BGE-5268N – American Brewing Company, 1701 North Gay Street, August 1931.

With its historically large population of working class immigrants, Baltimore has long been a center for beer production. In 1864, a Bavarian named John F. Weissner founded one of the city’s most iconic breweries, the American Brewing Company. To accommodate demand among the city’s growing German population, in 1886 Weissner constructed a five-story brick brewhouse on Gay Street, the tower of which served as a 10,000-bushel grain elevator. At its peak in 1919, the American Brewing Co. produced 110,000 barrels of beer and employed sixty- one workers.

(Take photo from the northwest corner of N. Gay St. at Lanvale St., looking southeast.)