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Evansville Brewing Association Bottling Plant
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Built to meet the demand of the massive Evansville Brewing Association, the 4 story with basement bottling plant was completed in 1914 and still stands today. When it was completed, it was a state of the art facility which enabled the brewery to up its production and sales considerably. This sat next to the brewery and was responsible for bottling all the beer. Below is what the building looked like upon completion. Since its building, there have been several additions to the place. These additions were built on the original structure. The additions are distinguishable from the original structure because they are made mostly of cinder block, which did not become common until much after the plant was built. These additions look to be mainly for warehousing and shipping docks. However, only a small part of this building was warehouse. As a bottling plant, this had a very important role in the brewery.
This is a major part of the remains of the brewery. Not much is left. However, the Brucken's Annex, which is listed under the Indiana Register of Historic Site and Structure and was the main office and administration building for the brewery, is still around. It is leased to a cable company along with some of the warehouse space of the plant. That could perhaps explain the many satellite dishes on top of the facility.
This building also holds Evansville's Asylum, which is a haunted house held in the basement.
We visited this place over 4 years ago (2006) and took as many pictures as we could of the wonderful place. It was almost completely empty save a few beer boxes and some conveyer machinery. The office area, however, had some interesting stuff. The bottling plant is now being used as a warehouse (glad to see it being used). Therefore you should not attempt to enter the facility without proper permission or you could be prosecuted.
Also, I apologize for the lack of quality in this pictures. I always thought I would have a chance to go back and take serious pictures and that never happened (moving does not help). So the quality is poor. I had not posted these earlier because of their poor quality.
If you want a more detailed history of the brewery you may want to read/checkout my page on the other building. Brewery. You may also want to read this web page as it has a lot of information. Sterling
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Reads, " Mammoth New Bottling Shop Evansville Brewing Ass'n, Evansville, Ind. "Sterling" & "Rheingold" Completed June 1, 1914 Dimensions 110 ft x 250 ft - Four Story and Basement The most complete beer bottling plant in the United States. Modern and perfect in every detail. Hygiene, sanitation, and pasteurization are here practiced along the highest scientific lines. Visitors Welcome. " |
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A timed exposure I took a few years back of the front. |
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Note: You will want to view these by rolling your mouse over each thumbnail horizontally. Scroll passed the picture before you horizontally scroll back around to the next row. Scroll down as you do this.
There were 4 floors that we visited. We did not go downstairs as to not interfere with the Asylum. Most of the action was on the 1st and 2nd floors.
The Vat
There was still a very large beer vat from the brewery. They still make sterling and my understanding is that they took these with them. Apparently they left one behind. I believe it is still there after 14 years.
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1st Floor: Warehouse/Shipping.
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1st Floor:Main Area
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2nd Floor
This floor was very interested. It had a work area, then it had a balcony that followed the wall and overlooked the 1st floor. It also lead to the back of the building where the offices were.
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2nd Floor: Office Area
This room was quite fascinating. It was a large room with sinks all over the place. I do not know enough about brewing to guess at what this room was used for. However, it did have a very interesting device left in it. It had a Scanlan-Morris steam sterilizer. It was similar to an autoclave. Scanlan-Morris build many different items for hospitals and institutions back in the heyday. This particular model was called the "American" and was a dressing sterilizer. I have a book dating this device to at least 1913, which leads me to believe this was put here when they built the plant in 1914. It looks to be missing a few pieces, but was still really cool. It was made of aluminum.
If you are interested more in hospital equipment, including this device, check this out The Modern Hospital
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3rd Floor
There was not much up here. It was completely empty.
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4th Floor
Again, not much up here.
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Employee Lockers
This area was very cool.
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This facility was incredble. Just to think, all of those empty floors once were full of people. Now they sit empty....
An early shot of the bottling plant.
A very haphazard diagram of what is left of the brewery. Hopefully this helps. The "
