William Ulmer Brewery
75 Beaver Street | also 41 Belvidere Street, 81 Beaver Street | Bushwick | built 1931
Open on the map7 entries
The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1871
William Ulmer and Anton Vigelius found a lager brewery at Belvidere and Beaver streets
Ulmer, a Württemberg immigrant and nephew of brewers John F. Betz and Henry Clausen Sr., teamed up in 1871 with Bavarian Anton Vigelius to found the Vigelius & Ulmer Continental Lagerbier Brewery. Construction was already underway that year, and an accident at the site killed one worker and injured two others.
“In 1871, Ulmer and a Bavarian immigrant named Anton Vigelius founded the Vigelius & Ulmer Continental Lagerbier Brewery…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1881
William Ulmer Brewery workers strike over low wages
In 1881 some of the brewery's workers went on strike to protest low wages. The business had begun as Vigelius & Ulmer, which the Brooklyn Daily Eagle called one of the larger breweries in the Williamsburg area in 1875. Vigelius soon gave up his stake, leaving William Ulmer as sole owner of what became the William Ulmer Brewery.
“In 1881, some workers went on strike to protest low wages.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1885
Theobald Engelhardt designs a $15,000 expansion with a new office building
In 1885 the architect Theobald Engelhardt designed an expansion of the brewery. It added an office building, structures for machinery and boilers, and a washroom and keg-filling room at the back of the main brewery. The Eagle put its cost at $15,000. In 1886 the paper declared that no business offices on Broadway or Wall Street surpassed the counting-houses at Ulmer and several other nearby breweries.
“In 1885, Theobald Engelhardt designed an expansion, which included an office building ... the 1885 expansion cost $15,000.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1906
A 236-barrel brewing vessel is so big that the floor is cut open for it
Among the additions of the 1900s, the brewery installed a 236-barrel container for cooking its brew in 1906. Designed by Frank Stanley, it was so large that workers had to cut away part of a floor to fit it in.
“…a 236-barrel container for cooking the brew, installed in 1906 ... so large that part of the floor had to be cut out…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1907
William Ulmer dies, leaving one of Brooklyn's largest breweries
William Ulmer died in 1907, and by then the brewery had grown into one of Brooklyn's largest, at its peak turning out 3,200,000 US gallons of beer a year. Newer breweries of the early twentieth century, however, had larger and more complex machinery.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1920
Prohibition shuts the brewery and its buildings turn to light manufacturing
Prohibition made alcohol production illegal, and the brewery closed in 1920. Its buildings were then sold and used for light manufacturing. The stable and storage house sold in 1921 and by about 1923 belonged to the Artcraft Metal Stamping Company, a lighting firm that made products there until 1940. The main brew house changed hands in 1922, and later owners also used it for manufacturing.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2010
The brewery becomes the city's first landmarked brewery
On May 11, 2010 the Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the William Ulmer Brewery a city landmark, the first brewery in New York to receive that status. The office building was still in use as a private home when the decision came. The complex was added to the National Register of Historic Places on February 20, 2024.
“On May 11, 2010, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the brewery an official city landmark, making it the first brewery to receive this status.”
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
- William Ulmer BreweryWikipedia
Nearby
- Catherina Lipsius House674 Bushwick Avenue | 8 entries
- Woodhull Medical Center760 Broadway | 5 entries
- Eyebeam199 Cook Street | 1 entry
- US Post Office-Metropolitan Station47 Debevoise Street | 2 entries
- Williamsburg Branch, Public National Bank of New York47 Graham Avenue | 6 entries
- Wayfarers1109 Dekalb Avenue | 2 entries