× 1 of 5 Expand Photographs by Chris Naffziger × 2 of 5 Expand Photographs by Chris Naffziger × 3 of 5 Expand Photographs by Chris Naffziger × 4 of 5 Expand Photographs by Chris Naffziger × 5 of 5 Expand Photographs by Chris Naffziger Prev Next

The last six months have seen major changes in the appearance of the old Cherokee Brewery stock house, the soon-to-be home of Earthbound Beer. From the street, the most dramatic development revolves around the complete sandblasting and tuckpointing of the brick exterior of the old stock house. A ghost sign was revealed high up on the west side of the building, and the floor joist holes of the now-demolished saloon and office building that sat at the corner of Iowa and Cherokee have reappeared.

The importance of the restoration of the exterior of the stock house cannot be underestimated. While there are many wonderful examples of the work of the firm of Jungenfeld & Co., and its later principals Widman, Walsh, and Boisselier still present on the campuses of the Anheuser-Busch and Lemp breweries, the smaller and less prominent works of the highly influential team of architects have largely disappeared. Other than the old Griesedieck Brothers–Falstaff and Columbia breweries, most large brewery buildings have been torn down over the last 50 years, making the continued existence of the Cherokee Brewery’s stock house all the more important. In fact, despite providing the designs for most breweries in St. Louis, the aforementioned architects were masters of creating “distinct styles” for each of their clients. The Cherokee Brewery’s architecture looks substantially different from the equally unique Anheuser-Busch and Lemp commissions. In this day and age of interchangeable, bland, and homogenous architecture, it is a breath of fresh air that both architects and clients demanded high quality, unique “branding” in their buildings.

But the really exciting developments come on the interior of the giant stock house. The ground floor is being built out, and the brew pub will eventually occupy the majority of the street level. Originally, the stock house did not feature a door between the two giant compressed arch doorways (entry was from the brew house to the east, and the saloon to the west), so Earthbound will restore the brick façade in that location. The two arched windows will allow light to flood into the brewpub, and will also serve as the entrance. As was typical of Jungenfeld & Co. buildings, rusticated stone ornaments the lower courses of the front façade. The site of the former saloon and office on the corner will become a beer garden, with a new door from the stock house. To bring the basement brewery space up to modern code, a door way has been added for an emergency exit.

× 1 of 21 Expand Photographs by Jason Gray Northern end of western lagering cellar, showing remnants of upright barrel, looking into northern antechamber in subbasement. × 2 of 21 Expand Photographs by Jason Gray Entryway broken through from older groin vaults under former brew house into the newer basement under the stock house. × 3 of 21 Expand Photographs by Jason Gray General view of the groin vaults under former brew house, looking southwest. × 4 of 21 Expand Photographs by Jason Gray Central piers of groin vaults in basement beneath former brew house, showing cut stone. × 5 of 21 Expand Photographs by Jason Gray Detail of cast iron column connection with ceiling of eastern barrel vaulted lagering cellar in subbasement, showing brick patchwork. × 6 of 21 Expand Photographs by Jason Gray Progress of installation of brewing equipment in basement of stock house. × 7 of 21 Expand Photographs by Jason Gray Eastern barrel vaulted lagering cellar looking south in subbasement. × 8 of 21 Expand Photographs by Jason Gray Western barrel vaulted lagering cellar looking north in subbasement. × 9 of 21 Expand Photographs by Jason Gray Upper groin vault lagering cellar, showing hole broken through by wreckers, and pieces of stone lintels and other large cut stones. × 10 of 21 Expand Photographs by Jason Gray Upper groin vaulted chamber below former brew house, showing holes in ceiling and flooring for presumed moving of barrels between subbasement and ground floor. × 11 of 21 Expand Photographs by Jason Gray Eastern subbasement barrel vaulted lagering cellar. × 12 of 21 Expand Photographs by Jason Gray Eastern lagering cellar, looking north in subbasement. × 13 of 21 Expand Photographs by Jason Gray Northern wall of groin vaulted lagering chambers beneath former brew house, showing openings above and below for now-missing staircase to ground floor. × 14 of 21 Expand Photographs by Jason Gray Western barrel vaulted lagering cellar in subbasement, showing pile of rubble dumped down ice/air hole from surface. × 15 of 21 Expand Photographs by Jason Gray × 16 of 21 Expand Photographs by Jason Gray × 17 of 21 Expand Photographs by Jason Gray Narrow, brick barrel vaulted passageway heading east from eastern barrel vaulted lagering cellar, ending in rubble. Presumably, this passage links up to the lower groin vaulted lagering cellar under former brew house. × 18 of 21 Expand Photographs by Jason Gray Eastern barrel vaulted lagering cellar, looking north in subbasement. × 19 of 21 Expand Photographs by Jason Gray Shard of broken pottery in subbasement mud. × 20 of 21 Expand Photographs by Jason Gray Southern end of eastern lagering cellar in subbasement. × 21 of 21 Expand Photographs by Jason Gray Undisturbed mud in eastern barrel vaulted lagering cellar in subbasement. Prev Next

Heading down the newly constructed stairs through the basement of 2720 Cherokee, the journey to the stock house’s basement no longer requires climbing down a ladder. The space has been cleaned out, electrified, and looks like a modern brewery. Just as perhaps 100 years ago, beer will once again ferment in the lower levels of the stock house. It was no easy task bringing the giant stainless steel vessels into the basement, and the beer coolers were actually assembled in the basement, piece by piece. Those coolers have an interesting pedigree; they were procured from the Bevo Mill, which is undergoing its own renovation. Over in the northwest corner, the square hole down to the subbasement has been capped with a wood lid, allowing Earthbound to control temperatures in the basement without interference from the lower realms of the cellars.

Amazingly, due to the labor of many Cherokee Street regulars and the Earthbound crew, the first basement, with the groin-vaulted lagering cellar that would have been built in the mid-1860s when the original brew house was constructed, is now completely cleared of its 100-year-old rubble fill. We can now carefully examine the method of construction of lagering cellars in St. Louis in the years following the Civil War when breweries opened around the city. In fact, due to the construction method of the Cherokee Brewery’s first lagering cellars, one must wonder if the masons who had just completed the construction of similar cellars at the new state-of-the-art Lemp Brewery simply moved down Cherokee Street to work on their next commission at Iowa and Cherokee. As stated before, most likely the Cherokee Brewery’s cellars were constructed in a former sinkhole or quarry that provided a “head start” in excavation. Due to the Cherokee Brewery’s relative isolation from the center of the city, it seems likely the Meier Brothers and then their successors, Ferdinand Herold and George Loebs, chose the location to save money, and not due to the proximity of their market.

See also: A Tour of Cherokee Brewery's Old Lagering Cellars With the Earthbound Beer Crew

As suspected, the excavation of the rubble from the original brew house cellars reveals evidence of staircases from the ground level to the basement, and in turn down to the subbasement, where a still-unexcavated chamber sits. On the north wall, a carefully curved hole, now cemented over in the ceiling, shows where a wood or cast iron staircase would have descended from the ground floor of the now-demolished brew house. Directly below, a slender hole shows where a still-unexcavated stone staircase proceeded down to the subbasement. For the time being, due to cost and logistics of keeping the subbasement dry and usable, the brew house subbasement will remain as-is.

But interesting relics also emerged from the hard-packed clay: plenty of broken bottles from as far away as Chicago, ceramics, and huge chunks of cut stone that fell through the wreckers’ holes during the demolition of the brew house around the turn of the 20th century. These massive limestone blocks will remain in the chamber for the time being, as they are too heavy to move. Judging from their dimensions, they provided lintels or sills for windows or doorways in the old brew house. Also of interest is a square hole where kegs of beer were probably lowered into the original lagering cellars. Interestingly, while the vaults and walls are made of rubble stone construction, the piers holding up the center piers are carefully cut blocks of stone. Groin vaults receive their strength because the force of the weight of the vault is channeled down these critical piers. There was substantial investment in these cellars; perhaps the original owners, the Meiers, exhausted their capital and resolve after building such a solid physical plant.

While the brew house lagering cellars probably date from around the Meiers’ initial building campaign from 1866, that leaves the two, massive barrel-vaulted lagering cellars to the west in the subbasement under the stock house and now-demolished office/saloon. As previously established, the stock house was clearly built as an after-thought due to the sloppy placement of cast iron columns that proceed to the bedrock in the subbasement (the jagged holes punched in the stone vaults and walls of the groin vaults attest to this), so that makes the construction of the two barrel vaults to somewhere in between 1866 and 1876, when Whipple Fire Insurance Special Risk documents show the first floor of the stock house complete.

Further draining of the subbasement has allowed for more relaxed and comprehensive analysis of the two barrel-vaulted chambers. Two large piles of rubble, dumped down the ice/ventilation shafts, dominate both chambers, though the detritus in the western chamber is much larger, nearly blocking off the southern end of that cellar. There are still only the remnants of one lagering barrel, and as mentioned in a previous article, it was too large, like similar upright barrels at the Lemp Brewery, to move in and out on a regular basis, so beer was pumped in and out of the cellars (The older groin-vaulted cellars may very well have features small barrels that could be removed from the large square hole mentioned before).

The construction of both barrel vaults is impressive, and it raises an intriguing question: who actually constructed them? Were the masons itinerant specialists who traveled from city to city, bring their skills where needed? Or were they masons who normally worked in regular vertical walls, and “stepped up” when barrel vaulting was needed? After reviewing an English masonry techniques manual, it seems like the former, as the training for correctly squaring stone for arches, even roughly, is incredibly complex. Now, in a large, bustling city such as St. Louis, perhaps there was enough work for barrel vault specialists to stay in one location, but not that much. Another feature’s function, the rusting iron bars that stick out of the vaults, remains a mystery. Since the earth and bedrock would have provided ample buttressing of the vaults to prevent outward thrust of the arches, the use of iron tie-rods would not have been necessary.

There is a small doorway separating the two vaults, and the eastern chamber has a drain channel running through the floor. Originally, there was certainly some sort of grate that would have covered the channel, as the drain leads into a narrow passageway in the eastern wall that terminates in a wall of rubble, and presumably leads to the older lagering cellars under the now-demolished brew house. The mud is thick, but the water is only about six inches deep now, allowing for easy movement around the cellars. The brick barrel vault that covers the rubble-filled passageway is in near perfect condition, and reminds one of the techniques for older sewers in St. Louis.

Coming this summer, Earthbound should be open for business in the old Cherokee Brewery stock house, and while the lower cellars will be closed to public, it is truly exciting to imagine that beer will soon be brewed in a historic brewery cellar that has not been used in a century. Future explorations down in the subbasement will examine the condition and layout of the groin-vaulted cellars in the subbasement under the demolished brew house. There is still so much to learn, and each visit brings about fascinating revelations and more importantly, new questions about the rich history of our city.

Chris Naffziger writes about architecture at St. Louis Patina. Contact him via email at naffziger@gmail.com.