The Midwestern brewery before Prohibition: Development of an American industrial building type
Appel, Susan Kay Bigley
This item is only available for download by members of the University of Illinois community. Students, faculty, and staff at the U of I may log in with your NetID and password to view the item. If you are trying to access an Illinois-restricted dissertation or thesis, you can request a copy through your library's Inter-Library Loan office or purchase a copy directly from ProQuest.
Permalink
https://hdl.handle.net/2142/22245
Description
Title
The Midwestern brewery before Prohibition: Development of an American industrial building type
Author(s)
Appel, Susan Kay Bigley
Issue Date
1990
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Kruty, Paul
Department of Study
Art History
Discipline
Art History
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
History, United States
Art History
Architecture
Language
eng
Abstract
This thesis is a study of the architectural development of the pre-Prohibition American brewery as represented especially in the midwestern cities of Cincinnati and St. Louis. It investigates the brewery as a distinctive type of post-Civil War industrial building, analyzing its characteristic features and considering the circumstances under which it became a common architectural feature in America until national Prohibition. By focusing on Cincinnati and St. Louis, the thesis stresses the importance of those cities and the Midwest to the brewery's development. It also uses those cities' breweries as a representative group of buildings that effectively demonstrate the type's evolution in the United States at large, from its vernacular phase before the Civil War through its professionalization after. Among the factors identified as fundamental to the changing architectural form of the brewery is the adoption in America of German, in place of English, methods of brewing. Interrelationships between German and American brewery designs are discussed, along with their possible meanings, as are the overlapping influences of technological and scientific developments and sheer economic success that helped produce the special forms characteristic of the post-Civil-War American brewery. In exploring the emergence of brewery design as a professional specialization, the study brings to light a neglected group of architects and engineers, often German-born midwesterners, whose works strongly influenced the direction in which breweries developed nationwide. A brief consideration of post-Prohibition brewing developments explains the legitimacy of limiting the study to pre-Prohibition breweries and underscores the special blend of practicality and beauty that made the brewery an important element of the American industrial scene between the 1860s and the 1910s.
Use this login method if you
don't
have an
@illinois.edu
email address.
(Oops, I do have one)
IDEALS migrated to a new platform on June 23, 2022. If you created
your account prior to this date, you will have to reset your password
using the forgot-password link below.
