As we've written here before, you never know what history lies right in your backyard.
Take, for instance, the old Gebhard Brewery building (what remains of it) here in my hometown of Morris, IL. We've lived here for almost six years, but never knew much about the "ruins" that existed few blocks from the downtown area and right off the I&M Canal trail.
In addition to the photos here in this post, you can view all my brewery photos here.
Last week, my daughter and I took a little hike to the "ruins" of the old Brewery to take some pics — then we took to the Internet to do some research.
The Gebhard Brewing company was founded by German immigrant Louis Gebhard in 1866, and the brewery was built in the late 1880s. It remained in operation until prohibition, when the company went belly-up. The brewery was then turned into a flour mill.
We found this great Facebook page about the brewery, maintained by Minooka history teacher David Belden, who writes:
Last week, my daughter and I took a little hike to the "ruins" of the old Brewery to take some pics — then we took to the Internet to do some research.
The Gebhard Brewing company was founded by German immigrant Louis Gebhard in 1866, and the brewery was built in the late 1880s. It remained in operation until prohibition, when the company went belly-up. The brewery was then turned into a flour mill.
We found this great Facebook page about the brewery, maintained by Minooka history teacher David Belden, who writes:
The brewery’s product was known throughout the state because the finest quality of malt, grit and foreign domestic hops were used in the process. The surviving buildings include the brick bottling plant (1888) and the larger brew house (1896). With the coming of prohibition in 1919, the brewery closed, and the brew house was converted into a flour mill.The photo below is from Belden's Facebook page, which shows the main building and brewhouse of the Gebhard Brewery, as it looked in 1896. Compare with the photos I took last week (above).
