February and March of 1960 saw the demise of the Walter Brothers brewery next to St. Patrick's. It had ceased operations in 1956, though it's sister breweries continued their operations in Eau Claire, Appleton, and West Bend as well as in Pueblo and Trinidad, Colorado. Unable to match the marketing and sales budgets of the big national breweries, the Walter breweries closed one after another in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. The last one to survive was Walter Brewing in Eau Claire which lasted until 1989.
When I was growing up I attended St John's. I remember all of the letters from the school were sent in envelopes with GEM brewery label on them. Thank you for this blog, you have rekindled many memories.
ReplyDeleteRight where Island Manor Apartments are? I lived there by the tracks.
ReplyDeleteIsland Manor is too far. Says brewery was at Nicolet and Anheip. However I do believe close to Island Manor there was an oil company. I saw something strange about the area the oil company was located, something like the land there is contaminated? I lived at Island Manor for a year.
Delete😆 was I the one who posted the 2014 comment?
ReplyDeleteThe razing of the Gem buildings was not done as a single event. The grain tower was in ruins during my years at St. Patrick Grade School (1952-1957). We used to climb around on the rubble--slabs of concrete and rebars sticking up. Great fun, but the school safety folks of today would've had heart attacks.
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