George A. Bohrer Brewing Co.

( Spring Brewery )

About 1838 John H. Newman (c.1816-1888), a native of Mecklenburg, Prussia, moved from Ohio to Lafayette. In 1842-1843, Newman and his brother-in-law Abraham Miller established a brewery in the south part of Lafayette near the Wabash & Erie Canal. Miller died shortly afterward and Newman operated the brewery for several years. In December, 1856, Newman purchased a $3,500 piece of property on the east side of Illinois (now Fourth) street south of Alabama Street from James Spears, on which he built his new brewery in 1857. The property had passed through several ownerships since 1849, and was the subject of a lawsuit by Jonathan Fox against James Spears and Henry Taylor Sample after the land was sold and Fox was not paid his third of the value of the property. During the dispute, houses and shops were built by squatters on the property.

Newman also purchased water rights to the nearby Peterson Spring, which had been held by Abraham Hendricks and Samuel Terry since their purchase of the property in 1828. The spring water was piped to the new brewery for use in making beer and to create steam for brewing, giving rise to the name Spring Brewery. Water was also sold to neighbors for many years until the spring dried up from over-use. As of 1959, the cut-off valves of the spring remained under a padlocked cover on the property of the Korty Coal Company, up the hill from the brewery.

An 1858 advertisement for John H. Newman's Spring Brewery An 1881 advertisement for Newman & Bohrer's Spring Brewery

At about the same time, Newman built a large Italianate brick house with a cupola adjacent to the brewery, on the southeast corner of Fourth and Alabama Streets. A tempering tunnel ran from the brewery north to about halfway underneath the house, and excess steam was piped through it to heat the house. The tunnel was approximately 15 feet wide and 18 feet high, with a barrel-vaulted ceiling. Entrances on both ends allowed Newman to walk to work completely indoors if he chose to.

Newman’s Spring Brewery opened in 1857 and produced Lager Beer, Pale Ale, and XX Ale. As of 1858, Newman was also operating a bath house adjacent to the brewery, where patrons could bathe in warm or cold spring water. He also began selling the spring water. Meinrad Hauser seems to have been a partner in the firm about 1867, after which he attempted to build a brewery in Durkee’s Hollow off south Fourth Street. [Hauser’s brewery was never finished and the great ruin at “Brewery Hill” was said to be a haven for robbers and horse thieves. It was demolished in the 1950s and was near the intersection of S. Fourth Street and Teal Road.]

The Spring Brewery (center) in 1868, with the Newman House at left (from Albert Ruger's birdseye view of LaFayette) An 1870s view of the Spring Brewery published in a 1959 newspaper article (probably from a photograph by P. W. Wolever)

Deitrich Herbert joined Newman as a partner during 1868-1872, at which time the firm was known as Newman & Herbert. In 1872 George A. Bohrer (1819-), who had married Catherine Newman in 1849, moved from Cincinnati to Lafayette and bought out Herbert’s interest in the firm. Newman & Bohrer’s Spring Brewery produced ale and lager beer. By 1876 the Spring Brewery produced 9,000 barrels of beer per year. Four years later, the combined annual production of Newman & Bohrer and Thieme & Wagner was 15,700 barrels. By 1881 the two breweries produced a combined output of 486,000 gallons of beer.

John Newman died on September 1, 1888. In 1895, George A. Bohrer bought out the Newman heirs for the sum of $12,000, acquiring the Spring Brewery and the adjacent Newman House. The house was heavily remodeled for his son, Edward F. Bohrer (who was soon to marry Miss Jennie Powers), with the addition of bay windows, a turret, a large porch, a third floor, and a completely new interior. Another son, Charles J. Bohrer, later the vice president of the company, graduated with a B.S. in chemistry from Purdue University at the second commencement in 1876. George Bohrer’s daughter, Amelia, married Joseph Blistain, who later became treasurer of the company.

The George A. Bohrer Brewing Co. in 1890, from the promotional book A Glimpse of La Fayette Enlargement of the main building on S. Fourth Street
Enlargement of birdseye view from the southeast Silhouette of Bohrer's Spring Brewery from a 1915 advertisement, main building at center built in 1894

In 1894 a new six-story building was built, topped with a golden eagle. The George A. Bohrer Brewing Co. produced Bohrer’s Amber Beer (also called “AmberBrew”), Old Style Lager Beer, Indiana’s Pride (“The Gem of All Bottled Beers”), and Bohrer Special Brew, along with bottled mineral waters. By 1909 it was producing 20,000 barrels of beer annually, shipping to all parts of Indiana as well as Michigan, Ohio, and Illinois. Immediately south of the brewery was the Howell Bottling Co., bottlers of beer and mineral waters.

A 1908 advertisement for Bohrer's "Indiana's Pride" beer, "The Gem of All Bottled Beers" Advertisement from the Lafayette Daily Courier, April 20, 1915
Label from Bohrer's Old Style Lager Beer, c.1910 Label from Bohrer's Special Brew
Label from Bohrer's AmberBrew Amber Beer "A Select Beer", showing the embossed brown bottles A 12-oz (9.5" tall, with reproduction label), and a quart (11.5" tall) Borher's bottle
Detail of the Bohrer name on a quart bottle "G. A. BOHRER BRG. Co. LAFAYETTE, IND."

Prohibition went into effect in Indiana at midnight on April 2, 1918, closing both Thieme & Wagner and the George A. Bohrer Brewing Co. The George A. Bohrer Bottling Works remained open until about 1929. About that time the Bohrer Products Co., apparently a successor to the brewery, began manufacturing ice cream, selling soda water, and distributing “Cereal Beverages.” The company seems to have lasted until about 1928.

A sketch of the Bohrer brewery buildings (center and left) and the Bohrer house (left), from an aerial photograph c.1926 (large building at center foreground is the old Tippecanoe County Jail) Aerial view of the Bohrer brewery buildings (in red) and the Bohrer house (in yellow), seen from the southeast in 1929. The low buildings on the left end of the brewery were part of the Howell Bottling Co.

The Bohrer heirs had the brewery buildings demolished in September, 1939. The Journal and Courier of September 9, 1939, noted that “the entire lot is to be cleared under the terms of the contract let to the wrecking crew by the Lafayette Loan and Trust company, trustees of the Bohrer-Fletemeyer estates. The buildings occupy what amounts to more than a city block.” The property was then sold to Indianapolis investors. The Journal and Courier reported on April 1, 1940, that a new Kroger “drive-in” supermarket was to be built “on the ground for 75 years occupied by the old Bohrer brewery, recently raised…” Two remaining brick buildings on the property were demolished later that year.

A view of the Bohrer House in 1929, at the time it was sold to the Soller-Baker Funeral Home A 1940s view inside the tempering tunnel before it was filled in, with (left to right) Elmer Soller, Otto C. Baker, Norbert Zahn, and Edwin W. Soller

The Newman-Bohrer house became the Soller-Baker Funeral Home in 1929. The funeral home occupied the house until 1996, when it built a new facility off Twyckenham Boulevard. At some point, the roof of the turret was removed and replaced with an iron railing. The tempering tunnel was filled in sometime around 1950. In 1959, additions were built on the south and east sides of the house, uncovering the walls of the tempering tunnel. After the Soller-Baker Funeral Home moved out in 1996 the property was sold. In 2004 a developer built a huge apartment building which surrounds the south and east sides of the house. The house stands today wrapped in this unsympathetic addition.

Birdseye view of the Newman-Bohrer house (left) and site of the brewery (in red), 2001 The building built by Kroger in 1940 on the site of the brewery
The Newman-Bohrer house showing the construction of unsympathetic additions, 2004 The west facade of the Newman-Bohrer with unsympathetic additions at right, 2004
Oriel window and balcony on the north facade, added in the 1890s, note pressed sheet metal ornament Detail of west gable showing 1890s sheet metal ornament