DUBUQUE BREWING AND MALTING COMPANY

Dubuque Brewing and Malting Company

DUBUQUE BREWING AND MALTING COMPANY. Once the Midwest's premier beer-brewing facility. Increased demand for beer prompted four local BREWERIES to consolidate in 1892. Joining together to form the Dubuque Brewing and Malting Company were the Heeb Brewery, NORTHERN BREWING COMPANY, Iowa Brewing Company, and the Western Brewing Company.

The resulting company at 30th and Jackson STREETS covered ten acres with modern buildings and machinery costing $500,000. The annual production capacity was 300,000 barrels of beer. Water was supplied from an artesian well on the premises and cooling was done by ICE machines.

Designed by Louis Lehle, a respected Chicago brewery architect, the building is one of Dubuque's outstanding examples of ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE. The plant, then considered the most modern of its type in the country, was estimated to have 224,500 square feet of floor space. Delivery vehicles that drove thirty miles before the batteries needing replacing were used.

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In 1916 PROHIBITION closed the brewery. Legends persist that Alphonse CAPONE used the facilities and shipped out its illegal beer in milk cans.

Corn Belt Packing Company, a local meat packing firm, opened for business in the former brewery on October 15, 1919. Fred Kretschmer succeeded A.B. McCue as president and was generally given credit for making the company profitable. The beginning of the Great Depression, however, closed the plant.

In 1934 the brewery was purchased by Joseph Marko and M.L. Blumenthal who spent an estimated $100,000 remodeling the plant which was never reopened. Beginning in 1940 the company, which the two investors had renamed the Julien Dubuque Brewing Company, was used by the DUBUQUE PACKING COMPANY as a ham storage warehouse. The H & W Motor Express Company has since used the location as a home office and terminal.

In the fall of 2008 the city considered including the building in a new urban renewal district. The concept developed because the Dubuque Stamping Company was planning a multi-million dollar expansion project. The city could create tax incentives that would make it less expensive for a developer to expand, or restore a building here.

Advertising light for Dubuque Brewing and Malting Company. Photo courtesy: Bob Reding

In 1977 the home of the former Dubuque Brewing and Malting Company was placed on the NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES. After protests by the two corporate owners, the Division of Historic Preservation of the Iowa State Historical Department removed the buildings from the Iowa register. (Photo Courtesy: http://www.dubuquepostcards.com)