The Lost Empire Brewery - 287 West 10th Street

from the collection of the New York Public Library.

The State Legislature enacted a statute in 1796 to erect two New York State prisons, one in Albany and the other in New York City.  The latter's four-acre site was in Greenwich Village and stretched from Skinner Road (today's Christopher Street) to the south to Charles Street at the north.  Designed by French-born architect Joseph-Francois Mangin and completed in 1797, the Federal style structure was both utilitarian and attractive.

from the collection of the New York Public Library

The Christopher Street prison's tenure was short.  A new facility was completed in Ossining, New York in 1828 and the last prisoner was transferred there in 1829.

Four years earlier, Abraham Nash had founded an ale brewery at Troy, New York.  In 1837, a relative, Ebenezer Beadleston, who lived in New York City, was brought in "for the purpose of extending the business in that locality," according to The Western Brewer in 1903.  Beadleston was made a partner in 1840 and the firm was renamed Nash, Beadleston & Company.
 
In 1846, the firm purchased the old prison block, as well as "one wing extending north to Charles street, another south to Tenth, formerly Amos street, and a third due west, terminating in a hat shop where the convicts were employed," as explained the New York Herald.  

The Western Brewer explained:

The old State Prison, whose buildings were occupied as a brewing and malting plant, was constructed of stone and surrounded by a high wall.  The wall was torn down when the property was purchased by Nash, Beadleston & Company who used the cells for malting rooms and built three stories upon the massive foundation.

Features of Mangin's Federal design, including the distinctive cupola, were apparent.  One Hundred Years of Brewing, 1903 (copyright expired)

The northern property included the brewery's stables (which were on Charles Street) and other auxiliary buildings.  The repurposed prison functioned until the beginning of the 1880s.  In 1879 construction began on a new brewery on the northern property, "covering practically all of the block bounded by Washington, Charles, Tenth and West Streets with the exception of the West Street frontage," according to The New York Times.

In January 1881, "their new ale and porter brewery was completed," as recalled by One Hundred Years of Brewing in 1903, on the northern property.  "In the same year," said the article, "they demolished the remainder of the prison."

On May 23, 1881, the New York Herald reported, "An energetic gang of workmen attacked on Saturday the main building of the old State prison," and recalled that it had been purchased "in 1846 by a firm of brewers, Nash, Beadleston & Co.  the firm afterward became Beadleston & Nash, then Beadleston & Price, later Walter N. Price, next Beadleston, Price & Woerz, and is now Beadlestone & Woerz."

The article noted, "The walls are three feet thick and built very firmly, and the live oak timbers and stone-like plaster resisted pickaxe and crowbar bravely."  The New York Times later explained, "The foundation walls were found so solid that they were retained in the new structure."

The 1879 Bromley map clearly shows in pink the irregular property.  from the collection of the New York Public Library

Oddly enough, the new complex was a collection of structures.  The three that faced West 10th Street were distinct.  The main building, at 287 West 10th Street, was a blend of Rundbogenstil, or German Romanesque, and Victorian Gothic.  The round-arched openings of the ground floor sat within a heavily rusticated base that continued into the eastern building.  Deep corbel tables, typical of the Rundbogenstil style, ran below the cornice while a shingled clock tower with a pyramidal cap gave the structure panache.  

Trow's New York City Directory, 1880 (copyright expired)

The year 1888 started out badly.  On April 18, the New-York Tribune reported that the Beadleston & Woertz employees "went out on strike yesterday, breaking their union contracts with the proprietors."  Two weeks later, on May 5, The Evening World subtitled an article, "The Brewers and the Men Carrying on their Fight as Hot as Ever."  The unified breweries, including Beadleston & Woertz, had initiated a union lockout.

In the meantime, Beadleston & Woertz was being sued by a saloon owner.  J. H. Fulton owed the brewery $100.  When the debt was not paid, Beadleston & Woerz notified the Association of Beer Brewers and a city-wide boycott was initiated against J. H. Fulton.  Unable to acquire beer, his business was ruined.  Around the same time of the strike, he sued Beadleston & Woertz for $10,000 damages (a significant three-quarters of a million in 2026).  The suit drew the attention of reformers.  The New York Herald remarked on May 9, 1888, "If the inquiry is allowed, then, in all probability, the methods of boycotts on the side of the boss brewers may be gone into."  In the end, Beadleston & Woertz was victorious.  The next day, The New York Times reported, "Judge Andrews ordered a verdict for the defendants."

An 1894 advertisement boasted that the brewery's Imperial brand beer was "the best table beer in the market."  (original source unknown.)

A law in 1895 demanded that all wagons and trucks were taken off the streets at night to enable street cleaning.  Many large establishments, like Beadleston & Woertz, ignored the rule.  On April 7, the New York Herald reported that four nights earlier, Street Cleaning Department Commissioner Charles K. Moore and "gangs of men from stables" had swarmed the streets and confiscated vehicles.  One establishment that had not been not targeted was Beadleston & Woertz, "where it is said that nearly a hundred heavy beer wagons were left out in the street every night," according to the New York Herald.  The article said that Deputy Commissioner Moore "went down and looked at the place, and found that not only were the streets lined with the brewery wagons, but that there were also hundreds of other trucks and wagons in the vicinity."

The problem of cleaning up the infractions revolved around the rough, riverfront neighborhood.  According to the New York Herald, Moore told his foreman to go to Beadleston & Woerz's brewery at 9:30 on the night of April 3.  "I want the men to lug off just as many of the trucks as they can."

The foreman replied, "I wouldn't advise going there before midnight."

"Why not?"

"You know the neighborhood?"

"Perfectly"

"There will be a row."

"I hope not," replied Moore, "but if it comes we'll simply have to fight, that's all."

As expected, as the men started driving off the beer wagons, men rushed from all sides, many from the nearby saloons.  One man yelled, "they're stealing the brewery wagons.  Get help quick!"  A melee erupted with angry men attempting to pull Deputy Moore from his buggy.  The city workers were met with "a shower of sticks and stones."  Finally, Moore told a brewery representative that as long as he put the wagons into the firm's yard, he would relinquish, but would check back in a few days to make sure the wagons were not back on the street.  Moore put a positive spin on the violent encounter.  The New York Herald reported, "Deputy Moore was highly pleased at the success of the raid."

On January 30, 1897, the New-York Tribune wrote a human interest article about Alfred N. Beadleston, grandson of Ebenezer Beadleston.  "Mr. Beadleston has taken full charge of the financial end of the concern, and under his able management the house has grown to be second to none in this part of the country."  The article said the brewery was producing 175,000 barrels of ale and porter a year.

Alfred Beadleston and his partners were millionaires by the end of the 19th century, New-York Tribune January 30, 1897 (copyright expired)

Frederick W. Woerz's name was in the newspapers five years later for less complimentary reasons.  On December 12, 1902, The New York Times reported that he had sent "private sleuths" to secretly accompany his wife to London and Paris.  Their investigation resulted in Woerz's filing for divorce.  "In the papers a foreign nobleman's name and that of a well-known musician were mentioned," said the article.

Prohibition brought an end to Beadleston & Woerz's Empire Brewing Company.  On December 16, 1920, The New York Times reported, "An old lower west side landmark has been disposed of in the leasing of a large portion of the Empire Brewing Company's property at 156 and 158 Charles Street, two seven and eight story buildings."  The Reynolds Whitney Warehouse Company, Inc. had leased the property for 20 years.  "The same company has also secured an option to lease the buildings at 674 and 676 Washington Street and 287 to 303 West Tenth Street," said the article.

Five years later, it appeared that Prohibition was here to stay and Beadleston & Wortz, "which has not manufactured beer for some time," had decided to liquidate its business and "release itself from the $50,000 bond which breweries post with the Treasury Department," according to The New York Times.  In preparing to sell the property, Prohibition Agent William F. McCann inspected the buildings on March 24, 1925.  Surprisingly, the article said he "seized 309 cases of beer," adding, "No charge was made against the brewery, and the owners disclaimed knowledge of the beer."

On August 22, 1937, The New York Times reported, "Old-timers and historical students in the Greenwich Village area have been visiting in larger numbers than usual during the last few days the Tenth Street block in the far westerly section between Washington and West Streets."  The interest was sparked by the demolishing of the Beadleston & Woerz buildings "for a three-story commercial building."  The visitors "are awaiting the time when the demolition will disclose portions of the foundations and walls of New York's first State Prison," said the article.  It continued, "In the demolition now under way the old prison walls will no longer be retained and the last vestiges of the structural work of the building artists of 1797 will soon disappear from the soil of Manhattan."

The three-story building, completed in 1938, survived until 2020, replaced by a 16-story apartment building.