Rusted Boiler Tank at the Former Schmidt Brewery

The Schmidt Brewery complex on West Seventh Street traces its roots to 1855, when Jacob Schmidt began brewing on the site after taking over an earlier operation founded by German immigrant Christopher Stahlmann. By the early 1900s it had grown into one of the largest breweries in the country, producing Schmidt Beer and City Club under a sprawling campus of production and power buildings along the Mississippi River bluff. Brewing operations continued under various owners until the plant closed in 1990, ending more than a century of continuous production. The boiler and mechanical rooms housed the steam systems that powered brewing kettles, bottling lines, and refrigeration throughout the complex. In 2013 the site was redeveloped into the Schmidt Artist Lofts, and the brewery's main buildings were later listed on the National Register of Historic Places.