- Chapin Park - East Wayne Street - Edgewater Place -
- Howard Park - Lincolnway East - Muessel-Drewery Brewery -
- North Saint Joseph Street - River Bend - Riverside Drive -
- Saint Casimir Parish - Singer Brothers Manufacturing Company -
- South Michigan Street - Taylor's Field - West North Shore Drive -
- West Washington -

The Muessel - Drewery Brewery was listed on the National Register in 2000. This site includes several contributing red brick buildings and structures and a few non-contributing buildings including: the tile-roofed office building, the former brewery and bottling works buildings, warehouses, mechanics' building, and storage buildings for kegs. This site is located on Elwood Avenue roughly between Anderson and Medorn Streets and is adjacent to Muessel Park and a retail strip center off Portage Avenue.

The Muessel - Drewery Brewery Complex is connected to several historic develoments that occurred in locally and nationally. It physically represents South Bend's periods of industrial history: the wide-spread manufacturing growth during the post Civil War era and the early decades of the twentieth century and the difficulties family-owned and local businesses faced during the Post-World War II era due to the rising numbers of mergers and buy-outs by out-side firms of their competition. It is specifically linked to the events of the Prohibition movement.

The Brewery is also tied to the history of German immigrants who decided to settle in South Bend, especially those from Arzberg, Bavaria. Johann Christoph Muessel was one of many to emigrate from Arzberg in 1852. He came, at the age of 40, with his wife Christiana, and their four children. Christoph's [later Americanized to Christopher] father, George Adam Muessel, had also been a brewer in Germany. This brewery still stands on a hilltop near Arzberg's "castle church."

Within a year of their arrival to South Bend, the Muessels had opened a brewery on Pearl Street between Washington and Saint Joseph Streets. [At one time, Pearl was known as Vistula Avenue and then as Lincolnway East. The brewery was approximately located where the Football Hall of Fame now stands.] A few other German-American families and the businesses they owned were also located on Pearl, such as the Sack family and Meyer Livingston.

By 1870, Christoph/er Muessel had become a successful businessman and purchased 136 acres of land off Portage Avenue to expand the brewery. This area was known for its artesan wells, which provided high-quality water for the brewing process. By 1885, the new complex included a malt house, ice house, beer cellars, a bottling house, and other sheds and outbuildings. The buildings were snuggled together to allow for an efficient production process powered by steam. A railway spur provied the Brewery with a connection to farther-away markets and clients. As one of Christoph Muessell's final activities, he organized the incorporation of the family business in 1894 and served as President of the Muessel Brewing Company until his death in 1895.

Christoph/er's children and grandchildren continued to grow the business and invested in capital improvements. In 1911, the business undertook an additional building campaign to triple the capacity of the brewery. An office, brewhouse, and storage facility were added to the already bustling brewery. Distribution of the Muessel products (Arzberg Export and Bavarian) grew to include much of the midwest: Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, and West Virginia.

However, the success of the Prohibition movement caused difficulties for the brewery. After a failed attempt to shift production to non-alcoholic "soft drinks" as many other breweries did, Muessel Brewing Company closed in 1922 for a decade. In 1933, the brewery resumed manufacturing and added a new boiler and bottling house, but it could not compete with breweries that had remained functioning during Prohibition. In 1936, Drewery's, founded in 1877 in Winneppeg, Canada, purchased the bankrupt company. This company'sSouth Bend operations survived many acquisitions and mergers until 1972 when the brewery brewed its last beer. Since then the buildings have been employed for warehousing, office space, and light industry.

Sources

Greiff, Glory-June. "Muessel/Drewery's Brewery." National Register Nomination of Historic Places Registration Form. 2000.
Keimnec, Karen & James Childs. "Muessel/Drewery Brewery/Omniplex." Historic Preservation Certification Application: 1984.
Robinson, Gabrielle. "German Settlers of South Bend." Chicago: Arcadia Publishing, 2003. pps 51-62.