William A Ulmer Popular Books

William A Ulmer Biography & Facts

The William Ulmer Brewery is a brewery complex in Bushwick, Brooklyn, New York City. It consists of four buildings—an office, a brew house, an engine–machine house, and a stable–storage house—all constructed between 1872 and 1890 in the German round-arch style. The site is bounded by Belvidere Street to the southeast, Beaver Street to the northeast, and Locust Street to the northwest, with the address 31 Belvidere Street. The main brew house, the engine–machine house, and the office building were designed by Brooklyn architect Theobald Engelhardt, while the stable–storage house was designed by Frederick Wunder. The Ulmer Brewery was one of over a dozen German-operated breweries that were built in Bushwick during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Following the construction of the original building in 1872, additional structures were completed in 1880, 1885, and 1890. It ceased to be an active brewery in 1920 due to Prohibition in the United States, which outlawed alcoholic beverage production. The Ulmer family continued to own the office building until 1952; the other buildings were sold and used for light manufacturing, and the office building became a private residence. The brewery was named a New York City designated landmark in 2010, becoming the first brewery in the city to receive this status. The buildings were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2024. History Context Brewing was a major industry in New York City going back to the 18th century. though early development of breweries in Brooklyn was quite slow, with relatively few commercial brewers. When freshwater was discovered under northern Brooklyn during the late 19th century, including under Williamsburg and Bushwick, resulted in the development of breweries, where many German immigrants worked at the time. By the 1870s and 1880s, there were more than 30 breweries in Brooklyn. Some of these were located within a 14-block "brewer's row" within Bushwick that contained at least 11 breweries. This coincided with a large increase in Germans settling Bushwick. William Ulmer (1833–1907), an immigrant from the German territory of Württemberg, was one of the early settlers in the Bushwick brewery district. He was the nephew of both John F. Betz and Henry Clausen Sr., who in turn were brewers and apprentices of D.G. Yuengling Sr. In 1871, Ulmer and a Bavarian immigrant named Anton Vigelius founded the Vigelius & Ulmer Continental Lagerbier Brewery, at the intersection of Belvidere (formerly Ann) and Beaver streets. Two years prior, Vigelius had bought the land from the Debevoises, and just before the brewery was constructed, had sold off his half-stake in the land to Ulmer. Operations Construction was already underway by 1871, when an accident at the site killed one construction worker and injured two more. The first buildings on the site, the brewery and a nearby residence, are thought to have been completed by either 1871 or 1872. The brewery was fairly successful, and in 1875 the Brooklyn Daily Eagle described the Vigelius & Ulmer brewery as one of the larger breweries in the Williamsburg area, out of 30 or 40 breweries operating in the neighborhood. Vigelius then relinquished his ownership stake in the brewery. Ulmer became its sole proprietor and subsequently reorganized it into the William Ulmer Brewery. In 1881, some workers went on strike to protest low wages. Over the years, several improvements were made to the brewery to accommodate additional brewing capacity and to utilize advances in that industry. Ulmer obtained land at Locust and Beaver streets from the family of Elizabeth Debevoise in 1880, and he built the new storage house there soon afterward. In 1885, Theobald Engelhardt designed an expansion, which included an office building; machine and boiler structures; and a washroom and keg-filling room in the back of the main brewery building. According to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, the 1885 expansion cost $15,000. The Eagle stated in 1886 that the counting-houses at Ulmer Brewery and several others in the area were "not surpassed by anything of the kind on Broadway or Wall Street". Frederick Wunder designed a three-story brick stable and storage house in 1890, which replaced the wooden stable building already on the site. In 1897, Wunder submitted plans to replace the storage house's wood frame with cast iron columns. By 1896, Ulmer was described as a millionaire, and he lived at a large estate on Bushwick Avenue. With income from the brewery, Ulmer was able to acquire several pieces of real estate, although there is no documentation to support that Ulmer operated any beer gardens to sell his beer. Ulmer operated several facilities including Ulmer Park in Gravesend; Dexter Park in Woodhaven, Queens; and a beer pavilion in Forest Park, Queens. In 1898, he built an ice-manufacturing plant in the town of Greenport, New York. According to a 1909 magazine article, the Greenport plant was capable of producing 10 short tons (8.9 long tons; 9.1 t) of artificial ice each day throughout the year. When Ulmer retired in 1900, the company was reincorporated with his son-in-law John W. Weber (1858–1933) as its president. Weber, as well as Ulmer's wife Catherine and his other son-in-law John F. Becker, served as directors of the newly reincorporated company. The firm was listed as having $550,000 in capital stock. Additions continued through the 1900s, including a 236-barrel container for cooking the brew, installed in 1906. The container, designed by Frank Stanley, was so large that part of the floor had to be cut out to accommodate it. When Ulmer died in 1907, the brewery had become one of Brooklyn's largest. The brewery had produced 3,200,000 US gallons (12,000,000 L) of beer a year at its peak. By the early 20th century, though, other breweries with larger and more complex machinery had been developed. Post-closure After the enactment of Prohibition, production of alcoholic beverages became illegal, so the brewery closed in 1920. After closure, the brewery's buildings were sold and used for light manufacturing. The stable–storage building was sold in 1921 and was acquired c. 1923 by the Artcraft Metal Stamping Company, a lighting company that used the structure as a manufacturing facility until 1940. The main brew house was sold in 1922 and was acquired in 1923 by Marcus Leavitt, who renovated it and replaced the courtyard behind the building with a parking garage. The brew house was then sold in 1924 to another firm, and both the main brew house and the stable–storage building were resold multiple times in the 20th century, being used by various manufacturing firms. The Ulmer family continued to own the office building before selling it in 1952. The main brew house received a new sprinkler system, fire escapes, and exit doors in the 1950s. The Twenty Starr Street Corporation bought the office structure in 1962. In 1985, Jay Swift, a stone sculptor and marble worker, purchase.... Discover the William A Ulmer popular books. Find the top 100 most popular William A Ulmer books.