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Entryway to the Stegmaier Brewery
Photograph by Sue Pridemore |
Stegmaier Brewery
was the largest brewery among numerous breweries in the
Wyoming Valley. At one time the firm was one of the largest
independent breweries in the United States. Between 1910
and 1913 when American breweries were sending their beers
to be judged in European expositions, Stegmaier Beer swept
the field by winning eight Gold Medal awards in every
major exposition, including those in Brussels, Paris,
and Rome. The brewery grew from a five-employee operation
in 1857 to a high of 300 employees in 1971, then ceased
operations in 1972. The architectural character of the
brewery was established by the Romanesque style of the
oldest extant building in the complex, the Brew House
Building. Constructed in 1894 and designed by architect
A. C. Wagner, its Romanesque influenced industrial style
was recreated throughout the complex, influencing the
late 19th-century industrial appearance of the other buildings
constructed by the First World War. When listed in the
National Register in 1979, six buildings remained of the
original brewery complex. The complex has been recorded
by the Historic American Buildings Survey. In 1995, Bohlin Cywinski Jackson,
a local architecture firm, performed a prospective-use
feasibility study, and found the building worthy of renovation.
The building was redeveloped into 70,000 square feet of
office space, along with a 60,000 square foot addition.
By November 1997, Congressman Kanjorski and five Federal
agencies had leasing agreements and moved into a beautiful,
newly renovated Stegmaier Building.
The Stegmaier Building is located at 7 North Wilkes-Barre
Blvd., Wilkes-Barre. The building is now used
as government offices, and is not open to the
public. |