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A QUICK HISTORY OF BREWING IN HUNTINGTON
IN THE BEGINNING
It is highly likely that brewing began in and around present-day Huntington, West Virginia well-before 1891, when The Huntington Brewing company built a large facility in what was then Central City. The first settlers in the area had begun arriving just after the American Revolution. No doubt they were thirsty for beer at some point.
By 1873, when the city of Huntington was barely two years old, there were 4,131 breweries in the United States. Beer was considered to be a food staple. The neighborhood brewery was as common as the neighborhood baker. Much of the beer being produced during this period was  consumed either on the brewery premises in adjoining "brew pubs", or in saloons within a short distance from the brew house. Bottling was still very new and inconsistent, so patrons wishing to take beer home used containers or buckets called "growlers".
(left) A partial view of downtown Huntington looking due-west from a vantage point at Marshall University. Photo courtesy of Delano Patterson.
It is unlikely that in 1891, someone decided out of the clear blue sky to just build a full-scale commercial brewery in Huntington. There must have been other brewers in the area who, for whatever reason, could not meet the demands of a thirsty public. This may have been due to lack of capacity or even perhaps a lack of quality. The number of U.S. breweries would be cut in half by the end of the 19th century, when the Huntington Brewing Company was founded. Times were changing and the young company was unable to make a go of it. In 1895, the facility was sold to The American Brewing Company, who also found the market difficult to "tap." The Fesenmeier family acquired the brewery in 1899 and renamed it The West Virginia Brewing Company. It would not change hands again until 1968.
The Fesenmeiers had been brewing beer in Maryland since immigrating from Germany near the end of The Civil War. They operated their new brewery in Huntington under the West Virginia name until 1914 when state prohibition forced them out of business. But the family forged ahead, converting the plant for other products such as ice, cold storage, and meat-packing. National prohibition went into effect in 1920 and the future looked bleak.
BACK TO BUSINESS
When prohibition finally ended in 1933, the Fesenmeiers were ready to get back to the art of fine beer making. By the Spring of 1934, the family had purchased and installed $300,000 worth of new equipment and changed the name of the brewery to Fesenmeier Brewing Company. Happy days were indeed here again. Production grew every year and peaked at almost 60,000 barrels in 1949.
(right) The Fesenmeier Brewing Company circa 1956 at 14th Street W. looking west up Madison Avenue.
But enemies loomed on the horizon. Large national brewing companies, much as they had done in during the "beer baron" heyday in the late 1800s, were ready to swallow up everyone in their path including themselves, which they succeeded in doing eventually. The 2008 sale of the last big American-owned national - Anheuser-Busch to Inbev, completed the job started more than 100 years prior.
By late 1949, the big national and larger regional brewing companies had a new weapon, television. The introduction of TV and the record amounts of beer advertising that came with it played a huge role in helping them eliminate their competition. One by one, small breweries began to be gobbled up or forced out of business altogether, and production at Fesenmeier fell accordingly. Still, the company managed to tough it out for a time.
In the spring of 1968, struggling but still profitable Fesenmeier was sold to Huntington businessman, Robert Holley, who re-named it Little Switzerland Brewing Company. Several hundred thousand dollars were spent remodeling the brewery and outfitting it with new equipment. Product labeling was also changed and two new brands were introduced. These moves created what we term a "big-daddy start up costs hole" from which the small company could never dig itself out of. In hindsight they would have been better served by continuing to operate as Fesenmeier, leaving more time and energy to focus on the production and marketing of their beers.
THE BITTER END
In 1970, the brewery was sold to August Wagner of Columbus, Ohio, which intended to make its products in Huntington. Things did not go according to plan and August Wagner shut the brewery down in 1971. Then in 1972, in a tragic case of greed and stupidity, the brewery buildings were torn down and replaced by a shopping center completely devoid of charm and character. Today this shopping center is an embarrassing eyesore on a landscape chock-full of other embarrassing eyesores.
The Kroger n' Heck's Saga
KROGER INDECISIVE
Over the years Central City Plaza, the shopping center that replaced the former Fesenmeier brewery, has become a seedy relic of a bygone era that initially included the neighborhood Kroger (grocery) on the site of the brewery between Monroe and Madison avenues, along with a Heck's discount store on the south side of Monroe Avenue, (across from the brewery property). The Kroger Company could never make its mind up where it wanted to be in Huntington's west end, and thus occupied several different locations at different times.
It was no big surprise then, when Kroger decided to abandon the Fesenmeier site just a few years after destroying the brewery, returning to Adams Avenue where they built a huge new store. They apparently didn't fancy this location whole hell of a lot either, and finally left Central City altogether, building another new store at 1st Street & 7th Avenue where they've remained since the 1980s. (It too is becoming a seedy relic, but that's another story!)
HECK'S A REFLECTION OF AMERICAN BREWING INDUSTRY
In an ironic twist of events, the entire Heck's chain fizzled out in the late 1980's, suffering a fate similar to the local and regional brewing companies (like Little Switzerland) that were either swallowed up or put out of business. Heck's was a strong discount department-store chain based in West Virginia. It was founded in 1963 in Charleston, peaking out with 165 locations in several mid-Atlantic states by 1986, and served as the retail arm of automotive supplier Steel City Products, Inc. Their fortunes were short-lived though, as competition from Wal-Mart and K-Mart made it increasingly difficult for the regional chains to compete. Stores like Heck's, Hill's, Hart's, H.L. Green, Woolworth, McCrory's, and hundreds of others have all but disappeared from the landscape.
In 1990, 55 of the last 57 last Heck's stores were sold to Retail Acquisition Corporation who effectively "closed-out" the chain by converting it into a "Closeouter" called L.A. Joe's (the other two were sold to the Fisher's Big Wheel retail chain, which itself was completely out of business by 1994). L.A. Joe's lost money right off the bat and 22 stores were liquidated in 1991. A couple of the old Heck's stores near Huntington were turned into L.A. Joe's. One was just across the river in Proctorville, Ohio. These lasted almost 15 minutes.
By 1992 it was all over, and the remaining stores were liquidated.
RELATED LINK:
For a list of defunct department stores in the United States, click HERE. But be forewarned, you may become sick to your stomach while reading it.
 Brewing in Huntington after 1971
The art of brewing beer returned to Huntington in elegant fashion in 1996 with Brew Baker's Restaurant and Brewery. It had a top-of-the-line brewing system, complimenting a top of the line operation: the brewmaster (imported straight from Bavaria), the beer, the chef, the menu, the bakery, the decor....everything. The city fell in love with its new brewery. But the fun was over almost as soon as it began. Brew Baker's was in financial trouble that is widely believed to have been caused by a host of problems encountered during construction. The name was changed to River & Rail Brewery in 1997 and then closed for good in 1998. Large crowds regularly packed the joint but failed to generate enough cash flow to keep it open. While it lasted though, this facility produced some of the finest beers anywhere.
When it opened we worried that Brew Baker's would end up being a "too good to be true" phenomenon. Our worst fears were realized. It is easy to sit here and speculate on what went wrong without knowing all the facts. But take one look at the size and scope of the restaurant and the renovations that took place and the picture begins to unfold. At the risk of sounding too much like arm-chair quarterbacks here, we always felt from the get-go that the best plan would have been to either add the brewery to an already existing restaurant such as Chili-Willi's or Heritage Station; or pick a smaller, less pretentious design.
Will brewing ever return to Huntington again? Don't rule it out!
It's a downright shame when you consider the fact that it's 2009 and Huntington is one of the few major cities along the Ohio River without a brewery of its own. Pittsburgh, Parkersburg, Marietta, Portsmouth, Cincinnati, Louisville, and Evansville all have at least one brewery. Huntington does not.
The city's Downtown is going through another of its periodic revivals with the addition of Pullman Square, and the enhancement project on 4th Avenue between 16th and and 9th Streets - Old Main Corridor. A high-quality brewpub would be the perfect compliment to new development taking place.
- J.S.
Trade Names and Timeline for the Brewery at
14th St. W & Madison Ave. 25708
Huntington Brewing Company 1893-1895
American Brewing Company 1895-1896
American Brewing & Ice Company 1896-1899
West Virginia Brewing Company 1899-1914
CLOSED BY STATE PROHIBITION in 1914
Issued U-Permit # WVA-470 which permitted brewing operations to resume in 1933
Fesenmeier Brewing Company 1934-1968
Little Switzerland Brewing Company 1968-1971
Brewery sold at public auction in 1970 to August Wagner of Columbus, Ohio who closed the plant for good in 1971.
Brewery demolished by Kroger, who built a new store on the site in 1972
Brewery site abandoned by Kroger after a short stay. (exact date unknown)
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