Upper Peninsula Brewing Company Building | |
![]() | |
Location | Meeske St. and US 41, Marquette, Michigan |
---|---|
Coordinates | 46°32′48.4″N87°25′37.6″W / 46.546778°N 87.427111°W |
Built | 1893 |
Architectural style | Romanesque, Romanesque vernacular |
NRHP reference No. | 80001881 [1] |
Added to NRHP | May 15, 1980 |
The Upper Peninsula Brewing Company Building is an office building located at the intersection of Meeske Street and US 41 in Marquette, Michigan. It is also known as the Charles Meeske House. The structure served as the home and office of brewer Charles Meeske, secretary-treasurer and later president of the company. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. [1]
The single structure remaining from the 1894 complex is Meeske's home and office. [2] It is a vernacular, two-story rectangular Romanesque Revival structure built of variegated, rough-cut sandstone. [3] The structure has a stone chimney and crenelated parapets. The front entrance is recessed under an arched portico. The flat roof is encircled by a dentiled cornice with the initials "U.P.B.Co." carved in stone. [3] The building originally had a tunnel leading to the brewery, allowing Meeske to ignore a law prohibiting a person from entering a brewery after sundown. [2]
German brewer George Rublein immigrated to the United States in the mid-19th century, arriving in Marquette in 1849, not long after the city itself was founded. [2] Rublein founded the Franklin Brewery just outside Marquette. The brewery burned down twice, and in 1875 [4] Rublein moved his operation to what is now the corner of Meeske Street and US 41 near a natural spring, [3] changing the name to "Concordia Brewery" in the process. [2] Rublein built a series of frame buildings on the site which including ponds, outdoor seating and an area for live entertainment, replicating a German Biergarten. [2]
However, Rublein soon got out of the beer business, and in 1879 sold the brewery to Peter White. [2] White, in turn, leased the operation to a pair of brewers from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Charles Meeske and Reiner Hoch. [2] Under their leadership, the brewery prospered. Within two years, the partners found that their manufacturing couldn't meet demand, so in 1881 they built a second brewery in Negaunee, with Hoch taking personal charge of the Negaunee plant and Meeske remaining at the Marquette brewery. [5] The next year, they had made enough money to buy the operation from White. [2] With their purchase, Meeske and Hoch [3] formed a company with Hoch as president, Meeske as secretary-treasurer, and two other men filling out the board of directors. [4]
In the 1890s, Meeske replaced the earlier frame structures at the Marquette plant with a complex of sandstone buildings, constructed to resemble small castles. The 42-acre (170,000 m2) complex [4] included warehouses, residences, a tower, and a bottling plant. [3] Meeske retained the German Biergarten landscaping the Rublein had initiated. [3] The structure at the corner of Meeske and US41 was built in 1894, [2] and served as Meeske's home and office, [2] as well as the entrance to the brewery grounds. [3]
In 1895, the brewery had a production capacity of between 20,000 and 25,000 barrels per year, [4] sold under the name of Drei Kaiser (Three Kings) beer. [2] With the onset of World War I in 1913, the name was changed to "Castle Brew." [2]
Local prohibition groups pressured Marquette County to enact dry ordinances in 1916, four years before the beginning of country-wide Prohibition. [2] When these ordinances were passed, the Upper Peninsula Brewing Company ended its beer production [3] and went out of business, [2] and Meeske moved to Duluth, Minnesota.
After the Upper Peninsula Brewing Company folded, the stone buildings in the complex were used as warehouses for a trucking firm. [2] However, most of the buildings were eventually abandoned and fell into disrepair. [2] Meeske's office building was more heavily utilized, serving as a rock shop, a law firm, and an antique shop. [2] In 1974 and 1975 most of the buildings were demolished, saving only the office building and a horse barn along Meeske Street that is now part of Jilbert's Dairy. [2] Offices for Detroit and Northern Savings Bank were built on the site. [2] In 1980, Meeske's office was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and in 1982 the structure was purchased by Humboldt Ridge and restored. [2] The building is currently home to the Marquette office of the law firm Numinen, DeForge & Toutant, P.C. [6]
Charles Meeske was born in 1850 in Swinemünde in Prussia, and studied brewing under his father's tutelage. [4] After his apprenticeship, Meeske served for three years in the German army. [7] In 1871, [7] Meeske emigrated to the United States, settling in Oshkosh, Wisconsin for two years where he worked as a foreman in a brewery. [7] Meeske then moved to Milwaukee, where he opened a brewery along with his brothers, Gustave and Otto, and businessman Reiner Hoch. [4] [5] After three years of partnership, Meeske and Hoch bought out the other partners and continued brewing as Meeske & Hoch. [5] In 1876, Meeske married Amelia Heineman, with whom he had three children. [4] In 1878, Meeske and Hoch sold their Milwaukee brewery to a Chicago firm [5] and moved to Marquette, where they took over the Upper Peninsula Brewing Company, with Meeske serving as secretary-treasurer. [4] The two also bought a nearby milling company. [4] In 1881, the firm opened a second plant in Negaunee; Hoch took personal control of the Negaunee plant while Meeske remained at the Marquette site. [5] In addition to the brewery, Meeske was also connected to the Ishpeming Street Railway Company and the Marquette Savings Bank, as well as a number of mines. [4] When Reiner Hoch left Marquette, Meeske took over the presidency of the company. [8] When prohibition ordinances were enacted in Marquette County in 1916, Meeske moved to Duluth, Minnesota to join Reiner Hoch at his Duluth Brewing and Malting Company. [9]
Reiner Hoch was born near Cologne, Germany in 1851; his family emigrated to Waukesha County, Wisconsin, the next year. [5] Hoch grew up on the family farm, and when he was eighteen attended business college in Milwaukee. [5] After graduation, he entered the beer-bottling business with his brother-in-law, and then entered a partnership in a brewery with Charles Meeske and his two brothers. [5] Hoch married Mathilda Geele in 1878, with whom he had three children. [5] The same year, Hoch and Meeske moved to Marquette to run the Upper Peninsula Brewing Company, with Hoch eventually taking over the firm's Negaunee plant. [5] Hoch had additional business interests, including a furniture company and the Negaunee and Ishpeming Street Railway. [5] In 1896, Reiner Hoch moved to Duluth, Minnesota, where he founded the Duluth Brewing and Malting Company. [9] [10] The company remained in business through Prohibition and the Depression, and was eventually led by Charles Meeske's son Carl. [9]
Marquette is the county seat of Marquette County and the largest city in the Upper Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. Located on the shores of Lake Superior, Marquette is a major port, known primarily for shipping iron ore from the Marquette Iron Range. The city is partially surrounded by Marquette Township, but the two are administered autonomously.
Marquette County is a county located in the Upper Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 census, the population was 66,017. The county seat is Marquette. The county is named for Father Marquette, a Jesuit missionary. It was set off in 1843 and organized in 1851. Marquette County is the largest county in land area in Michigan, and the most populous county in the Upper Peninsula.
Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company was an American brewery based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and was once the largest producer of beer in the United States. Its namesake beer, Schlitz, was known as "The beer that made Milwaukee famous" and was advertised with the slogan "When you're out of Schlitz, you're out of beer". Schlitz first became the largest beer producer in the US in 1902 and enjoyed that status at several points during the first half of the 20th century, exchanging the title with Anheuser-Busch multiple times during the 1950s.
Sleeman Breweries is a Japanese-owned Canadian brewery founded by John Warren Sleeman in 1988 in Guelph, Ontario. The company is the third-largest brewing company in Canada. Along with its own Sleeman brands, the company produces under licence the Stroh's family of brands, Maclays Ale and Sapporo Premium beers for sale in Canada. The company's parent Sapporo owns 4.2 per cent of Ontario's primary beer retailer The Beer Store.
The Pabst Brewing Company is an American company that dates its origins to a brewing company founded in 1844 by Jacob Best and was, by 1889, named after Frederick Pabst. It is currently a holding company which contracts the brewing of over two dozen brands of beer and malt liquor: these include its own flagship Pabst Blue Ribbon, as well as brands from many now-defunct breweries.
Grain Belt is a brand of beer brewed in the American state of Minnesota, by the August Schell Brewing Company. The beer has been produced in a number of varieties. Grain Belt Golden was the original style introduced in 1893. The current offerings are: Grain Belt Premium, first introduced in 1947; Grain Belt Premium Light; Grain Belt Nordeast, introduced on April 7, 2010; and the newest offering, Grain Belt Lock & Dam, introduced in 2016. It was originally produced by the Minneapolis Brewing Company which formed with the merger of four smaller brewers in 1891. Soon after introduction, Grain Belt became the company's flagship product. It was brewed at the original Grain Belt brewery in Minneapolis, Minnesota until 1976. A series of other owners followed, and Schell took over the product line in 2002.
The Valentin Blatz Brewing Company was an American brewery based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It produced Blatz Beer from 1851 until 1959, when the label was sold to Pabst Brewing Company.
The Pabst Brewery Complex, on a hill northwest of the downtown of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is the former brewery of the Pabst Brewing Company, where the company innovated to improve their beer and increase production until in 1892 it was the largest brewer of lager in the world. In 2003 the complex was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Bosch Brewing Company was a small brewery on the Keweenaw Peninsula, in the western part of the Upper Peninsula of the state of Michigan, United States. The company operated under different names from 1874 to 1973.
Fitger's Brewing Company was a beer manufacturer in Duluth, Minnesota, United States, from 1881 to 1972. The surviving brewery complex stretches for 720 feet (220 m) along the Lake Superior shoreline and East Superior Street, one of Duluth's main roads. The majority of the ten-building complex was constructed between 1886 and 1911. Fitger's, as it is now known, has undergone adaptive reuse as an indoor mall with shops, restaurants, nightclubs, a hotel, and a museum on the brewery's history.
County Road 492 is a primary county road in Marquette County, Michigan. The road serves as an alternate route between Negaunee and Marquette. Several historic sites line the roadway as it runs south and parallel to the main highway, U.S. Highway 41 (US 41) and M-28, through the Marquette Iron Range in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. The path of the road runs near tracks of the Lake Superior and Ishpeming Railroad (LS&I). The locally created Iron Ore Heritage Trail will follow CR 492 through Eagle Mills and Morgan Meadows upon completion. The western terminus of the county road is on US 41/M-28 in Negaunee and the eastern end is in Marquette next to Lake Superior.
The Marquette Iron Range is a deposit of iron ore located in Marquette County, Michigan in the United States. The towns of Ishpeming and Negaunee developed as a result of mining this deposit. A smaller counterpart of Minnesota's Mesabi Range, this is one of two iron ranges in the Lake Superior basin that are in active production as of 2018. The iron ore of the Marquette Range has been mined continuously from 1847 until the present day. Marquette Iron Range is the deposit's popular and commercial name; it is also known to geologists as the Negaunee Iron Formation.
The Mather Inn is a hotel in Ishpeming, Michigan. The inn served as housing for the cast of the classic 1959 movie Anatomy of a Murder, and was the place where Duke Ellington composed the movie's score. It was designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1976 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
The Richter Brewery, also known as the Delta Building, is a commercial building located at 1615 Ludington Street in Escanaba, Michigan. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009.
The Ore Dock Brewing Company is a craft brewery in Marquette, Michigan, that opened in May 2012. Named for a nearby local landmark, the brewery is known for being a "Marquette focal point and tourist destination," in the words of historian Russell Magnaghi.
Blackrocks Brewery is a craft brewery in Marquette, Michigan. Taking the name from a local landmark, David Manson and Andy Langlois opened Blackrocks in 2010 as a nanobrewery within a Victorian-style house. As of 2020, Blackrocks is the tenth-largest brewery in Michigan with sales across the state's Upper and Lower Peninsulas and into the adjoining state of Wisconsin.
The Keweenaw Brewing Company (KBC) is a craft brewer with a taproom in Houghton and a production facility in nearby South Range, Michigan. It is named for the Keweenaw Peninsula, which projects out to the north of Michigan's Upper Peninsula.
The Alpha Michigan Brewing Company (AMBC) is a nanobrewery in the village of Alpha in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
Duluth and Northern Minnesota No. 14 is a preserved MK class 2-8-2 light "Mikado" built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works for the Duluth and Northern Minnesota Railroad in 1913. In 1919, the D&NM declared bankrupt, and the locomotive was sold to the Michigan-based Lake Superior and Ishpeming Railroad, to operate there as No. 22. It was renumbered back to 14 in 1923. In 1959, No. 14 was sold to the Inland Stone Division of Inland Steel Company, another Michigan-based corporation, and it operated there until 1966. In 1974, it was transferred to the Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range Railway, and then it was donated to the Lake Superior Railroad Museum in 1981. The locomotive was restored to operation for use on the museum's North Shore Scenic Railroad between 1992 and 1998. As of 2024, No. 14 remains on static display inside the museum in Duluth, Minnesota.