Fire engulfs St. Paul brewery

[Wickerman]

http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/5602244.html

A building at the old Hamm and Stroh brewery complex on St. Paul's East Side was engulfed in flames Wednesday evening and black, thick smoke could be seen in the sky for miles as the fire burned.

Firefighters were called to the building about 5:30 p.m. and expected to be there for several hours.

The building was vacant and there were no immediate reports of injuries, said Assistant Fire Chief Dave Pleasants.

--snip--

First built in the 1850s as the Pittsburg Brewery, the facility was bought in 1864 by Theodore Hamm and expanded in 1901. The St. Paul Pioneer Press reports that the site played a key part in St. Paul's brewing history through the years. The site stayed with the Hamm family for three generations, according to a neighborhood group.

Hamm's beer was well-known for it's mascot — the Hamm's bear — and it's theme, "From the land of sky blue waters.'' The site was eventually sold to the Stroh Brewery Co., which shut down its St. Paul operation and closed the brewery in 1997.

In August 2003, the city bought the oldest portion of the brewery for $1.2 million.

-----

I'd read about how a development group was going to rennovate it for apts, shopping. Sad to see a landmark go away like that. Not NOLA comparable, of course, but still sad.

[skooooo]

1. God doesn't like Catholic beers.

[Spike from MN]

2. This would make me cry except that it had been closed for

awhile. Whew! Gas station closings? Ah, who cares. But a brewery burning down. My God, what WILL I do? ;)

That's really too bad. From what they said on the news, it was just one building so hopefully they were able to control it and minimize the damage. The whole complex of the brewery is spread over 33 acres. I grew up on a farm and 33 acres might be a small-to-medium size for a field but it's a HUGE chunk of land when you're talking about the city. I hope they put in apartments and if they're done in time for the survivors of Katrina, all the better. That would be great if they were the first occupants.