Lion Brewery New York

Lion Brewing was a brewery operating in New York City from 1850 to 1944.

Shortly after immigrating to the USA, Swiss-German August Schmid and Emanuel Bernheimer founded the Costanz Brewery at East 4th Street near Avenue B in 1850. The brewery produced a lagered beer, a favorite among German immigrants. By 1852, they built a second Costanz Brewery at Four Corners in Staten Island, home to a large German community. Five years later, Bernheimer became the partner of another German immigrant, James Speyers and founded the Lion Brewery in 1857 in Manhattan Valley.

A group of Catholic Bavarian Germans helped build the Lion Brewery. When it was built, they held their Masses in the Brewery on Sunday mornings. Then these industrious Germans built Ascension Church and Rectory located on 107th Street between Amsterdam and Broadway. Following that they built the school and convent on 108th street connecting to the rear of the church. When they succeeded in bringing the De LaSalle Brothers to teach in the School, the area had become fairly well built up, so they bought a house on 106th Street between West End Avenue and Riverside Drive for the Brothers to use as a residence. Around the same time they purchased an old Methodist Church on 108th Street between Manhattan Avenue and Central Park West. The Church building was converted into a Parish Hall and given to Ascension.There was a swimming pool in the center on the first floor. A fully equipped boxing room with ring and pulley weights was found on the right side of the first floor and on the left a pool and snooker tables and tables for playing ping pong and cards. On the second floor was a basketball court with a stage at one end. There was a balcony over the second floor with limited folding bleachers and an Olympic sized wooden running track which circled the balcony. During the tenure of Bishop Joseph P. Donahue as pastor of Ascension Parish, the Parish Hall was sold to the New York City Police Athletic League. A large portion of the money received from the sale is said to have been donated to Manhattan College in upper Manhattan which is operated by the Christian Brothers. A portrait of Bishop Donohue was hung in the Administration Building hallway at Manhattan College in appreciation of his donation to the College.

At its peak, the Lion Brewery occupied about six city square blocks, from Central Park West to Amsterdam Avenue and from 107th to 109th Street. At the time Manhattan's Upper West Side was an open area with inexpensive land housing, many public institutions and an insane asylum. There were about five to ten thousand living in shanty's after being displaced by the creation of Central Park in 1859. Consequently, with the brewery and surrounding areas, the Upper West Side failed to increase its real estate value until the early twentieth century.

In 1862, a $1.00 tax on each barrel of beer hurt small brewers but not Lions. The anti-saloon movement in the late 19th and early 20th century encouraged Lion to clean up its own saloons. Lion brewing got caught up in a wave of mergers and closings among some of the smaller New York Brewers in the early 1940s which continued until 1941, when the business closed. The brewery (including the canning facilities) was auctioned off on August 26, 1943. The plant was demolished in 1944 and more than 3,000 tons of steel were taken from the original brewery structure and recycled for the war effort.

After the Brewery was knocked down the lot was paved over with cinders. On Sundays, after the war, the returning WWII Veterans for a Softball League and played almost every Sunday afternoon. Home plate was located near 107th street and Columbus Avenue. Today, apartment houses occupy the Lion brewery's former location.

In about 1860 or so the brewery published a pamphlet titled "Observations on Brewing and Beer: With an Analysis and Scientific Testimony Relative to the Lager Beer of the Speyers' Lion Brewery." The pamphlet had a short history of the different kinds of beer, and an analysis showing that their lager beer was pure. The pamphlet also included some great line drawings of the brewery complex.

External links

* [http://www.rustycans.com/month0604.html Rusty Beer Cans]