Peter A. Huck Brewery, Eagle Brewery
Life Span: 1847-TBD
Location: Chicago avenue and Superior, Rush and Cass streets (1847), SE corner State and Division (1855), 449-495 N. State, 1301 N State (1865-66).
Architect: NA
- In 1847, John A. Huck opened Chicago’s first Lager Beer brewery. It was located on the south side of Chicago Avenue, between Cass (Wabash) and Rush street, only a couple of blocks west of Lill & Diversey’s Brewery.
INTRODUCTION
In 1847 entrepreneur William B. Ogden sold land for the construction of a brewery to John A. Huck and John Schneider for the establishment of the first true lager beer brewery in Chicago. He also acted as a silent partner in the firm. The John A. Huck Brewery brewed a unique malted product made from a new strain of yeast imported from Germany. This bottom-fermenting yeast produced a quality product that stayed fresh and remained stable for an extended period. Its lively carbonation was a pleasant diversion from the more commonplace ales. Huck’s product was the precursor of the type of beer most Chicagoans enjoy today.1
Chicago Tribune, January 30, 1855
On the same street (Walcott/State) north, corner of Division-st., is the “Eagie Brewery” of Capt. John A. Huck, a fine large brick building, using 25,000 bushels is of barley a year, employing eight men, and turning out fifty barrels of ale a day.
Chicago Tribune, January 8, 1857
WOLCOTT STREET.
A two story brick dwelling house, 26 by 40 feet, for A. J. Huck. E. Burling, architect; cost $8.000. (SE corner State and Division)
- Huck’s Brewery, Two Miles of Tunnels for Storage
1300 block North State Street
1871
Chicago Tribune, June 29, 1857
Buck Beer.— The proprietors of the Metropolitan Saloon, under Hoffman and Gelpeke’s Bank, No. 46 LaSalle street, takes the liberty to send to the editors of the Chicago Daily Tribune, a specimen of the most exquisite lager beer called Buck Beer, manufactured by John A. Huck, in Chicago. We feel proud that all his customers say it is the best beer in town. People imagine that the best beer must be, and can only be at the oldest beer salcons; but they are much mistaken. This Buck beer beats all indeed, as well in regard to its quality as to its flavor and its crystal-like clearness. It is the most healthy and purest drink on the globe. It is excellent for family use too. The editor of the largely circulated Tribune, will be mure to earn the gratitude of its readers, by recommending this most delicious Buck Beer.
- LEFT:Survey map of John A. Hucks Eagle Brewery, Green Bay (Rush) Street, Chicago, Illinois, published in Fire Insurance Maps of the City of Chicago, 1865. Printed from surveys and autographic drawings made by Frederic Charles Cook, engineer.
RIGHT: Ruins of John A. Hucks Brewery, October, 1871
Chicago Evening Post, January 13, 1872
SALES AND PRICES.
The following comprise some of the principal sales of the past week:
Huck’s Brewery Co. sold to John A. Huck, the property known as Huck’s Brewery for $166,000.
Chicago Tribune, December 2, 1877
A new brewing company has been organized, which will at once rebuild the old Huck brewery on North State street.
Inter Ocean, December 3, 1877
The old Huck brewery on North State street will be rebuilt by a new brewing company just organized.
Inter Ocean, December 19, 1877
A license has been issued to incorporate Huck’s Chicago Eagle Brewery Company of
Chicago. Capital. $100.000.
Chicago Tribune, January 7, 1878
Mr. John A. Huck has lateiy sold the property on North State street, corner Goethe, the former site of Huck’s brewery, to Mr. Wiliem Istel. It is understood that a stock company is being formed for the erection of a brewery to be managed by Mr. Huck upon this site, the stock being mostly subscribed. The foundations and vaults already upon the property render the situation peculiarly desirable and economical.
Chicago Tribune, January 28, 1878
DEATH OF JOHN A. HUCK, (May 15, 1818-January 26, 1878).
Another old citizen is gone—Mr. John A. Huck, the brewer, who was stricken with apoplexy in front of his residence Saturday evening and died in a short time, surrounded by his family. He was born in 1819 in St. Einbad, Baden, and learned the brewing business in Bastodt. Coming to America in 1845, he lived awhile in New York and then in Kingston, Canada, but, believing the West was the place of all others, he emigrated to Chicago in 1846. Within a year. through his energy and business capacity, he had a brewery in operation. In time his reputation extended all over the country, and he was one of the most enterprising men in the city The fire of ’71 swept away his property, and his losses so discouraged hit that, for a long time, his energy seemed to have deserted him. Latterly things were looking brighter, and he intended building another brewery, but the Reaper has gathered him him in. Mr. Huck was one of the founders of the Teutonia Life-Insurance Company and of the German National Bank, and at one time represented his ward in the Council. His children, Sophe, the wife of Philip Bartholmae; Emma, the wife of William Seipp; and Louis, the ex-County Treasurer, all live in this city. Among all classes, the Germans especially, he had many friends, and his sudden death will be sincerely regretted by them.
One Hundred Years of Brewing; a Complete History of the Progress Made in the Art, Science and Industry of Brewing in the World, Particularly During the Nineteenth Century. H.S. Rich & Co., 1903
THE JOHN A. HUCK BREWERY.
The first lager beer brewery in Chicago and one of the first to manufacture any kind of malt liquor was that founded on the corner of Chicago avenue and Rush street, by the late John A. Huck, in 1847. Two blocks east was Lill’s cream ale brewery, which had been in successful operation for about eight years. It is worthy of note that Wm. B. Ogden, the first mayor of Chicago, and in many respects its foremost citizen, was identified with both of these pioneer breweries; for, as has been stated, he was at first the financial support of the Lill brewery, and it was upon the Ogden block that the Huck lager beer plant was installed—upon the square bounded by Chicago avenue and Superior,Rush and Cass streets. In the center of the square, which was well covered by trees, was Mr. Huck’s residence, which, in turn, was the center of a beer garden—the first in Chicago.
In 1855 Mr. Huck removed his plant to the corner of Banks and North State street, where the residence of Franklin Head now stands, and by the time of the Great Fire it had expanded into one of the most extensive establishments of the kind in the country. With two miles of subterranean vaults and brew and malt houses, in proportion, it was one of the marked sights of the city. In 1871, however, all was swept away and the labors of many years lay in ruins. The property remained idle for several years, but in the latter portion of 1877, Mr. Huck began to lay his plans for a rebuilding of the brewery on the old site. While in the midst of these preparations, however, in January, 1878, he was taken away, leaving, among other children, the Louis C. Huck, who first associated himself with his father in 1861, established an independent malting business in 1869 and is now a well-known capitalist of Chicago.
- Davie’s Atlas, 1863
- ① Chicago avenue and Superior, Rush and Cass streets (1847); ② SE corner Wolcott (State) and Division (abt 1850); ③ N. State, Between Grand Haven ave and Scott (1855)
Chicago Tribune, August 31, 1910
The three deep caverns at this corner, which adjoins the Plamondon residence, have been known for years among the boys in the neighborhood as the “robbers’ dens.” They were formerly underground vaults of a brewery and are covered with the exception of three entrances facing Astor street.
Half a dozen youthful robbers, the police belleve, gained entrance to the Plamondon residence last Friday afternoon, and in the absence of the family ransacked the house from garret to basement.
Vandals Revel in Ruined House.
For twenty-four hours they are believed to have remained in the house, carrying on a work of ruin.
Apparently fearless of police interference, they bombarded one another with handfuls of flour, and tore valuable clocks in pieces. They romped over expensive rugs, turned paintings to the wall, or hung them crooked.
With a hatchet secured in the basement they chipped pieces of mahogany from expensive furnishings, and plaster from the walls. When they became hungry, the pantry furnished them with crackers and jellies. The crackers they left strewn all over the four floors of the building, mixed with spices and coffee. Finally they tired and left the house with arms filled with plunder.
The Plamondon family was at its country residence near Leland, Ill., for the summer The fact that the house had been entered and robbed was discovered last Sunday by Thomas Pinckney, the caretaker, who saw the lights burning. Mr. Plamondon called at the East Chicago avenue police station and criticised the police for their lax methods.
Festoon a Room with Ribbons.
While some of the boys searched the house for money and valuable jewelry, others entertained themselves apparently by festooning Mr. and Mrs. Plamondon’s room on the second floor with yards of ribbon.
Miss Marie Plamondon’s private closet, containing hundreds of letters and kodak films, was ransacked and the contents strewn over the floor. A large wax doll, a memento of her childhood days, was pulled to pieces and the parts of the body left lying on the floor. Her writing desk was broken open and ink spattered over everything in sight. Fifty dollars’ worth of coins she had collected In foreign countries was confiscated by the thieves, besides many a piece of small jewelry and several gold chains.
Her wardrobe was pulled to pieces and the contents thrown about in the utmost con-fusion. The clock in her room, a 100 day clock, was stopped at 11:25 o’clock. Three other cloks were broken to pieces, one of them, of considerable value, belonging to Mrs. Plamondon.
Two baskets containing some of the stolen silverware and other property belonging to the Plamondons were found in one of the caves by detectives from the Chicago avenue police station.
Inter Ocean, August 31, 1910
Chicago Sunday Tribune, August 18, 1963
This was supposed to be a nice, nostalgic, little story about old homes on the east side of the 1300 block of North State parkway which were recently demolished.
It turned out to be a story about a brewery and a century old hangover—or, more precisely, a hangunder.
It’s a tale of tunnels, of underground vaults that once housed the happy wares of the Huck Chicago Brewing company, which in a less sophisticated era enjoyed a prosperous life in the heart of what is now the Gold Coast.
The brewery and the vaults, which were all but forgotten, came to light recently when the Ambassador hotel tore down the gabled brownstones on State parkway to make way for its new apartment hotel. The memories of long-time Chicagoans were stirred; and one of them, Gilbert W. Amberg, wrote in a letter concerning the history of the area:
- The entire half block on State between what is now Goethe and Banks streets was the site of a brewery . . . the area was honeycombed with tunnels that were used as storage areas for aging the brew. Some of them were dug up for the Ambassador East hotel foundations in 1927, but you’re going to see a lot more of them when the old brownstones come down.
The hunt was on.
When Mr. Amberg was reached by phone, he amplified the description but with reservations: “I was pretty young then, and I don’t know if I can trust my memory on this.” he laughed. “I do remember walking thru the tunnels; they were probably 20 to 30 feet wide, and probably well over six feet high.
“My guess is that they were made. of either brick or stone. There were two connected tunnels that ran under our yard, and they had high arched roofs. I suppose they were perhaps 30 feet underground, because we only discovered them after the lot had been excavated.”
“I don’t know whether anyone had any idea that they were there before then,” Mr. Amberg added. “It’s quite possible that the tunnels weren’t discovered when the browstones were built, because the foundations for those homes only went down about six feet below the basements.
Mr. Amberg’s brother, the Rev. John B. Amberg, S. J., added a piece to the puzzle: “There was a solid brick wall along our property line, and when the excavation for the hotel had been made, the construction workers found a doorway in the wall about four feet under the surface of the yard. This was the entrance to the tunnels, which sloped down under our yard and ran for some distance. They were caved in a little to the north ”
“It explained something that had always puzzled us.” said Father Amberg. “There was a vacant lot next to our house where we children used to dig. We could never get very deep without hitting on a solid stone-like surface. We must have been hitting the roofs of the tunnels, of course.”
The mystery grew murkier when Miss Marie Plamondon, a Chicagoan of 80-some years, added her recollections:
“Certainly, I remember the tunnels!” she exclaimed. “When we were kids we played in them all the time, and believe me, we got many a scolding and spanking for gaing into them. We thought they were our discovery, and tried to keep them a secret from the adults, but it didn’t work. There were tunnels underneath a lot of the property on Banks street, near Astor, but I suppose they’re filled in now.
“I remember once when our house was burglarized while we were in the country, we found all kinds of stolen things-ribbons, odds and ends-down in the tunnels. We always wondered if the robbers were lurking down there.”
Since the Ambassador East hotel foundations were laid in 1927, it didn’t seem that Miss Plamondon was speaking of the same tunnels that the Amberg brothers remembered.
Were there more to these tunnels than any one person suspected?
It seems so.
Walter Fisher, whose late father, Walter Fisher Sr., was a former secretary of the interior, remembered playing in tunnels under a vacant lot on the northwest corner of Banks and Astor streets as a boy. When he was asked to name the year, Mr. Fisher settled on 1900: “It must have been about then.. We boys used to make candle lanterns out of tin cracker boxes; in those days, crackers came in shiny tin boxes that made wonderful toys. We would explore the tunnels, which we were strictly forbidden to do, because our parents suspected that tramps slept there.”
As Mr. Fisher described them, the tunnels were just under the surface of the ground, with a sloping entrance on the vacant lot. “They were perhaps 10 or 15 feet deep, and filled with rubble, but they were wide enough for several boys to walk abreast,” he said. “They were made of brick, I think, and the roofs were arched; they were more like vaults than tunnels.”
Joseph W. Cremin, the broker who handled the sale of some of the houses which were demolished to make way for the hotel, remembers the tunnels very well. Mr. Cremin lived on Scott street, and for a short time, on State street. “They had the devil’s own time trying to lay the hotel foundations because of these things,” he said. “When they uncovered the tunnels, it cleared up a lot of mystery. For years, we had tried to freeze our back yard for skating, but the water would soak right into the ground and disappear. We even had the fire chief out to inspect the yard, and damned if he knew what was wrong, either. We found out later that the water had been draining into the tunnels under our lot.”
After hours of dusty research into Tribune archives, consuitation with the Chicago Title and Trust company, the Chicago Historical society, the sewer deparment, the building department, the Municipal Reference library, and sidewalk superintendents at the site of the new apartment house, and a five-day wait for an overseas call to Norway, part of the tale has been put together.
The tunnels were built by John A. Huck, owner of the brewing company. The House of Glunz on North Wells street produced a history entitled One Hundred Years of Brewing, published in 1903, which describes the Huck concern as “one of the most extensive establishments of the kind in the country, with two miles of subterranean vaults, and brew and malt houses in proportion . . . it was one of the marked sights of the city.”
The enterprising Mr. Huck came to Chicago from Baden, Germany, in 1846, and in 1847 built the first lager beer brewery in the city. He moved his brewery to State street in 1855, and soon had acquired lots four thru eight on State, and lots one thru eight on Banks street between Astor and State. The brewery was incorporated in 1867, and was destroyed by the Chicago Fire of 1871.
How much of the two-mile network remains underground is unknown. James Jardine, commissioner of water, pointed out that there would be no public record of the construction of the tunnels because they were built on private property.
“Of course, when the public utilities were installed, the engineers might have run into these tunnels, and undoubted-ly, they would have made a note of it in their log books. But the log books aren’t part of the public record, and they’re probably buried deep in some warehouse,”. he said.
The final authority, it seemed, was Joseph Beuttas, who was president of the B. and W. Construction company, which built the Ambassador East hotel. Mr. Beuttas was on vacation aboard the S. S. Brazil cruising off Norway.
It was midnight on the ocean (5 p. m., Chicago time), five days after the call had been placed, when Mr. Beuttas was roused from sleep to answer a ship-to-shore question.
Had Mr. Beuttas seen any tunnels when the lot was excavated?
“I saw them,” he replied. “I walked in them. They were about 8 to 10 feet high, built of stone, and were about 20 feet below ground. They extended to the east and to the south. We destroyed the ones where we were building. No doubt more tunnels will be found when they start excavating for the addition to the Ambassador East. They were used for storing beer by an old brewery.”
NOTES:
1 Chicago Tribune, July 16, 1997
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