Brewery Spelunking in 1970s Oshkosh

Exploring abandoned breweries was practically a rite of passage for Oshkosh boys of a certain age in the early 1970s. The adventure for Dan Rothe began in 1973. He was 13 years old.

Dan Rothe on the left in 1973 with a neighborhood friend.

“Peoples was the first one,” Rothe says. “They had a little slide-up door by the loading dock, and it had been left open. We went in and ended up where the canning line was. Mind you, I had never been in a brewery before, and at that time me and just about everybody else my age collected beer cans. So seeing all that stuff in there, I remember being just wowed by it. It was like a time capsule. It was like they just shut down, put their gloves on the rack, and walked out.”

Peoples Brewing Company, circa 1973

Peoples Brewing Company, in the 1500 block of South Main Street, had closed in 1972. The facility was being left unattended by the time Rothe and his friends found their way inside.

"And we got caught by the police that very first time," Rothe says. "All of a sudden we hear 'All right kids come on out.' What? I tried heading out the door at the back of the brewery. I grabbed the handle of the door to open it, but it wouldn't open. All of a sudden the handle turns by itself. I wipe the glass and I can see the badge on his cap and I was like, oh man. They had us.”

“Our parents had to come down to the police station. Boy, did they run it up the flagpole. They said they were going to charge us with all kinds of stuff. They were just trying to scare the heck out of us. They did a good job of it. When we got out of there I remember my dad saying, 'Don't you ever go into that brewery again.' OK. So, about a month later, we went into the Chief Oshkosh Brewery."

Left for dead. The former brewery of the Oshkosh Brewing Company.

Across the street from Peoples stood the Oshkosh Brewing Company's abandoned brewery. The former home of Chief Oshkosh Beer had closed in 1971. Like Peoples, it was left unguarded. "You didn't break into that one," Rothe says. "You just walked in." Rothe would return time and again to the two breweries during the summers of 1973 and 1974.

"The inside of these breweries had an attraction to them. I mean all these mechanical can lines and these steam pipes, and there's all these old windows and huge vats, nice and copper and round. For a boy, it was just irresistible."

Inside the Oshkosh Brewing Company in the 1960s.

“Peoples was cool, but it was a small brewery. The Chief Oshkosh Brewery was a whole different story. It had all these different levels. It was enormous. But you had to be careful there. There was a hole that rotted through the ceiling of the tower. It let the water in and it rotted the steps up to the tower. We used to go climbing up there. You could watch the planes fly over through that hole in the roof during EAA."

"There was an office area with a safe with an arrowhead on the door that was swung open. It was just a mess. Paperwork was everywhere. There were beer labels all over the place. Beer cases, bottle caps. Once, I found an old Rahr's sign in there. It was at night. You ever try going over a bridge on your bike with a five-foot sign? I did it. I lived on the west side. That was a long ride."

As the adventure grew, the brewery excursions became more elaborate. They sometimes resembled a boy's version of a pirate raid.

"My friend had a 14-foot aluminum boat. He lived along the river on Adams. We'd take the boat down the river when it was getting dark. There were no running lights on it. We'd take the river into the lake and go ashore behind Peoples. When we were coming out of the Oshkosh brewery we'd watch for the headlights on cars on South Main. We didn't want anyone to see us coming out of there. When the cars passed, we'd run like crazy across the street and up over the train tracks and down onto the shoreline into the boat, and away we went."

Rothe and his friends weren't the only kids haunting the deserted breweries. "We'd run into other people," he says. "There were kids who would go in there and they’d just destroy it. It's unfortunate the abuse those buildings took inside. We didn't do that. We never went in and smashed stuff or busted stuff up. We didn't go in there to cause damage. We were exploring."

Looking west towards Peoples Brewing from the Oshkosh Brewing Company in 1974. Photo courtesy of Dale Hunt.

The adventure came to an end in the summer of 1974 when Rothe was 14. The demolition of the Peoples Brewing facility began in July of that year. The decayed remains of the Oshkosh Brewing Company were razed in 1986.

The start of the demolition of Peoples in 1974.

"I remember when Oshkosh got knocked down," Rothe says. "I was older then. It was a shame what happened there. There were big gaping holes smashed through the side when they took the vats outs. It was gutted. It was a skeleton, basically caving in on itself."

"But before all that, some of us just had one hell of a good time in there. If I could go back to 1974 and it was the same situation I'd be right back in there. I don't think kids get these kinds of experiences anymore. It's hard to explain. It's one of those things where memories are everything. That's all that's left."

Dan Rothe

End Note
Last year, I wrote a piece about the long decline of the Oshkosh Brewing Company’s brewhouse. You can find that here.

A Brewery Tour of Oshkosh’s Brooklyn

In the early 1850s, a community began forming on the south side of the Fox River in Oshkosh. Yankee settlers living on the north side of the Fox said the emplacement of the new settlement called to mind the river-sliced arrangement of Manhattan and Brooklyn. The Southsiders liked the sound of that. Brooklyn became their pet name for the neighborhood they were building.

Oshkosh's Brooklyn grew up south of the Fox River and east of Minnesota Street in the old Third Ward. By the 1860s it had developed into a thriving community with its own distinct identity.

Oshkosh’s Brooklyn, 1867.

Many of Brooklyn's early settlers had migrated from German-speaking lands in Central Europe. They were beer-loving people who retained their native tongue and their old-world culture of pleasure. Lager-beer saloons became commonplace along their main thoroughfare, Kansas Street, now called South Main Street.

The Beglinger Brothers’ Grocery and Lager Beer Saloon at the corner of 8th and Kansas, circa 1865.

But the Brooklyn saloons didn't serve Brooklyn-brewed beer. By the end of 1865, there had been seven breweries established in Oshkosh. All of them were on the north side of the river. Having to rely on the Northsiders for their beer irritated the independent-minded Southsiders. Brooklyn needed her own breweries. The name given to the first of them was practically pre-ordained.

The Brooklyn Brewery: 1865-1894
On October 4, 1865, a Saxon-born brewer named Leonhardt Schwalm purchased four adjoining lots on the east side of Doty Street below 16th. Schwalm enlisted the help of his Bavarian-born brother-in-law, August Horn. In early 1866 their brewery was up and running.

The Brooklyn Brewery, circa 1870. The vernacular architecture was typical of Oshkosh’s early breweries.

The Brooklyn Brewery was an immediate success, but not without its share of troubles. In 1872, a worker at the brewery fell into a vat of boiling beer and was scalded to death. A year later, the brewery's founder, Leonhardt Schwalm, died unexpectedly. And in 1879, the original Brooklyn Brewery burned to the ground.

The Horn and Schwalm families persisted. They built a new “fire-proof” brewery made of brick. It was considered the most technically advanced Wisconsin brewery outside of Milwaukee.

The rebuilt Brooklyn Brewery in the 1880s.

The Franz Wahle / John Glatz Union Brewery: 1867–1894
Franz Wahle was a German-born brewer who had helped launch the Stevens Point Brewery in 1857. Ten years later, Wahle left Stevens Point and bought a farm at the south end of Brooklyn. Naturally, he built a brewery there.

The Franz Wahle farm and brewery highlighted in red.

In 1869, Wahle leased his brewery to John Glatz and Christian Elser. Both were German-born brewers who had been making beer in Milwaukee before coming to Oshkosh. In 1872, Glatz and Elser purchased the property from Wahle after they had accidentally burned down his brewery. They built a new brewery in its place. It was called the Union Brewery.

The Union Brewery, circa 1886.

Elser left the Union Brewery in 1879 to establish the first independent beer bottling plant in Brooklyn on 17th Avenue near Doty. Glatz kept on making beer. By the early 1880s, Glatz's brewery was making more beer than any other brewery in Oshkosh.

The Ale Breweries of Brooklyn
The 1870s saw a trio of new breweries established in Brooklyn that offered an alternative to the flood of lager beer being issued by the two southside heavyweights. The new breweries made ale.

The most popular ale in Brooklyn was White Beer, an American interpretation of the Berliner Weisse style. White Beer was exceptionally pale and effervescent, low in alcohol, and refreshingly tart. It became a Brooklyn specialty.

Leonard Schiffmann’s White Beer Brewery: Circa, 1875-1882
A Prussian immigrant named Leonard Schiffmann was the first brewer of White Beer in Oshkosh. In 1875, Schiffmann purchased land at what is now 1864 Doty Street, where he built his brewery.

The former location of Schiffmann’s White Beer Brewery at 1864 Doty.

Brooklyn's ale breweries remain an obscure lot. But in Schiffmann's case, a couple of intriguing details have been unearthed. He made his beer using a "large iron boiling kettle" that was fired by either wood or coal. The kettle was surrounded by brick in an otherwise wood-frame building.

Not surprisingly, Schiffmann was plagued by fire. In 1878, his brewery was nearly destroyed after a fire broke out near his kettle. The building was severely damaged, but Schiffmann managed to save most of the beer on hand. Here's one of Schiffmann's rescued bottles.

Schiffmann packaged his beer in stoneware bottles. The thick-walled vessels were favored by brewers of the highly-carbonated white beer. At least three of Schiffmann’s bottles have survived. The bottle shown above was found near the corner of Ceape and Main in 1962 when construction work was being done there.

Leonard Arnold Brewery: 1875–78
On the heels of Leonard Schiffmann came Leonard Arnold, who established Brooklyn's most eccentric brewery in late 1875. Arnold's brewhouse was planted at what is now 1600 South Main Street.

The former location of Leonard Arnold’s brewery, 1600 South Main.

Arnold was the first American-born brewer in Brooklyn. His beer was a reflection of that. Among his specialties were spruce beer, lemon beer, and ginger beer. He also produced vinegar, yeast, and ink. The advertisement below has Arnold hawking his various wares in the Wisconsin Telegraph, a German-language newspaper published in Oshkosh.

Wisconsin Telegraph, October 22, 1875.

Here's my rough translation...

L.G. Arnold

Manufacturer of

Vinegar, Ink and Beer

Building located at 16 Kansas Street

Post Office Box 176 - Oshkosh, WI

Orders can be left at 7 Main Street

Arnold's old brewery remained standing long after the memories of his arcane ales had faded. Vinegar was still being made there in the 1930s. This next picture is circa 1940 and shows the former Arnold Brewery. It was torn down in the 1950s.

Frederick Voelkel Brewery, late 1870s
The last of Brooklyn's ale breweries was established sometime around 1878. The brewer was Frederick Voelkel, an immigrant from Saxony. Voelkel's brewery was at the northwest corner of Doty and 17th; just across the street from the Brooklyn Brewery.

The northwest corner of Doty and 17th where Frederick Voelkel had his brewery in the 1870s.

Voelkel's brewery produced white beer. In conjunction with his brewery, Voelkel also ran a taproom where he appears to have been pouring Brooklyn-brewed lagers in addition to his ale.

Brooklyn's ale-brewery sites.

Brooklyn's ale breweries were short-lived. Voelkel's brewery survived less than three years. Arnold's brewery had closed by 1879. The Schiffmann Brewery, the most prominent of the three, had gone out of business by 1883.

It was lager beer that put Brooklyn on the brewing map. By the late 1870s, Brooklyn’s two lager breweries had eclipsed their northside competitors.

Brooklyn’s dominance would continue to grow. It culminated in 1894 with a merger that made the name Oshkosh practically synonymous with beer.

The Oshkosh Brewing Company: 1894-1971
The Oshkosh Brewing Company was created on March 21, 1894 from the merger of Horn & Schwalm's Brooklyn Brewery, Glatz's Union Brewery, and Lorenz Kuenzl's Gambrinus Brewery. Kuenzl's brewery, located north of the Fox River on Harney Avenue, was converted into a bottling plant. The Brooklyn and Union breweries continued pumping out beer.

The Brooklyn Brewery, with its 40,000 barrel capacity, became the hub of the OBC operation and the primary brewhouse for its beer. It was where OBC's premium beers were produced, including a new high-end bottled beer named Gilt Edge.

Glatz’s Union Brewery was used as the production facility for "Standard," OBC's amber-hued lager that was on tap in almost every Oshkosh saloon.

The Glatz brewery rebranded as the Oshkosh Brewing Company.

By the turn of the century, 75 percent of the beer sold in Oshkosh was coming out of the two OBC breweries in Brooklyn. The explosive growth necessitated the construction of a new brewery that would consolidate production. OBC's new facility was completed in 1912. The imposing, six-story brewery loomed over the 1600 block of Doty Street.

OBC's presence was felt well beyond Doty Street. The brewery grew into such a force that it was able to dictate the price of beer sold in Oshkosh. But OBC’s bullish ways didn’t sit well with local saloon keepers. They banded together and in 1913 launched their own brewery in Brooklyn.

Peoples Brewing Company: 1913-1972
Peoples Brewing Company was a cooperative brewery financed by Oshkosh saloon owners and other local investors. They built a modern brewery on the east side of the 1500 block of South Main, just a stone’s throw away from OBC’s new plant.

Beer from Peoples Brewery began flowing on June 21, 1913 and quickly gained a loyal following. It sold especially well in Oshkosh saloons where bar keepers who owned stock in Peoples had a vested interest in pouring their brewery’s beer.

November 24, 1913.

For the first time since 1894, Brooklyn had competing breweries. Year by year they grew larger. In 1956, the last of the northside breweries closed when the Rahr Brewing Company failed. Brooklyn was now the sole source of Oshkosh-brewed beer.

By the late 1950s, more than 90,000 barrels of beer was being brewed annually in Oshkosh’s Brooklyn. That beer was sold in every tavern in town and throughout much of the state.

Brooklyn with her two big breweries in the background. Peoples is on the left. The Oshkosh Brewing company is towards the right side of the frame.

The Fall of the Brooklyn Breweries
The downfall of brewing in Brooklyn began after each of its breweries was acquired by outside investors who had little appreciation for local beer culture. In both cases, the new owners averted their focus from the home market in hopes of reaching a larger customer base.

The Oshkosh Brewing Company was sold in 1961 to David Uihlein, a member of the family that held controlling interest in Schlitz Brewing. In 1970, Peoples was sold to a group of Milwaukee investors led by Theodore Mack, a former employee of Pabst Brewing.

David Uihlein (left) and Theodore Mack.

Both men made critical blunders at a time when there was no room for error. Regional breweries, like those in Brooklyn, were caught in a pricing war that led to an unprecedented rash of brewery failures. Meanwhile, much larger “shipping” breweries such as Pabst and Schlitz were engaged in high-dollar marketing campaigns fostering the impression that locally brewed beer was inferior.

Neither Mack nor Uihlein were prepared to face those challenges. Neither man had run a brewery before. Their miscalculations precipitated the downfall of their respective breweries. Oshkosh Brewing Company closed in 1971. Peoples closed in 1972. For the first time since 1866, Brooklyn was without a brewery.

The abandoned Peoples brewery seen from the vantage point of the abandoned brewery of the Oshkosh Brewing Company, 1974. Photo courtesy of Dale Hunt.

The Return of Brewing to Brooklyn
Peoples closed and 23 years passed before Oshkosh had a brewery again. It began on the northside with a brewery on the river: Fox River Brewing Company opened on Arboretum Drive in 1995. It was another 22 years before Brooklyn got back in the game.

On November 9, 2017, Fifth Ward Brewing Company opened its doors in the heart of the old Brooklyn at 10th and South Main.

Fifth Ward Brewing at 1009 South Main.

Ironically, the new brewery adopted its name from one of the old northside breweries. The original Fifth Ward Brewery had been in operation on Algoma Boulevard from 1858 until 1880 when the deluge of beer coming out of Brooklyn sank it.

In 2018, a second brewery opened in Brooklyn. HighHolder Brewing Company operated from a suite behind O'Marro's Public House at 2211 Oregon Street. This one got its name from the old sixth-ward “High Holder” neighborhood adjacent to Brooklyn. Unfortunately, the brewery didn't last. HighHolder ceased production in 2020.

Pieces of the Past
Oshkosh’s old, northside breweries have been thoroughly erased. There's nothing left of them. But in Brooklyn, remnants of the early breweries remain.

The rebuilt Brooklyn Brewery, constructed in 1879, still stands in the 1600 block of Doty Street.

Then and now: the Brooklyn Brewery on Doty.

A couple of doors down is the former mansion of August Horn, who ran the Brooklyn Brewery and was the first president of the Oshkosh Brewing Company. Built in 1879, it was a home befitting Brooklyn's first beer baron.

The former home of August Horn, 1602 Doty.

At the south end of Doty is Glatz Park, named for the family that once ran a brewery on that land. There, you can still see some of the old stonework that formed part of the Union Brewery's lagering cellars.

On the eastern side of Glatz Park.

Adjacent to Glatz Park, at the southwest corner of 24th and Doty, stands a magnificent home built in the early 1890s for John Glatz and his family.

The Glatz home at 24th and Doty.

Further north in the 1500 block of South Main, is the old bottling house of Peoples Brewing. The brick building is surrounded by newer structures that make up the Blended Waxes Company complex.

The former bottle house of Peoples Brewing.

At the north end of Blended Waxes complex, loading docks that had been attached to Peoples Brewery are still intact. But the rest of the brewery is gone. It was demolished in 1974. The Oshkosh Brewing Company's towering brewery was demolished in 1986.

July 1974, at the start of the Peoples demolition.

Demolition of the Oshkosh Brewing Company in the fall of 1986.

References to the "Brooklyn" section of Oshkosh began falling out of use in the early 1920s. But the nickname has never been entirely abandoned. The Brooklyn Grill, which closed in 2019 after 37 years at 6th and South Main, was perhaps the best known of the more recent adopters of the moniker.

You still see the old Brooklyn when you head south over the Main Street Bridge onto what used to be Kansas Street. To your right stands the Brooklyn No. 4 Fire House, built in 1868 from a design by William Waters. It remains a striking reminder that you’ve entered Oshkosh's Brooklyn.

The Southside Brewing District Part II

Here’s the second of two videos exploring former brewery sites on the south side of Oshkosh. The first video in this series can be viewed here. Thanks to Mike McArthur of the Oshkosh Public Library for letting me be part of his Librarian Learns series of videos about Oshkosh history.

The Southside Brewing District Part I

Mike McArthur of the Oshkosh Public Library and I are making a couple of videos that cover a few of the main spots of the brewing district that once thrived on the "Brooklyn" side of Oshkosh. I should say, Mike is doing most of the work. As you'll see, I just stand around and yammer.

Part one of this series is now live. Part two will be out in early December. Here's the first installment.

This video is part of a series that Mike has done concerning Oshkosh history. They've all been wonderful. You can find the entire series here.

The Longevity of Oshkosh Breweries

Breweries come and go. In Oshkosh, we have 171 years of brewing history that hammers that point home.

The demolition of Peoples Brewing, July 1974.

What follows is an illustrated list of every Oshkosh brewery ranked in order of their longevity. If you want to dig deeper, I've added links at the bottom of the post that will lead to much more information on all of the breweries mentioned here. Off we go...

1. Rahr Brewing Company, 1865–1956
The Rahr Brewing Company is Oshkosh’s longest-lived brewery having remained in operation for 91 years. Located at the end of Rahr Avenue on the shore of Lake Winnebago, Rahr remained a small, family-owned business throughout its history.

The Rahr Brewing Company, late 1800s.

2. Oshkosh Brewing Company, 1894–1971
Located at what is now 1642 Doty Street, Oshkosh Brewing was in business for 77 years. OBC was formed in 1894 by the merger of the Horn and Schwalm, Glatz, and Kuenzl (Gambrinus) breweries.

The Oshkosh Brewing Company, circa 1918.

3. Peoples Brewing Company, 1913–72
Peoples Brewing was initiated by a group of Oshkosh saloon keepers and lasted 59 years. The brewery was located at what is now 1512 South Main Street.

Peoples Brewing Company shortly after it closed in 1972.

4. Horn and Schwalm’s Brooklyn Brewery, 1866–94

This brewery was launched by German immigrants August Horn and Leonhardt Schwalm. It remained an independent entity for 28 years and was located at what is now 1630–70 Doty Street.

Horn & Schwalm's original Brooklyn Brewery; destroyed by fire in 1878.

5. Franz Wahle/ John Glatz Union Brewery, 1867–94

The brewery at the end of Doty Street was privately owned and operated for 27 years before becoming part of the Oshkosh Brewing Company in 1894.

The John Glatz Union Brewery.

6. Loescher’s (First) Oshkosh Brewery, 1852–78

The first of two breweries George Loescher and his family operated in Oshkosh was in business for 26 years. It was located at what is now 1253–83 Bay Shore Drive.

Detail of an 1858 map showing the location of Loescher’s first Oshkosh Brewery.

7. The Gambrinus Brewery, 1868–94

The large brewery at what is now 1239–47 Harney Avenue lasted for 26 years. It was first run by Gottlieb Ecke and later by Lorenz Kuenzl. It merged into the Oshkosh Brewing Company in 1894.

The Gambrinus Brewery circa 1893.

8. Fox River Brewing Company, established 1995

Welcome to the modern era. Fox River is now in its 25th year of operation.

Fox River Brewing Company, Oshkosh.

9. Busch Brewery/Fifth Ward Brewery, 1858–1880

For 22 years, Christian Kaehler ran this brewery at the southeast corner of Algoma Boulevard and Vine Avenue. The land it occupied is now part of the University of Wisconsin – Oshkosh campus.

Oshkosh City Directory, 1872.

10. The Lake Brewery, 1849–68

Oshkosh's first brewery was launched by German immigrant Jacob Konrad. It remained in operation for 19 years. The brewery stood on the east side of Lake Street, just south of Ceape Avenue.

1858 map showing location of the Lake Brewery.

11. Loescher’s (Second) Oshkosh Brewery, 1880–89

The second brewery operated by George Loescher and his family remained in business for nine years. This brewery was at the northeast corner of Frankfort Street and Bay Shore Drive.

Loescher’s second Oshkosh Brewery shown in an 1885 insurance map.

12. Bare Bones Brewery, established 2015

The brewery at 4362 County Highway S has been a going concern for five years now.

Bare Bones Brewery upon its opening in June of 2015.

13. Leonard Schiffmann’s White Beer Brewery, 1875-1879

This weiss-beer brewery was active for four years at what is now 1864 Doty Street.

A stoneware bottle used by the Schiffmann Brewery in the late 1870s.

14. Mid-Coast Brewing Company, 1991–95

The maker of Chief Oshkosh Red Lager was active for four years. The brewery's office was located at 35 Wisconsin Street in Oshkosh. Its beer was brewed on contract at the Stevens Point Brewery.

15. Joseph Schussler’s Oshkosh Brewery, 1849–52

Schussler opened Oshkosh's second brewery in the fall of 1849. Three years later he went bankrupt and the brewery closed. This brewery was on the south side of Bay Shore Drive, midway between Bowen and Frankfort Streets.

An 1890s drawing of Joseph Schussler.

16. Leonard Arnold Brewery, approximately 1875–78

Arnold ran this obscure beer and vinegar brewery for approximately three years. His plant was at the southeast corner of Sixteenth Avenue and South Main Street.

1600 South Main Street today. The former site of Leonard Arnold’s brewery.

17. Frederick Voelkel Brewery, late 1870s.

Voelkel was a saloon owner who ran a weiss beer brewery from his home for about three years. His base of operations was at the northwest corner of Doty Street and West Seventeenth Avenue.

The location of the Voelkel shown in blue on Doty Street near the Horn & Schwalm Brewery.

18. Fifth Ward Brewing Company, established 2017

A relative newcomer, Fifth Ward opened its brewery at 1009 South Main Street three years ago. 

September 2017. Zach Clark (left) and Ian Wenger of Fifth Ward in their new brewery.

19. Fischer and Weist, 1856–1858

This brewery, initiated by German immigrants Tobias Fischer and August Weist, remained active just two years. It was located near the southwest corner of High and New York Avenues.

The red dot indicates the approximate location of where the Fischer and Weist Brewery stood.

20. HighHolder Brewing Company, established 2018

HighHolder began distributing its beer two years ago. The brewery operates, albeit sporadically, from a suite behind O'Marro's Public House at 2211 Oregon Street.

Shawn O'Marro (left) and Mike Schlosser of HighHolder, shortly before the brewery opened.

21. Rudolph Otten Brewery, 1865

Almost nothing is known of Rudolph Otten's brewery. It appears to have lasted for less than a year. The brewery may have been located on Oxford Avenue.

An 1867 drawing showing what may have been the location of Otten’s brewery on Oxford Street.

To learn more about any of these breweries, visit the Oshkosh Beer Timeline. You can also search the individual breweries using the “Search The Oshkosh Beer Blog” tool that appears in the left-hand panel. If you’re on a phone, you’ll need to be in full website mode to access that feature.

If you want to pinpoint the exact location of any brewery mentioned here, this interactive map will show you the way. 

Finally, the above list doesn’t include the wildcat breweries that operated in Oshkosh during Prohibition. You can go here to tour that byway of Oshkosh brewing history.