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Joseph Schlitz's Milwaukee brewery traces its roots to 1848 when August Krug established a brewer. Schlitz worked as Krug's bookkeeper and took over the operation when Krug passed away in 1854.

This photo of Kansas City's 1903 flood includes the Schlitz Brewing Company sign in the background

The Milwaukee-based brewing giant Schlitz established a depot near 9th Street and State Line in the West Bottoms in 1900. Following the repeal of Prohibition in 1933, Schlitz sold franchise agreements with local distributors, and Kansas City's franchise was acquired by mobster John Lazia. In 1956, Schlitz purchased the George Muehlebach Brewery, a vast complex in the River Market area from 3rd to 5th Streets and Oak to Grand.

Schlitz Brewing Company Warehouse; Lidia's Restaurant

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Swiss brothers George and John Muehlebach purchased the Main Street Brewery on 18th Street and Main Street in Kansas City from George Hierb in 1870. Hierb’s operation was not large and began as little more a shack. However, the location was ideal given access to a well and by 1869 he was producing 3,000 barrels of beer per year.The Muehlebachs quickly expanded, adding cellars to Hierb’s shack in 1875. The company also added a new brewhouse in 1880, shortly after founder John Muehleback passed away. The brewhouse building was known as the “Beer Castle” by locals, and Muehlebach’s beer quickly became one of the most popular in the city. The brewery changed names several times, from Main Street Brewery after its purchase from Hierb in 1870 until 1884, then Muehlebach Brewing Co. – Main Street Brewery, then Geo. Muehlebach – Main Street Brewery; George Muehlebach Brewing Company; and simply George Muehlebach Company during Prohibition.Muehlebach tried to weather Prohibition and the severance of its alcoholic product lines by manufacturing a non-alcoholic beverage named Mulo from 1917 to 1929, as well as several soft drinks, but the profits were not enough to keep the company solvent, and they shuttered the 18th and Main site in 1929.With the repeal of Prohibition imminent in 1932, brothers George E. and Carl A. Muehlebach, sons of George Muehlebach, one of the original founders, decided to relaunch the company. An initial public stock offering failed to raise the $1.5 million needed to retrofit the old brewery site at 18th and Main with new equipment and needed upgrades, so George E. and Carl A. approached private investors for capital. The brothers finally secured funding from a consortium of stockholders in 1937, which included Robert A. Drum, President of the Fontenelle Brewing Company in Omaha, and Andres Soriano, owner of the San Miguel Brewing Company in the Philippines. Henry Sund, the connection between Fontenelle and San Miguel, moved to Kansas City from Omaha to take the position of brewmaster in the new Geo. Muehlebach Brewing Company. Drum would serve as President; George E. Muehlebach would serve as Vice-President and General Manager; and Carl. A. Muehlebach would serve as Chairman of the Board.Part of the new financing was a change of location: the old brewery site at 18th and Main was abandoned, and Muehlebach opened its new operation here at 4th and Oak Streets in 1938. The old brewery building at 18th and Main fell into disrepair, and Kansas City officials asked the Muehlebachs to stabilize or demolish the structure in 1941. The building was destroyed that same year. The new Muehlebach Brewery site at Fourth and Oak had been a cold storage location for the Western Ice Service Company, and the investors spent $500,000 renovating the existing buildings and adding new structures, including a brewhouse, keg washing building, and bottling works. The brewery’s expected output was 150,000 barrels in 1938. Because of Muehlebach’s hometown appeal—the company delivered to an average of 28,000 Kansas City homes per year from 1909-1918—President Robert A. Drum decided to emphasize production of Muehlebach’s reliable favorites over expansion of Drum’s Fontenelle Brewery line. The Muehlebach Pilsener and Lager labels were resurrected, along with a special brew in green bottles sold only at the Hotel Muehlebach, a 500-room establishment the Muehlebach Estate Company (home of the family’s extensive real estate holdings) had built in 1916 at 12th and Baltimore in downtown Kansas City.Muehlebach’s operations expanded again following Prohibition, just as before passage of the 18th Amendment. In 1940, the company purchased a controlling interest in the Lone Star Brewing Company of San Antonio and widened Lone Star’s brand offerings. Production capacity at Muehlebach’s facility in Kansas City expanded to 175,000 barrels about this time, and two new brands, Muhlebach Special and KC Select, were added to the company roster. Word War II caused employee, equipment, and grain shortages, and though sales did not meet the new production capacity of 175,000 barrels in 1941 and 1942, sales topped 180,000 barrels in 1944 and 1945, thanks to a capacity expansion in 1943. In 1946, Muehlebach made another public stock offering, and this time it was successful, bankrolling the company’s growth and increasing the number of brewery stockholders to over 400. Sales jumped to 244,000 barrels in 1947, a record for the company, and a fourth expansion of the facility began that same year. George E. and Carl A. Muehlebach also moved on from their positions with the company in 1947; George E. retired as General Manager when he moved to Beverly Hills, California, although he continued serving as Vice President until his death in 1955, and Carl A. was replaced as Chairman of the Board by Andres Soriano of San Miguel Brewing. Although Muehlebach celebrated its 80th anniversary in April 1948 with a party held on the street in front of its 4th and Oak brewery, the company began to struggle. Sales dropped to 183,000 barrels in 1948, due in part to the U.S. commitment of grain to Europe as part of the Marshall Plan, along with a shortage of glass. Muehlebach sold its interest in Lone Star Brewing in 1949. A brief respite in the early 1950s lifted production back to 200,000 barrels. That same year a new President, Otis F. Bryan, instituted a focus on flat-top beer cans, which were being used more than ever before. In 1945, 65% of beer was sold draft and 35% was sold in bottles. That ratio reversed five years later: in 1950, 73% of beer was sold in prepackaged containers (including bottles and cans) and 27% was sold draft. This switch reflected the changing consumption habits of returning military personnel, who had consumed beer in cans during the war and wanted the same experience at home. Early beer cans were cone-topped, in order to use the same production equipment as bottles and not disrupt drinkers’ expectations of the familiar bottle shape. But in 1950 Bryan saw the advantage of flat-top cans, which took less shipping space and stacked better, and approved a canning line at Muehlebach for the new flat-top design. Bryan also launched a brand redesign in 1950, along with a new pasteurizing system and nine new delivery trucks. All told, his investment totaled $375,000. At the end of 1950 the brewery’s capacity had been increased to 375,000 barrels, and another $1 million was invested in 1951 to extend its capability to 500,000 barrels. The brewery employed nearly 300 people and two more lines were added to the Muehlebach brand: Kroysen in 1951 and Malt Liquor around 1952. The company reported a loss for the first time in 1951.Part of the reason for Muehlebach’s failure was overreach as they attempted to survive through growth in an era of industry consolidation. In their last fiscal year, their markets in other states and outside Kansas City limits grew by 7%, but sales inside the city dropped by 13%. A concurrent factor was competition by growing national breweries, including the Milwaukee-based Schlitz Brewing Company. Schlitzh struck a deal with the city's new Major League franchise, the Kansas City Athletics, when the club arrived in 1955. Schlitz’s popularity was growing in Kansas City, and their determination to invade Muehlebach’s home market via the Athletics’ radio advertising, combined with Muehlebach’s focus on out-of-state expansion, are contributing factors to Muehlebach’s declining sales.In 1956, Muehlebach sold its operation at 4th and Oak Streets to Schlitz Brewing for an undisclosed sum estimated to be around $2.5 million. The Kansas City brewery empire had outlasted the rise and fall of Prohibition, but like dozens of other major regional breweries, it was absorbed by a larger brewery with national reach in an era of consolidation.

Shortly after prohibition, the Muehlebach Brewing Company opened a brewery at this location and operated it until their company was acquired by Schlitz. Kansas City's Muehlebach family had previously operated a vast business empire centered on brewing between the late 1860s and Prohibition. A local favorite whose products were delivered to an average of 28,000 homes per year before Prohibition, Muehlebach once again began producing its famous Pilsener and Lager labels here in the River Market neighborhood. They also produced a special “green bottle” brew sold only at the Hotel Muehlebach, a 500-room downtown Kansas City hotel. Muehlebach’s post-prohibition revival was a success despite some setbacks during World War II, and they sold 244,000 barrels in 1947, much higher than this plant’s original 1938 production capacity of 150,000 barrels. This production peak was created by a combination of focus on the local Kansas City market, outside capital, acquisition, and aggressive out-of-state expansion. However, in 1948, production was hampered by U.S. grain commitments to the postwar Marshall Plan in Europe, as well as a nationwide glass shortage, and the brewery declined, posting its first loss in 1951. The brewery was sold to Milwaukee's Schlitz Brewing Company in 1956, but the Muehlebach name remains known throughout the city.

Muehlbach Brewery (1938-1956)

Jacob Best operated the original brewery with his sons, with Phillip Best taking over operations of the Milwaukee brewery in the 1850s. Best's other sons, Lorenz and Charles, also entered the brewing business, establishing the Plank Road Brewery in 1850. Four years later, Plank Road was purchased by Frederick Miller, founder of the vast Miller brewing empire. Phillip's daughter Maria married steamship captain Frederick Pabst in 1862, and just two years later, the son-in-law invested his stake in the steamship business into his wife's father's brewery. Pabst worked to expand the family business and purchased half of his father-in-law's stake in the brewery in 1865. When Phillip Best sold his remaining stake, Frederick Pabst became president of the company, which continued to operate as the Philip Best Brewing Company until 1899, when the brand name changed to Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer. By that time, Pabst operated a vast brewing network. Established in 1879, this Kansas City facility was the second branch of that empire.

Established in Milwaukee by Jacob Best in 1844, Pabst opened a branch in Chicago in 1878 and a second branch here in 1879 at 100 Main, then the corner of Commercial and Main. By 1898, the brewing complex included buildings with addresses from 2 Main to 110 Main. In 1911, Pabst's Kansas City branch was operated on the southeast corner of 21st and Central which later became the headquarters of the Pendergast Distributing Company.

Kansas City Branch, Pabst Brewing Company

9th Street between State Line and Genessee on 9th Street was known as “The Wettest Block in the World” fthe wettest block in the world following Kansas prohibition with 23/24 buildings on the north and south side of 9th Street being saloons or liquor stores.Building at SW corner of 9th and State was constructed by Pabst Brewery in 1911. St Louis Ave and State Line, about a block south, was home to Joseph Schlitz Brewing depot.

West Bottoms and The Wettest Block in the World

West Bottoms overview here... Dick Brothers Brewing Company of Quincy Illinois was the first out-of-town brewery to create a depot at the northeast corner of 10th and Mulberry.

In 1877, Jacob Rieger established a distillery across from the Livestock Exchange that would grow to become the largest mail-order distributor of whiskey in the United States. J. Rieger &amp; Co. operated until prohibition in 1919.

J. Rieger & Co. (1877-1919)

In 1850, Kansas City had less than 6,000 people and had two breweries. The population boom in the next decades attracts other brewers and existing breweries. Shortly after purchasing the brewery at this location, Heim's beer won national attention. In 1888, Heim built a five-story brick brewing complex in the East Bottoms, and thirteen years later, he built the bottling plant that is now home to the J. Rieger distillery, a modern business named in honor of a former Kansas City distillery that began in the West Bottoms in 1887. With its emphasis on history that includes numerous exhibits, Rieger also produces a modern version of Heim's lager that can be purchased on-site and is known as Heim Bier. In the mid-1880s, Heim and his sons acquired a former sugar mill refinery at the intersection of Agnes Avenue and Montgall to expand their operations. The family built a substantial five-story malt house the following year along with numerous other facilities in what became a vast brewery complex. The Heim family also built a streetcar line and Electric Park in 1899, an amusement park next to the brewery that was known for its display of over 100,000 electric lights along with rides and a theater, as well as a beer garden that served beer directly from the neighboring brewery. The streetcar line led to hundreds of families moving to the East Bottoms and Heim built a fire station that later became part of the city system. In 1907, the company moved Electric Park to 46th and Paseo, where it would earn the nickname "Kansas City's Coney Island." They sold their rail line to the city's largest operator, the Metropolitan Street Railway Company.

Now home to Main Street Theatre, this was the site of one of the largest breweries in Kansas City in the 1870s and 1880s. F.H. Kump arrived in Kansas City in 1859 and entered the soda manufacturing business with a small plant here in 1867. Kump used his equipment to bottle beer for other brewers, and within two years, the operation expanded to brewing and bottling his own beer. By 1884, the business had expanded and produced around 12,000 barrels per year when F.H. Kumps Star Ale Brewery was sold to Fred Heim and his family. Heim would later build one of the largest breweries in the city in the East Bottoms. This location was known by several names during Heim's tenure as owner, including the Bavarian Brewing Company. The theater was completed in 1921 and included several unique features, such as tunnels to the adjacent President Hotel that were utilized mainly by traveling actors who prepared their costumes and makeup in their rooms. The theater also featured a nursery for children whose parents were attending the show and a sub-basement with cages for animals such as elephants that could be lifted to the stage.

14th Street Brewery; Star Brewery

Charles Price arrived in Kansas City in 1911 and worked as a salesman for the National Candy Company prior to starting a soda and candy concession stand at the one-prominent Jones Store. He founded Price's Fine Chocolates in 1913. In addition to this building, the company built a second candy factory at 2 West 39th Street, which opened in 1929, shortly before the onset of the Great Depression. His son, Charles H Price II, worked at the family candy company from 1955 to 1981 (and managed it from 1973 until 1982), when the family sold the business. In 1969, Price II married Carol Ann Swanson, an heir to the Swanson food empire. Charles Price II met and befriended future President Ronald Reagan through his network of family and friends in 1970. In the spring of 1981, President Ronald Reagan appointed Price as the United States Ambassador to Belgium. Two years later, Price left Belgium to become U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom, where he proved instrumental in handling one of the United States' first foreign-terrorist attack tragedies: the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103. The Price family sold the company to Minnesota Twins (Major League Baseball) owner Carl Pohlad in 1982, and then the ownership changed several times before Sweet Shop USA acquired Price's Fine Chocolates in 2000. Meanwhile, in addition to serving as the home to the Price Chocolates, the building housed a sewing company, a heavy-machinery company, and a wholesaler of industrial sewing machines. Today, it's the home to Tom's Town Distilling Co., named, according to the company, "after the country's most corrupt political boss, Tom Pendergast. Pendergast started as a saloon keeper and the founder of a wholesale liquor company."

Now known as Tom Town's Distillery, named after Kansas City's infamous "Boss" mayor, Tom Pendergast, the building was built in 1908 and became the headquarter for the Price Candy Company. The wealth gained from the candy and chocolate business allowed them to live among the social elites. Charles Price II, son of the company's founder, married the heir to a food empire, befriended a future U.S. President, and enjoyed immense success in the private sector and as a U.S. diplomat.

Price Candy Building; Tom's Town Distillery

George Hierb established Main Street Brewery in the mid-1860s in a shack at the northwest corner of the 18th and Main Streets in Kansas City. Hierb chose the location because of a freshwater well that provided cold water for brewing. Hierb produced 3,000 barrels per year in 1869.The following year, in 1870, Swiss immigrants and brothers George and John Muehlebach purchased Main Street Brewery from Hierb and set about upgrading Hierb’s primitive setup. They added cellars to Hierb’s original “shack” and by the end of the decade were the second most-productive brewery in Kansas City, producing 3,932 barrels per year.In 1880, after John’s death, George built a new brewhouse, nicknamed the “Beer Castle” by local beer fans, a Romanesque, mansard-roofed marvel that ensured the brewery’s growing reputation was matched by modern architecture. The brothers’ brewery was known by many names following their purchase from Hierb: Main Street Brewery (until 1884); Muehlebach Brewing Co. – Main Street Brewery (1884-1890); Geo. Muehlebach – Main Street Brewery (1890-1903); George Muehlebach Brewing Company (1903-Prohibition); and George Muehlebach Company during Prohibition (through 1929). What did not change was the Muehlebach commitment to expansion: the facility’s capacity grew from 3,000 barrels per year in 1869 to 100,000 barrels per year in 1911, thanks to multiple additions to the 18th and Main site.George Muehlebach, the last remaining founder, died on December 22, 1905, but his family was well-positioned to carry on the business. His oldest son George E. Muehlebach was named President and General Manager; his wife Margaret was Vice-President; his daughter Sophronia Buchholz was Treasurer, and his youngest son Carl A. was Secretary (he would be promoted to Superintendent in 1907).George E. Muehlebach had been working in his father’s brewery since he was a child, and became a full-time employee at age 17, first as solicitor and collector, then as company Superintendent in 1904. George E. also secured the position of President in the Muehlebach Estate Company in 1905, which controlled the Muehelbach’s large real estate assets. In 1916, the company built the 500-room Hotel Muehlebach at 12th Street and Baltimore Avenue in downtown Kansas City, which still stands and was part of the Marriott Hotel at that location before being converted into luxury apartments. George E. Muehlebach’s passions extended to baseball as well as brewing. His father George had sponsored a local team, named the Muehlebach Pilseners after the company’s signature drink, and George E. played first base on that team. In 1917, George E. expanded the Muehlebach Company’s sponsorship of baseball, purchasing the local minor league team, the Kansas City Blues, and then the American Association baseball field at 22nd and Brooklyn, rebuilding and then reopening it in 1923 under the name Muehlebach Field. The brewery’s team set an American Association home attendance record of 450,000 in its inaugural year, and the team would win the Association’s 1927 and 1929 pennants. George E. dreamed of bringing major-league baseball to Kansas City, but this would not happen until 1955 and was connected to the Muehlebach company’s eventual demise. The Muehlebach brewery owned the Kansas City Blues until 1932.Prohibition, which banned the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages in the United States from 1920 until 1933, shuttered Muehelbach’s operations for almost a decade and led to the demolition of the brewery’s historic first location at 18th and Main. Muehlebach filed a trademark application for a maltless, non-alcoholic cereal beverage named Mulo on May 18, 1917, before the passage of Prohibition in December 1917, to be marketed as a soft drink and engineered to help the company weather the new legislative environment. Mulo, along with other soft drink products, kept Muehlebach afloat for over a decade, but the company ceased operation until 1929. On April 13, 1930, Carl A. Muehlebach was interviewed by the Kansas City Star for an article detailing the dismantling of the brewery’s alcohol manufacturing equipment, in which he sadly recounted the brewery’s construction in 1880 and admitted the building’s brewing equipment no longer had commercial use.Only a few years later, in 1932, public opinion was turning against Prohibition, and Carl, now acting President of the Muehlebach Estate Company, along with his older brother George E., began talks with investors to reopen the 18th and Main location, which the Estate Company still owned. The plan required $1.5 million, and the brothers could not secure funds until 1937 when a consortium of private stockholders financed the reopening of the George Muehlebach Brewing Company. Part of the deal was a change of site with a brewery at 4th Street and Oak, near the Kansas City riverfront, opening in 1938.The old brewhouse at 18th and Main languished. In 1941, city officials demanded the Muehlebachs make the building safe in five days or demolish it, and it was razed that year. The site was later chosen as the site of Trans World Airlines’ corporate headquarters, and that building opened in 1956. Its original mid-century modern façade has been restored, and the building now houses the offices of the Barkley advertising firm.The new brewery site at 4th and Oak initially focused on Muehlebach’s local appeal, resurrecting the popular Pilsener and Lager labels and a special brew in green bottles sold only at the Hotel Muehlebach. However, acquisition and out-of-state expansion provided new outlets for distribution, and the Muehlebach operation expanded again in the late 30s and early 40s, just as it had before Prohibition. Word War II dampened production, but the brewery hit an all-time production high after the war in 1947, selling 244,000 barrels and collecting sales of nearly $6 million.Muehlebach’s success would not last, however. A combination of factors in the late 40s and early 50s caused profits to collapse: the U.S. grain commitment to the European postwar Marshall Plan, a stateside shortage of glass, and a decline in local demand for Muehlebach’s beer even as they increased out-of-state sales. The company posted a net loss of $272,281 in its last fiscal year, and was sold to rival Schlitz Brewing Company of Milwaukee in 1956.When the Kansas City Athletics, the city’s first major-league club, moved to the area in 1955, Schlitz Brewing Company was determined to make inroads in the Kansas City market and was the Athletics’ first radio sponsor. In 1956, following its quarter-million-dollar loss, Muehlebach sold its operation at 4th and Oak Streets to Schlitz, and an epoch of Kansas City beer history ended.

In 1870, Swiss brothers George and John Muehlebach created one of Kansas City’s longest-running Kansas City breweries after purchasing George Hierb’s Main Street Brewery which was located here at the corner of 18th Street and Main Street. Hierb's brewery grew from a small shack producing beer in the mid-1860s to a sizeable plant that produced 3,000 barrels per year by 1869. This acquisition was part of the George Muehlebach Brewing Company's pattern of expansion that included the construction of a Romanesque brewhouse at this site that soon became known as the “Beer Castle.” That investment increased production at this site to 100,000 barrels per year by 1911. The Muehlebach brothers kept the Main Street Brewery title from their purchase in 1870 until 1884. After that time, the business saw several name changes that reflected the growth of Muehleback and the value of that brand in Kansas City and surrounding communities. When the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution banned the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages in the United States, the 18th and Main location closed in 1929 despite Muehlebach’s attempts to diversify their business with several soda drink products and an alcohol-free cereal beverage named Mulo. Muehlebach reopened after Prohibition was repealed in 1933, although it took five years, until February 5, 1938, to secure funding and a new site for the brewery at 4th and Oak Streets near the Kansas City riverfront. The old brewery at 18th and Main was condemned and demolished in 1941. While the post-prohibition Muehlebach company grew through the 1940s and early 1950s, it succumbed to a similar fate as many large regional breweries, and its 4th and Oak brewery was sold to Minneapolis-based Schlitz Brewing Company in 1956.

George Hierb’s Main Street Brewery; Muehlebach Brewery (1869-1929)

The name Rochester Brewery appears in Kansas City's City Directory in 1888 on Washington between 20th and 21st Streets.

Rochester Brewery, also known as the J.D. Iler Brewing Company, had a vast complex that operated at this location from 1888 to 1919 when Prohibition closed breweries around the country or compelled them to produce other products such as sodas and non-alcoholic beer. In 1905, Rochester merged with Imperial and Heim breweries to become Kansas City Breweries Company. The only remaining building from the complex is the former bottling building which today has a sign that says "Office Products Alliance." In recent years, a modern brewery operating nearby at 2129 Washington Street adopted the Rochester name.

Rochester Brewery

Boulevard Brewing Company

In 1850, there were only two breweries in Kansas City but by the turn of the century, the population had skyrocketed and more than 300 saloons opened around town to serve a growing demand. Large breweries were needed to supply these venues with the amount of alcohol they needed to serve their customers. One of these was the Imperial Brewing Company. The company opened a brewing complex at this location in 1902, choosing this spot for its location near rail lines. The brewery itself, which was built in a Victorian-Romanesque Revival style, used a nearby cave to store their beer in a climate-controlled area.Imperial became known for its signature lagers, Mayflower and Imperial Seal. In 1905, the company was absorbed by Kansas City Breweries Company, which led to an expansion of the company's line of products and manufacturing capacity. In its early years, Imperial could produce 50,000 barrels of beer per year, but at its peak after the buyout, this capacity had grown to 300,000 barrels per year. Kansas became a dry state in 1881 which led to increased opportunities for Missouri saloons and breweries. This also reflected the growth of Prohibitionist influence nationwide which includes Missouri, causing the overall demand for alcohol to drop slightly from its peak.As Prohibition became the law of the land in the 1920s and early 1930s, the legal side of the alcohol industry ended. While bootleggers and speakeasies flourished, companies like Imperial Brewery were forced to close their doors or repurpose their facilities to create malts or other products. In 1919, the building was acquired by the Boulevard Mill, a company that milled and sold flour and was a cornerstone of the local grain industry. The other buildings in the former complex, including an icehouse, were torn down when the building changed hands.The Boulevard Mill operated until the 1980s. Despite some efforts to sell the building, the former home of Imperial Brewery was vacant for three decades, which saw the structure repeatedly damaged by squatters, vandals, and a three-alarm fire in 2012 that destroyed much of the interior. Prior to its demolition in 2023, this structure was the only pre-Prohibition Era brewery still standing in Kansas City. Citing the structure's historical value, preservationists made repeated efforts to find creative uses that could fund the building's restoration. Ideas included converting the structure to a hotel or retail space, but cost estimates were discouraging and many in the area saw the damaged structure as a blight on their neighborhood.

Constructed in 1902, the ruins of the Imperial Brewing Company Building towered over I-35 for decades until its demolition in 2023, serving as a reminder of Kansas City's "golden age of brewing" in the early and mid-20th century. Located in the Westside neighborhood, the brewery began operations in 1902 and operated for around 80 years. The structure is a great example of Victorian and Romanesque architecture and is the only major brewery complex in the city that predates the era of Prohibition. The building was vacant for around half the amount of time it was occupied, leading to deterioration. A three-alarm fire in 2012 caused so much damage that attempts to restore and repurpose the sprawling structure became financially untenable. The structure was demolished in 2023.

Imperial Brewing Company (1902-2023)

Following the construction of Union Station, Pabst built a two-story depot. At that time, the company owned and operated several saloons throughout the city, a common practice that was made illegal as part of the compromise legislation that repealed prohibition. Tom Pendergast took control of the Pabst operation here, distributing the cereal beverages made by Pabst and other brewers during prohibition and likely operating bootlegging operation from this location.

Pabst Depot (1911-1920) Pendergast Distributing Company 

St. Louis brewer Anheuser Busch established a Kansas City branch at this location on the east side of Walnut at 20th Street in 1883. The branch expanded steadily as the company's share of the Midwestern beer market grew, and by the early 20th century the brewer's complex spread to 19th Street. Prohibition led to the closure of the facility after 1919, and the space is not mostly occupied by parking lots.

Anheuser-Busch, Kansas City Branch

If one stands at the castle-like former beer depot looking north, they will see a large parking lot where McClure Flats was located. After plans to build Union Station were completed, this area saw some of the tenements replaced by warehouses and other buildings for businesses connected to the railroad, a situation not completely unlike the changes that occurred in recent decades. While this building and many others in the area sat empty in the 1970s and 1980s, reinvestment and redevelopment has led many young professionals and businesses to see the area as a desirable location.The historic building was threatened with demolition as part of plans to repurpose the Firestone Building next door. The structure was preserved and is now home to McKay and Byerley Law Offices and has received an award for historic preservation from the Historic Kansas City Foundation. Lemp Brewery was established in St. Louis in 1840 and was the 8th largest brewery in the United States when this depot was constructed. The company was later acquired by Falstaff.

Constructed in 1895, this brick structure with its castle-like façade was home to what was known as a "beer depot" at the turn-of-the-century. The building was owned by the Lemp Brewery Complex in St. Louis and sold beer that had been stored in temperture controlled caves in St. Louis and then transported here by rail. This was one of around sixty beer depots operated by Lemp, who used this building as a stable with wagons and horses that carried beer from rail cars and distributed it throughout the city. The depot also sold beer directly to local residents, usually by the bucketful. At this time, it was common to send children on that errand, so it was common to see small children carefully returning home with a full pail that would supply the family's needs a day or two in an era before refrigeration. The building was located next to McClure Flats, a small complex of mostly windowless tenements that was home to many new arrivals in the city from the 1880s to just after the completion of Union Station in 1914.

Lemp Brewery Depot (1895) and McClure Flats 

Now home to Missouri's first Black-owned brewery, this historic stone structure was constructed in x for the Street Department

Street Department Building; Vine Street Brewing

what was then the northeast corner of 17th and Indiana

Goetz Brewing Company

Home to a growing community of laborers, the West Bottoms where Jacob Rieger initially sold his spirits was known as "The Wettest Block in the World’ owing to its numerous saloons and taverns. With a statewide prohibition law in Kansas from 1881 to 1948, men who lived and worked on both sides of the state line congregated in this part of the city. Jacob’s son, Alexander Rieger established the Rieger Hotel and also took over his father's distillery in 1900. The younger Rieger grew his father's business by focusing on distribution and marketing, utilizing phrases like "Best on Earth" and "O! So Good" as he built J. Rieger &amp; Co. into the largest mail-order whiskey business in the United States by the start of Prohibition.In the late 1800s to early 1900s, Kansas City was rapidly expanding as the railroad made the city a hub for agriculture and manufacturing. While businesses that employed thousands of men operated on both sides of the state line, Kansas enacted prohibition in 1881, leading to even more saloons, taverns, and brothels in the West Bottoms of Kansas City, Missouri. Nationwide prohibition did little to curb these industries in the 1920s as the Pendergast political machine made sure that no one in Kansas City was ever arrested for violating the Volstead Act.Jacob Rieger and his family immigrated to America from Austria-Hungary in 1879 and arrived in Kansas City in 1885. Jacob was a businessman of many trades and, in 1887, he established “J. Rieger and Co.” dealers in fine liquors. This business was located at 1529 Genessee Street, across from the stockyards at Union Depot in the West Bottoms district. Jacob’s son Alexander was also a savvy businessman and took over the family operation in 1900. He created an elaborate marketing campaign, offering free gifts with his mail-order service, claiming that J. Rieger &amp; Co. spirits to be the “Best on Earth” and “O! So Good”. It became the largest mail-order whiskey house with a base of over 250,000 customers. After multiple floods in the Union Depot district, many businesses were forced to relocate or close due to continuous and extensive damage. These floods led to the decision to create a new railroad depot further south, and Alexander Rieger responded by building a budget hotel within walking distance of the new Union Station which opened in 1914. The Rieger Hotel Grill &amp; Exchange was located near Kansas City's new Union Station, but the distillery was now situated in an area that was no longer the center of traffic in and out of the city. In response, Alexander commissioned a mural on the west side of the Rieger Hotel where it would be viewed by tens of thousands of visitors each month, including hundreds of thousands of soldiers who passed through the city. The mural promoted the family's Monogram Whiskey.Jacob Rieger passed away in 1914 at age 86. A few years later in 1919, federal prohibition laws led to the decision to pivot the family business. In January 1920, the Volstead Act enforced prohibition by barring the manufacturing, sale, and transport of alcohol. The distillery was forced to shut down and Alexander closed the doors of the hotel. The family focussed on finance, with Alexander opening a bank with his son shortly after the distillery closed. Alexander died in 1936. The original distillery building was demolished in the 1950s and replaced by a parking lot. At that time, the only physical reminder of the Rieger name could be found in the marble cornice atop the former hotel. This would be the case for over five decades until Ryan Maybee, a Kansas City bartender, saw the potential to open a bar that celebrated the city's "spirited" history.After opening Manifesto, a speakeasy concept bar in the basement of the historic Rieger Hotel in 2009, Maybee partnered with chef Howard Hanna in 2010 to open a restaurant named in honor of the former distillery. The Rieger was an award-wining restaurant that operated on the main level of the building while Manifesto remained a popular place for celebrating the rebellious spirit of Kansas City during the era of prohibition. On the opening night of The Rieger, the last remaining blood relative to Jacob Rieger, Andy Rieger, came in to meet the owners and thank them for honoring his family. Maybee shared his plans with Rieger and the two men agreed to establish a distillery. Over the next few years, the two developed a business plan, purchased the original trademark, and with help from a Kansas City agency to brand the name, J. Rieger &amp; Co. was back in business. Inspired by the past, the new J. Rieger &amp; Co. uses the original name, logo, and slogan (‘O! So Good’). Since the original distillery was no longer standing, they secured the property of the former Heim Brothers Brewery in the East Bottoms neighborhood. While plans of a full distillery were in place, they also faced legal obstacles, and their first release was a blend from sourced barrels. For the first time in decades, in October 2014, J. Rieger &amp; Co. successfully launched Rieger’s Kansas City Whiskey, which would soon be ranked in the top four for International Best New Spirit or Cocktail Ingredient at the 2015 Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards. In 2015, operations were started and after learning some history of the whiskey trade, distillation began and J. Rieger &amp; Co. expanded their selection to include a variety of other spirits.

Located in the historic Heim Brewing Company Bottling Plant, constructed in 1901, this modern-day distillery pays tribute to a historic brand of Kansas City whiskey and includes a gallery of artifacts dedicated to the city's brewing and distilling history. The distillery's name is a tribute to the legacy of Jacob Rieger, who arrived in Kansas City from Austria-Hungary in 1885 and established J. Rieger &amp; Co. two years later and operated a distillery at 1529 Genessee in the West Bottoms. The original Rieger distillery operated until the passage of the Volstead Act in 1919 and ceased production until the end of prohibition in 1933. While a small number of distilleries survived prohibition, given lax enforcement in Kanas City, the Rieger family opened a bank. The West Bottoms building that was home to the Rieger distillery was demolished in the 1950s and replaced with a parking lot. Rieger Whiskey's return began in 2009 when a local bartender created a speakeasy, a business that led to greater interest in the "spirited" history of Kansas City. In 2018, the new modern J. Rieger Company acquired this former bottling plant building in the historic Heim brewery complex in the city's East Bottoms.

Kansas City Brewing and Distilling Heritage Trail

Schlitz Brewing Company Warehouse; Lidia's Restaurant

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Sources