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NPS Form 10.900.a OMB Approvd No. 1024-WIB IB -M United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number 7. R Page MUESSEL/DREWRY'S BREWERY COMPLEX ST. JOSEPH COUNTY IN Along the west side of the brewery (photo 12) are small brick additions that for the most part had housed grain receiving facilities; they are adjacent to what remains of a double, railroad siding. Immediately west of the brewery proper near the northwest corner is a large metal silo; three more stand in a contiguous row to the south, west of the tracks. Along the western edge of.the property, is a non-descript long, flat - roofed "mechanics building" sided with corrugated metal (photo 13) that once housed the brewery's maintenance shops: the electricians, pipe, carpenter, and paint shops, as well as additional storage. There is an electrical.power substation immediately north of this building that was erected a few decades ago. NARRATIVE STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE The Muessel/Drewry's Brewery complex visually represents the transformation of a locally owned,.family-operated brewery into part of a large; outside -owned -brewing corporation, Drewry's, Limited, and, much later, the closing of the facility when a still -larger corporation took over. Such a story is all too typical -and hardly limited to the brewing industry or South Bend The Muessel Brewery is eligible for the National Register under Criterion A, for its significance in the area of industry. Begun as a family operation'in 1852, the Muessel Brewery was the first of a triumvirate of local breweries in South Bend -Mishawaka, none of which is still active. The -second brewery also had origins in the 1850s, in a small operation begun in Mishawaka by a man named Wagner. Adolph Kamm, along with some partners, purchased the brewery in 1870; in the 1880s, Nicholas Schellinger became -a partner and it was incorporated as Kamm & Schellinger Brewing Company. By the turn of the century all of its earliest frame buildings had been replaced; today this largely intact brewery complex along the St. Joseph River is known as the 100 Center and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Finally, in 1903, a group of local tavern owners formed the South Bend Brewing Association to manufacture and distribute beer. Two years later the association completed a large brick building on present-day Lincoln -way West. It closed in the 1950s, and today the partly abandoned former brewery houses a few local businesses.