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 three acres with modern buildings and machinery costing $500,000.

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. An estimated three hundred thousand barrels of beer were brewed annually under the Export and Banquet labels.

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. Beginning in 1940 the site was used by the DUBUQUE PACKING COMPANY as a ham storage warehouse. The H & W Motor Express Company 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)