A thirst for new condos
Historic Boston breweries are on tap to be revived as centers of modern living
A century ago, Boston's Stony Brook Valley and the artesian wells under Mission Hill supported two dozen breweries, which churned out such colorful quaffs as Vienna Old Time Lager, Elmo Ale -- named for a brewer's son -- and, with the Olde Towne Team's championship 1912 season, Red Sox Beer and Pennant Ale.
Only a handful of the breweries, however, lasted after Prohibition and most of the sturdy, soaring buildings were eventually torn down. But three Gilded Age survivors on or near Heath Street are being revived after a long dormancy and are set to become hubs of modern living.
The first to be ready are the lofts at the American Brewery Co. building on Heath Street, with its granite, brick, and terra cotta stonework and twin archways where horse-drawn wagons brought water and barley in and lager out.
"It's not only historically significant, it's a beautiful building with dramatic open spaces, large windows and a courtyard, which will make it an interesting refuge from the city," said Tom Niles , executive vice president of development for Procaccianti Group of Cranston, R.I., which along with Commonwealth Capital Ventures of Waltham, is redeveloping the property.
Founded by James W. Kenney , an Irish immigrant who owned several other breweries in the neighborhood, the American Brewery Co. used gravity instead of electricity to power a top-down brewing process, said Michael Reiskind of the Jamaica Plain Historical Society. Barley was hoisted to the top of the main building and stored in cedar-lined rooms before being cooked, or malted. On the next floor down, the malted barley was mashed -- mixed with water and cooked -- and then the cooked mash was filtered from the liquid, making wort.
On the lower levels, ingredients such as hops and yeast would be added, as the wort was processed more. The fermenting beer was then stored on the bottom floors.
In addition to renovating the existing historic brewery facilities designed by Cambridge architect Frederick Footman in 1891, the developers added a modern glass-wrapped building. The two connect via a bridge and look out over the courtyard.
When finished next month the American Brewery Lofts will boast 79 lofts over five floors. One unit will be in the old brewmaster's quarters nestled under a turret, where even today, despite decades of neglect, the plaster detailing over arched windows remains intact. The unit will be listed for sale for at least $500,000.
The brewhouse will include a three-bedroom penthouse, and three tri-level cedar-framed penthouse units. The new building will include two "townhomes" designed by the Boston architecture firm Elkus|Manfredi Architects Ltd. that will feature patios and separate entrances and will list for $600,000. Prices in general start at $306,900 (including a parking space), and 36 units will list for less than $400,000.
Built in three phases, the original brewery's units come in a variety of odd shapes, with features such as huge arched windows, mezzanines, and vaulted brick ceilings called bovedas . In the 46 historic units, ceilings range from 14 1/2 feet to 34 feet high. Sizes range from 584 to 1,891 square feet. All the units will be ready for occupancy within several months.
"There's a lot of room for creativity for a certain kind of buyer," said Reiskind , who has compiled a detailed historical record of the area's breweries. Some units include the original ornamental cast iron columns that supported the huge vats of beer and water on the floor above.
"My first time in the building, I couldn't believe these were here," Niles said. "I love how they point out that there was so much strength that went into an industrial structure like this." The thick walls, designed to keep the temperature at around 58 degrees year-round, proved a challenge for creating new windows, Niles said. The bricks had to be cut and the new windows had to be built piecemeal, to prevent the self-supporting bricks from collapsing.
More modern features in the units include stainless steel flat wall systems with reglets that let residents mount appliances, cabinets, or shelves. Also, units in the new building with floor-to-ceiling windows will have automated shades that will in effect create one-way viewing -- from the inside out through the glass. Located near the terminus of the MBTA Green Line's E route, the American Brewery Lofts are "a development I've been asked about more than any other," realtor John A. Keith wrote on his Boston Real Estate blog.
Down Heath Street a few blocks is a brewery once owned by another beer baron, John R. Alley , that is also slated for redevelopment. Using an ancient name for Dublin, the Eblana brewery was built in 1886, and today is showing its age. Like the American Brewery building, Eblana was built in the Queen Anne style, and still features a columned covered balcony on the upper floor. But parts of the building are tagged with graffiti, two-floor arched openings are bricked over, while other smaller windows are blown out altogether. It is fenced off at street level.
John McGrail's Mayo Group obtained permits from the city in 2005 to build 62 lofts and 21 two-bedroom condos. Several calls to the Mayo Group were not returned. The Alley brewery features the owner's initials, JRA, etched in stone over the employee entrance. Alley opened it after working with one of Massachusetts' most famous beer barons, Henry H. Rueter . Rueter and Alley operated another brewery, Highland Spring, around the corner on Terrace Street. In the 1870s, it made more ale than any other American brewery and won the gold medal for ale at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, stunning the Philly brewers, who claimed to make the best ales, said Reiskind.
The two remaining Highland Spring structures, the storage and bottling buildings, built in 1892 and 1912, are owned by Briggs Capital Real Estate, which is planning Terrace Street Lofts, consisting of 175 lofts, nine artist live/work spaces, and a gallery. The development, near the Orange Line's Roxbury Crossing station, still needs financing, so nothing has been done since the building was gutted in 2005, said David K. DePree, a Briggs principal.
The buildings have had several lives. After the end of Prohibition, former brewmaster Walter J. Croft opened his own brewery at the site, and Croft Ale was brewed there until the Narragansett Brewing Co. bought it and shut it down in the 1950s.
The brewery building was later torn down. Meantime, 158 Terrace St. was bought by the Oliver Ditson Music Publishing Co. during Prohibition and used it for printing and storage. The Rosoff Pickles factory operated there from 1955 until it was bought and shut down by Hebrew National in the 1980s.
The building has since become known as the Pickle Factory. Inside still are painted wooden vats believed to have been used to brine the cucumbers.
Two other breweries, Union and Park, stood on the same block, back when Boston had the nation's highest number of breweries per capita, Reiskind said. "People from Milwaukee have been here and said, 'Even we don't have this,' " he said.
Correction: Because of a reporting error, a story on historic breweries in Sunday's Real Estate section incorrectly identified one of the companies involved in the redevelopment of a brewery in Mission Hill. The company is Commonwealth Ventures LLC. 