Julius Lehrkind came to
Bozeman in 1895, bought out the local Spieth and Krug brewery, and carried on
the Bozeman Brewery name and business in the large new brewery he built in the
northeastern corner of the city, a sparsely developed area located adjacent to
the Northern Pacific Railroad facilities. His German heritage likely influenced
his decision to locate the family home adjacent to his brewery, rather than in
the rapidly developing residential districts on the south side. In the tradition
of his native country, Lehrkind brought numerous members of his family into the
business; the small, residential, family compound grew adjacent to the brewery
between 1897 and 1912.
The Genuine Lager Bozeman
Brewery contributed to technological developments in the beer making
industry. During the 1860s, lager breweries surpassed ale breweries in both
number and production in the United States, With the introduction of mechanical
refrigeration during the 1880s, lager brewery architecture took on its characteristic
appearance. Typical of the period construction, enormous refrigeration rooms
with cork-lined walls were constructed within the Bozeman Brewery building.
Beer would be aged in the refrigeration rooms for 6 months. At full production,
it turned out 40,000 barrels of beer annually. The malting plant where barley
was treated prior to brewing had a 3 million-pound capacity.
Barley
became an important crop in the Gallatin Valley by the 1890s
The historic district is
composed of five historic buildings that are directly associated with the
Julius Lehrkind family and the family-owned and -operated Bozeman Brewery
business. The remains of the brewery, a four-story brick structure, stand at
the north end of the district. Across the street is the one-story, brick
bottling plant. To the south of the two industrial buildings is the Lehrkind
family compound, consisting of the Queen Anne style Julius Lehrkind House, and
two modest houses built a decade later.
The
district is located in the northeastern corner of the city near the Northern Pacific
Railroad depot
The Bozeman Brewery
building, built in 1895, was the largest building in Bozeman until the
construction of the Montana State University Field House in 1957. The present
facade of the brewery building is asymmetrical and consists of an off-center
entrance bay with three flanking, vertically fenestrated divisions to the south
and five un-fenestrated divisions to the north. The sand improved drainage may
have acted to cushion the building from the reverberations of the 1959
earthquake. Three water wells were dug beneath the brewery, one to a depth of
200 feet. Approximately 12,000 square feet of the brewery building was devoted
to refrigeration rooms. The floors and walls of the refrigeration rooms have
cork sandwiched between layers of concrete. The roof is flat and has four,
large skylights.
The Julius Lehrkind House is
a two-and-one-half-story Queen Anne residence; built in 1898, forms the central
focus of the district today. This well preserved, large, irregular plan, brick
house responds to its corner lot location with a wrap-around porch set at the
base of an octagonal corner turret and a corner, etched glass front entrance.
The porch has arched wooden detailing and a decorative balustrade. The
combination gable roof is covered with cedar shingles and features gable end
decorative detailing in wood and a second story porchette with a gothic arch on
one side and a Roman arch on the other.
The Henpy Lehrkind House
dates from 1908; is a one-and-one-half- story, clapboard-sided residence of an
irregular plan with a cut-away corner entry. The two-bay facade is asymmetrical
and consists of an offset, glass-pane front entrance. Windows are one-over-one
double hung units and there is a bay ^indow on the front facade. The
combination gambrel-hipped-gable roof is covered with brown asphalt shingles
and features a hip- roofed dormer on the north elevation.
The Edwin Lehrkind House was
constructed in 1912. This one- and-one-half-story, gable-front, Bungalow style
residence has a rectangular plan with a recessed stone porch across the front.
The frame construction is finished with narrow reveal bevel siding to the
window sill level, and alternating rows of wide and narrow reveal shingles
above. Windows are one-over-one double hung units and the roof is covered with
cedar shingles.
During Prohibition, the
family diverted their energies to the soft drink business with a one-story,
brick bottling plant constructed in 1925. This commercial structure has an
irregular plan with a diagonal corner entrance. The buildings included within
the Bozeman Brewery Historic District retain a high degree of historic
architectural integrity, except the Brewery building itself, which has been
reduced in size by the demolition of the eastern three bays and compromised by
the construction of a two-story, concrete masonry unit addition in 1948. The
brewery nevertheless retains sufficient historic architectural integrity to
accurately recall its early function and remains an important, integral component
of the historic district.
The six residential and
industrial buildings that compose this small historic district stand as a
cohesive group that serve to reflect art important aspect of Bozeman 's
historical development, industrial, social, and ethnic history.
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