1] |
| Added to NRHP | July 30, 1987 |
The Best Brewing Company of Chicago Building is a historic brewery building at 1315-1317 W. Fletcher Street in the Lakeview neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. The building was built in 1893 for the Best Brewing Company of Chicago, replacing a smaller 1885 brewery on the site that the company had bought in 1891. The company, which was founded by the Hasterlik family, was one of many German-owned breweries in Chicago at the time. Architect Oscar Beyer designed the building, which features decorative brickwork, arched windows, and a cornice. The company brewed beer at the plant until Prohibition, when it switched to other goods such as ice and malt syrup. After Prohibition ended, the company began brewing beer again, and it brought innovations to the Chicago market such as canned beer and private labels for the chain stores it sold to. While the company was bought out by the Metropolis Brewing Company of New York City in 1950, beer was brewed at the plant until 1961. [2]
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 beer has taken place since at least 2500 BC; in ancient Mesopotamia, brewers derived social sanction and divine protection from the goddess Ninkasi. Brewing was initially a cottage industry, with production taking place at home; by the ninth century monasteries and farms would produce beer on a larger scale, selling the excess; and by the eleventh and twelfth centuries larger, dedicated breweries with eight to ten workers were being built.
Chicago, officially the City of Chicago, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and the third most populous city in the United States. With an estimated population of 2,705,994 (2018), it is also the most populous city in the Midwestern United States. Chicago is the county seat of Cook County, the second most populous county in the US, with portions of the northwest side of the city extending into DuPage County near O'Hare Airport. Chicago is the principal city of the Chicago metropolitan area, often referred to as Chicagoland. At nearly 10 million people, the metropolitan area is the third most populous in the nation.
Illinois is a state in the Midwestern and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It has the fifth largest gross domestic product (GDP), the sixth largest population, and the 25th largest land area of all U.S. states. Illinois has been noted as a microcosm of the entire United States. With Chicago in northeastern Illinois, small industrial cities and immense agricultural productivity in the north and center of the state, and natural resources such as coal, timber, and petroleum in the south, Illinois has a diverse economic base, and is a major transportation hub. Chicagoland, Chicago's metropolitan area, encompasses over 65% of the state's population. The Port of Chicago connects the state to international ports via two main routes: from the Great Lakes, via the Saint Lawrence Seaway, to the Atlantic Ocean and from the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River, via the Illinois Waterway to the Illinois River. The Mississippi River, the Ohio River, and the Wabash River form parts of the boundaries of Illinois. For decades, Chicago's O'Hare International Airport has been ranked as one of the world's busiest airports. Illinois has long had a reputation as a bellwether both in social and cultural terms and, through the 1980s, in politics.
The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on July 30, 1987. [1]
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance. A property listed in the National Register, or located within a National Register Historic District, may qualify for tax incentives derived from the total value of expenses incurred in preserving the property.
