Gerstensaft Philadelphia: Austin's Belmont Brewery aka The Haunted Brewery

While most of the 19^th Century breweries in Philadelphia were built closer to the center of the city, there were a small few that were built closer to the outer edges. One of those was Austin’s Belmont Brewery, which was built in the 24^th Ward close to the border with Montgomery County. This brewery does not show up on oldbreweries.com and it does not show up on any of the old city maps that I looked over, either. But we do know it existed because there are several 19^th Century newspaper articles about it.

This brewery was said to have been built in a location that was almost one mile from Belmont Cottage (now Boelson Cottage) on the Schuylkill River, not far from the Lancaster Pike and near to the Christ Church Hospital. It is unclear when the brewery was started but it ultimately was a failure associated with a curse and eventually was abandoned, fell into ruin, and became known as the Haunted Brewery.

The brewery was started by a Mr. Austin, who was an immigrant from England, sometime in the 1860s on land he purchased from the Peters Family. The Peters family is not that well known these days but in 1742 William Peters, who worked in Philadelphia as a lawyer, purchased 113 acres of farmland from John Skutton and John Boelson that stretched from Peters Island in the Schuylkill River to just past present-day Parkside Avenue above Wynnefield Avenue. In the middle of this property, he built Belmont Mansion which still stands and today houses the Underground Railroad Museum. At the western end of this property, he erected a monument in the form of an obelisk. While there are several stories about what this monument might be dedicated to it is believed it was a memorial to the horses of Washington’s army that died of starvation when the army was camped nearby during the Revolutionary War.

William Peters, who was born in England, returned there in the year 1768 and turned the property over to his son, Richard, who was a federal judge and was born in Belmont Mansion. During the Revolutionary War Richard worked with Robert Morris to raise money for the Continental Army. Richard died in the year 1828 and it seems the property was passed down and slowly bits and pieces of it were sold off.

It is not known when Mr. Austin arrived in Philadelphia but in the 1860s, he purchased the part of the Peters land that had the monument on it. In order to build his brewery, he had to remove the monument. So, he tore it down, and in doing so some believe Austin released a curse unto himself because several bad things happened to the brewery before it ultimately failed.

The first known catastrophe to the brewery occurred on October 12, 1866 when it burned down. The fire started between 2 and 3 o'clock in the morning and completely destroyed what was described as an extensive building. The total loss for building, equipment and stock was $25,000. The building was insured for only $5,000. It's curious to note that the newspaper article refers to the brewery as Osten's Brewery. So, does that mean that Austin was actually a German whose name was anglicized to Austin?

The next catastrophe happened during the rebuilding process only a few months later. In rebuilding Austin decided to expand his business by adding a distillery to the west side of the building. The new building was described as a large stone edifice with one side being two stories high while the other was three stories high. On the job the builder and carpenter was W.W. Binder, the carpenter superintendent was J.O. Custer, and the boss stone masons were Phineas Grace and William Carlin. Mr. Austin gave the order that only the best materials were to be used and he was “paying by the perch,” paying for quantity rather than a set price, to have the stone put down.

December 5, 1866 it was reported that in the afternoon the entire west end and sides of the new building, in the process of being built, collapsed burying five men, who were working on the masonry, under the rubble. With difficulty they were dug out. It was determined that three of them were hurt very seriously while two of them were only slightly injured. The remainder of the building was still standing but in a precarious state. The injured men were taken to the residence of Mr. Austin, which was a short distance away and their wounds attended to.

Sadly, one of those workers died of his injuries shortly after. The dead man was George Morris, aged 67. The injured were George Yerker, aged 20, injured on the head and right leg, James Hookaway, aged 45, spinal injury, Ralph McCollom, aged 33, injured on the head and chest, and John Monaghan, aged 27, injured on the head.

A couple of days later, on December 8, 1866, the coroner’s inquest was held. In testimony the carpenters placed the blame on the stone masons saying that the walls were not tied together properly. While the stone masons testified that the lintels over the window heads were not the correct thickness and the joists placed on them stuck out through the building too far. They also testified there was an attempt to wedge up the wall when it started to settle. According to the carpenters, bulges in the walls were noticed some time before the building collapsed.

The verdict was that evidence showed the walls were not properly tied together and that an inferior quality of mortar was used in the construction. The stone work contractors Grace & Carlin were found guilty of poor workmanship in the construction of the brewery.

W.W. Binder recommended to Mr. Austin that the rest of the building be torn down. So, it seems it was and then rebuilt only to fail in later years.

The dead worker, George Morris, is buried in Cathedral Cemetery at 48^th and Lancaster Avenue in West Philadelphia not too far from where the accident happened. Cathedral Cemetery is the same cemetery where the pioneer Philadelphia lager beer brewer George Manger if buried.

It is not exactly clear where this brewery stood but looking over old maps the monument that was torn down to make way for the brewery was located on that section of Monument Avenue above Wynnefield Avenue and 49^th Street possibly about where the golf course is today.