The Tennessee Brewery

History of the Tennessee Brewery

The Tennessee Brewery building once housed the Tennessee Brewing Company. First called the Memphis Brewing Company, the corporation began in 1866, founded by G.H. Herbers. By 1877, the brewery had grown to 65,000 square feet and, a decade later, changed its name to the Tennessee Brewing Company. In 1890 the current structure was completed and the Tennessee Brewing Company moved its operations to the building.

For the next three decades, the Tennessee Brewing Company grew to become the largest brewery in the South. The company employed over 1,500 workers and produced 250,000 barrels of beer a year. The company initially crafted beers such as Pilsner and Budweiser, but in 1906, they introduced Goldcrest which soon became its top-selling and most popular brand.

As alcoholic production ceased during the Prohibition Era, the Tennessee Brewing Company aimed to keep the famous Goldcrest brand alive by creating non-alcoholic drinks like Goldcrest Cereal Beverage and Goldcrest Pure Barley Malt Syrup. Following the repeal of Prohibition, the plant quickly reopened in 1933 and began producing several different variations of the original Goldcrest beer. Yet by 1936, the Tennessee Brewing Company was down in sales and struggling to stay open. To revitalize the brand, the beer was renamed Goldcrest 51 in 1938, as the company had been in business for over fifty-one years. The company continued to use this name until it went out of business in 1954 due to competition from national distributors.

In 1980, the building was added to the National Register of Historic places. Then, in 1999, an environmental court case could have resulted in the demolition of the building had Kevin Norman not stepped in. He purchased the crumbling building and began making neglected and much-needed repairs to meet code requirements. However, in spite of efforts by nonprofit Artspace Projects to create art and artists' spaces, the building continued to sit vacant.

Written by Isabella Brewer, Class of 2020

Tennessee Brewery 495 Tennessee St, Memphis, TN 38103

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