Demolition at the Hamm’s Brewery

Original Post May 2011

So I was driving by the Hamm’s brewery for a shortcut (which probably wasn’t really a short cut) but I was in the area so I had to do a pass by the brewery, and as I turned the corner I was shocked to see what was happening, most of the fermentation building was gone!

I didn’t even know this was in the works, I mean I had a feeling something was going to happen because I saw the Bolander construction signs out in the parking lot the week before but nothing to this scale.

I pulled over and tried taking as many pictures as I could with my Nokia (or whatever phone I had back then) of this historic building being destroyed!

I ended up going back the next day to dig around and see what I could find in the rubble and I ended up finding unused Schlitz Light bottleneck labels! I still have them today in my collection with other random beer related things. Oh yeah I also ended up taking a huge section of the wall too….really haha.

In actuality it was more like 8 bricks still together in one piece, which I ironically gave away to a fan of the website two years ago when I was moving. I still have a couple loose bricks laying around from that day still so not all was lost.

Today the area where the fermentation building stood has been turning into a natural drainage area for the rest of the larger parking lot/driveway, you can see it clearly if you are driving by on Minnehaha Avenue.