Yakel House and Union Brewery/ Netzhammer House and Bluff City Brewery

The Yakel House and Union Brewery, also later known as the Netzhammer House and Bluff City Brewery is an excellent example of a well-preserved mid-19^th century family-owned brewery complex built and operated by German immigrants. Built in 1836 by Philip Yakel, it was the first in Alton and one of the city’s earliest successful industries. The site also includes the second family home of the Yakels and features a vernacular design influenced by German architectural tradition. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

The Yakel House and Union Brewery, also later known as the Netzhammer House and Bluff City Brewery is an excellent example of a well-preserved mid-19^th century family-owned brewery complex built and operated by German immigrants. Built in 1836 by Philip Yakel, it was the first in Alton and one of the city’s earliest successful industries. The site also includes the second family home of the Yakels and features a vernacular design influenced by German architectural tradition.

The Yakel-Netzhammer House is a vernacular brick construction with German influence. It’s heavy original Germanic styling has been muted by simplification of the dormers and elimination of the parapets and eave brackets. The 2 ½ story soft red brick (now painted) residence has a symmetrical five-opening front (east) façade with a double doored first floor entrance beneath an ornamented iron balcony at the second floor level. Projected brick courses emphasize the gable ends and front and rear eave lines of the house. Five gabled-roofed dormers, three in front and two in the rear, contain ornamental jack arches and shoulders. The east (front) and north (street) sides of the house, the most visible to the passerby, retain the style and character of the structure, although the Victorian architectural elements already mentioned as well as a porch beneath the balcony have been removed. Although a bathroom and two-story garage have been connected by hallways to the rear of the house, the addition is recessed toward the southwest corner and obscures less than one fourth of the original rear elevation of the house.

The house is situated on a courtyard like emplacement above the street and brewery yard. A cut stone with finished limestone cap wall retains the emplacement on the north and east, and on the south and west a high stone wall (added by the Netzhammers) retains the hillside which rises behind the house. The original wrought iron fence on the retaining wall still borders the yard on north and east; red brick walks and red sandstone steps cross the lawn and lead to iron gates and stone steps at the two entrances to the yard. The stone north façade of what is probably the oldest building in the brewery complex, walls the entire south side of the front yard. The ten-to-fifteen acre original property was originally not entered from Brown Street, but from the east end of Union (as late as 1868-69 George Yakel was listed as living at Union near 6^th) and the house was built to face the southeast. Later, Pearl street was constructed and now runs past the north side of the house.

On the interior of the original part of the house a center hall runs from front to rear on all three floors; in the hallways an open staircase rises continuously from first floor to attic. The second floor was deigned as the main floor of the house; the ceilings are high (ten feet), the woodwork wider and most elaborate, and all windows are paneled underneath. To the north of the hallway are two rooms (originally double parlors with folding doors between them) and to the south are two bedrooms. All rooms open onto the hall. On the first floor, originally the living-dining room was to the south and the kitchen to the north. The southwest room (being completely underground) was a food storage cellar with a dirt floor. The northwest room had a large bake oven and a sink in diagonally opposite corners. The floor was brick in this rom. Ceilings on the first floor are nine feet high. The lighted attic story houses two bedrooms, (George Yakel’s youngest daughter, sometime before her death in 1943, drew plans of each floor of the house as it was when she lived there as a girl.)

Besides enlarging the brewery, the Netzhammer family made many changes to the house during their nearly 100-year tenure. They had the adjacent hillside removed, had the high retaining wall built on the south and west sides to form a wide airway and added the garage wing. In 1936 the house was extensively remodeled on the inside and air conditioning was installed (the first in Alton). The first floor became the main floor; the kitchen was relocated, three bathrooms and several closets were added; the living room acquired French doors (on the south) and ceiling molding. The staircase and second floor woodwork (indeed most of the interior woodwork) were not altered; the attic rooms still retain the original doors, box locks, and porcelain and Bennington door knobs. The house was heated by the brewery heating plant until the 1970s when a furnace room was excavated beneath the south-west corner of the original house.

The Yakel-Netzhammer house was vacant for a few years in the 1970s but since May 1980 it has been used as Alpha House, a not-for-profit Alcoholism Rehabilitation Center. Several changes have been made to conform to safety rules; a metal fire escape has been constructed on the south side of the house (not the street side); double metal doors have been installed in the front of the still-in-place main entrance doors and the stairway has been enclosed in a wall on the first and second floors (the railings and newel post are still intact).

The Yakel-Netzhammer house and Union-Bluff City Brewery are excellent examples of a well-preserved mid-19^th century family-owned complex built and operated by German immigrants. In 145 years the property has been in the possession of only two owner-proprietor families, and the property still belongs to the second of the two families (1836-1981). Once located beyond the city limits, the Yakel-Netzhammer property is now surrounded by the city of Alton; however, because of its peculiar location, it still retains its look of a separate enclave. The house and brewery buildings are isolated in a triangular piece of ground, bounded by three streets (Union, Brown, and Pearl), insulated by plotted but never developed lots along Brown Street and provided with a backdrop of steep wooded hillside and park-like cemetery. The brewery buildings reflect the natural diversity of industrial structure design over a 116-year period. In the 4.8 acre site, there is a progression of the early establishment and intermediate expansion as well as recent efforts to meet changing needs and to keep up with technological advances in the brewing industry (1836-1952).

Researched and Written by Madelyn Knight

Uploaded on behalf of Madison County Historical Society by Kiley Fuchs

http://hpa.illinois.gov/PDFs/201300.pdf ; https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/142979683/william-netzhammer

https://www.thetelegraph.com/news/article/Alton-brewing-history-subject-of-lecture-Thursday-12596750.php