Thursday, January 14, 2016

Pilsen Brewery

Update: 1903-1968.

Jim Klingelschmitt posted
Breweries were an important industry in early Chicago. It used to have more breweries than Milwaukee.

The street cars are on 26th Street and we are looking SSE. Note that either every boiler fireman wasted too much coal on the fire, which is what creates black smoke, or it was still stylish for the artist to add black smoke to the painting. The artist shows a few more cars than horse&buggys, so I presume this would be late 1910s or early 1920s. The brewery opened in 1903 and was closed after Canadian Ace bought it in 1963. (Forgotten Chicago)

I wonder if this is their second location because this is in Little Village. The Pilsen neighborhood is several blocks to the east and north.

1939 Aerial Photo from ILHAP
The aerial photo is of the blocks surrounded by 26th, Whipple, 27th, and Troy Streets. The beer garden is now a parking lot and the brewery is retail stores. However, the brown building at the bottom is a remnant of the brewery. Note that the tracks of Illinois Northern Railroad forced the buildings to be built on a diagnol.
Satellite

Jim Klingelschmitt posted
Jim's comment: "Ghost sign for Pilsen Bros. Beers...South side of Ogden Av. just west of Pulaski."
As an experiment with bing, I tried to find this building. But I could not.


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