Back in the late 1800’s it seems like there’s a Consumers Brewery in every town in America. In New York alone I could find the Consumers Star Brewing Co and the Consumers Park Brewing Co, both in Brooklyn. Manhattan had the Manhattan Consumers Brewing Company and the Consumers Brewing Co, Ltd.
It appears to me that the bottle (by process of elimination) is associated with the Consumers Brewing Co., Ltd for the following reasons:
- Brooklyn based companies typically embossed the location on their bottles “Brooklyn NY” not “New York”
- The Manhattan Consumers Brewing Co, 530 W 57th St, was short lived and out of business by 1905 according to the July 1, 1905 issue of the “American Brewers Review”. It looks like Consumers Park Brewing Co bought it out around that time. The bottle I found is machine made and most likely made after 1905.
The Consumers Brewing Company Ltd first appeared in the NYC Copartnership and Corporation Directories in 1890 at 21 Park Row. Likely their office location, at that time a notice in the “New York Sun” on January 7, 1891 announced they were putting the finishing touches on their new brewery and expected to have their beer on the market by May 1st.
The annual meeting of the stockholders of the Consumers’ Brwing Company of New York, Limited, was held at the Germania Assembly Rooms yesterday afternoon. H. H. Hingslage, the President, stated that all the stock of the company had been sold and over $500,000 had been spent on the brewery, which will cost probably a million dollars. Beer brewing will begin about Feb. 10, and beer will be sold by May 1… The stockholders are all liquor dealers.
By 1892 the brewery was listed on Avenue A between 54th and 55th Streets, where they remained through the late 1920’s. As early as 1896 the New York State’s Factory Inspection Report listed the brewery as having 140 employees, all male.
The Directories I could find between 1902 and 1919 listed them as a corporation with capital of $600,000 located at 1011 Avenue A. (Note that originally Avenue A was the name of the north-south street immediately east of First Avenue. It was non-continuous and only existed where it fit geographically between First Avenue and the East River. It once included today’s Sutton Place and York Avenue.)
An October 6, 1912 advertisement in The “Brooklyn Daily Eagle” touted their lager beer.
While another in the October 9, 1915 edition of the same newspaper says “Try Our Columbia and Special Dark Beer.
Also listed separately in each of the Directories between 1902 and 1915 is the Consumers Bottling Co (RTN) located at 402 E 49th Street. Located about 5 blocks from the brewery, it was probably their bottling operation (or department as the bottle is embossed) although there are no principals listed that were associated with both companies.
On February 23, 1920, the company announced that they were selling most, if not all, of their horse drawn delivery equipment.
That being said, the company did remain active for at least a while during Prohibition as evidenced by this 1921 item wishing their patrons “A Happy New Year. It appeared in the December 31st edition of New Jersey’s “Hudson Observer.”
When the company discontinued legal brewing operations is not exactly clear but it had certainly occurred by 1929 when, according to a July 26, 1931 story in the New York “Daily News,” the Consumers Brewing Company sold the brewery in what the story referred to as a mysterious transaction.
In 1929 the Consumers Brewing Company conveyed the brewery and its property to one Anna Smallenbach for the nominal consideration of $100. On the same date she conveyed building and property to the Tishman Real Estate Construction Co. for an expressed consideration of $1.
The story went on to say that two years later the brewery was raided by federal prohibition agents.
For the first time in the history of prohibition enforcement in this district, the Federal Government is seeking to confiscate land and buildings valued at $2,000,000 which were used in evading taxes on alcoholic spirits.
The property, once owned by the Consumers’ Brewery, Ltd., is said to be the most valuable property involved in any government libel action.
The building, a six-story structure, a block wide, was raided May 22 by men under Horace G. Simmons, special prohibition agent, who found what was described as the largest distillery uncovered since prohibition.
Joseph A. Frayne, special agent of the Department of Justice, said the plant brought a net profit of between $8,000,000 and $10,000,000 annually to its operators who turned out between 26,000 and 29,000 gallons of alcohol a day.
The investigators have found out very little about the operators.
A petition asks the property be forfeited to the Government under provisions of the revenue law… Whoever the present owners are, unless they appear in court to contest the libel, the property will be turned over to the Government by default. If the libel is contested, the investigators may be able to compel the owners of the old brewery to reveal the identity of its last occupants.
Five years later, the December 1, 1935 edition of the “Brooklyn Daily Eagle” announced that the Libel had been dismissed and that brewery building was to be torn down after which
the site will be used as a playground until such time as other use is made of it.
Currently, an apartment building occupies the Manhattan brewery site. According to street easy.com it’s a “white glove” coop that was built in 1955. An office tower occupies the bottling plant.
The bottle has an export style and is machine made (12 ounce).