Historic Mills of Connecticut

Companies Associated w/Complex

• Connecticut Breweries Co., Meriden Branch 1890-1922
• Meriden Brewing Co. 1887-1890

Use (Historic)

• Food, Beverage, Tobacco

Largest Documented Workforce

60 (1906).

Historic Narrative

The Meriden Brewing Company was organized in 1887 by W.E. Green and J.A. Hurley of Meriden, and J.H. McMahon and P.W. Wren of Bridgeport, Connecticut. The firm was established as a substantial operation from the start and within two years the brewery’s distribution network extended throughout the entire state and into all of the nation’s major commercial centers. This success garnered the attention of another significant Connecticut brewing operation, A. Wintter and Company of Bridgeport, Connecticut, and in 1890 the two firms merged to form the Connecticut Breweries Company. Despite their financial ties, the Meriden Brewing Company continued to operate as a semi-independent arm of the Connecticut Breweries Company and by 1892 the Meriden branch’s output topped 100,000 barrels per year. It was credited as being the largest brewery in New England at the time and its 60 employees were kept busy completing multiple brewing shifts per day. The firm enjoyed a tremendous benefit from its location directly along the New York, New Haven, and Hartford rail line, which allowed for the seamless flow of materials and product in and out of the brewery, and a sprawling plant eventually grew up at this location and included a brewhouse, shipping and storage houses, a cold storage plant, fermenting house, artificial ice-making plant, boiler house, and a stable for the firm’s fleet of delivery wagons and the requisite horses. The Connecticut Breweries Company enjoyed considerable success into the early 1900s and its line of lagers, ales, and porters gained both local and regional followings, with some product traveling as far as the Bahamas, Cuba, and South America. A 1906 feature on the company noted that a significant portion of the beer consumed locally was from the Meriden plant and that its ‘Golden Pale Ale’ and ‘Pale Extra Lager’ were particularly popular. Despite this fact, however, the company was plagued by mismanagement following the onset of Prohibition and after losing $100,000 during 1921, the stockholders voted to dissolve the Connecticut Breweries Company on May 15, 1922. The Meriden plant has passed through numerous hands since its closure, and was used as a steel warehouse during the 1950s.

Number of Existing Buildings

Three (3) primary blocks.

Dates of Construction

ca. 1887, 1894.

Architect

n/a

Builder

n/a

Building Type

• Administration
• Warehouse / Production Shed

Architectural Description

The Connecticut Breweries Co., Meriden Branch plant is comprised of three adjoining red brick blocks located at the southwest corner of the intersection of South Colony and Cherry Streets and along the east side of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford rail line. The most prominent block is the former fermentation and storage building, which is at the southeast corner of the plant with frontage along South Colony Street. The block was erected ca. 1887 and is a two-story, 47’ x 84’ red brick building with star-shaped masonry anchors and a three-bay façade. The latter is comprised of a garage-style door opening flanked by round arched windows on the first story and three evenly-spaced round-arched windows on the second, a denticulated cornice and stone beltcourse dividing the first and second floors, and a corbelled cornice spanning the brick parapet. All of the façade windows have corbelled brick hoods and stone sills. A three-story, 47’ x 71’ building formerly housing the brewery’s cold-storage tanks adjoins the aforementioned block’s west elevation and extends to the railroad right-of-way. The cold-storage block has star-shaped masonry anchors, segmental-arched window openings, and a flat roof. The third and final primary block associated with the plant is the brewery’s former office building, which adjoins the fermentation and storage building via a small one-story red brick ell. The office measures 52’ x 28’ and is six bays wide and four bays deep. It has a brownstone block foundation, red brick walls, round-arched door and window openings with stone sills, and a flat roof. Several of the window and door openings partially infilled with wood or Plexiglas panels.

Exterior Material(s)

• Brick

Structural System(s)

• Load Bearing Masonry

Roof Form

• Flat

Roof Material

• Asphalt

Power Source

• Steam

Condition

Fair, Deteriorated

Condition Notes

The factory is in overall fair to deteriorated condition. Portions of the exterior walls are heavily stained and sections are in various stages of deterioration. A large percentage of the windows have been replaced or partially infilled.

Specific Location

One 0.82-acre parcel (137 South Colony Street) at the southwest corner of the intersection of South Colony and Cherry Streets.

Adjacent To

• Main Roads
• Railroad

Exterior Visible from Public Road?

Yes

Parcel ID / Assessor Record Link

• 0109-0045-0001-0000 / Link →

Acreage

0.82

Use (Present)

• Vacant

Form Completed By

Lucas A. Karmazinas

Date

05/22/2015

Bibliography

1. List of Connecticut Manufacturers, 1922, 1924, 1930, 1932.
2. Directory of Connecticut State Manufacturers, 1936, 1939.
3. Industrial Directory of Connecticut, 1947.
4. Register of War Production Facilities in Connecticut, 1951.
5. Map of New Haven County, H & C.T. Smith, 1856.
6. Atlas of New Haven County, Beers, Ellis & Soule, 1868.
7. Birdseye View of Meriden, Connecticut, O.H. Bailey & Co., 1875.
8. Birdseye View of Meriden, Connecticut, Hughes and Bailey, 1918.
9. Sanborn Map Company, 1884, 1891, 1896, 1901, 1950, 1953.
10. Hartford Courant, 1921, 1922.
11. An Historic Record and Pictorial Description of the Town of Meriden, Connecticut; Gillespie, C. Bancroft, ed., 1906.
12. A Modern History of New Haven and Eastern New Haven County; Hill, Everett G., 1918.
13. History of New Haven County, Connecticut; Rockey, John L., 1892.