#brewerytown

Established in 1865 by Frederick August Poth, F.A. Poth Brewing Company had its beginnings in Northern Liberties before moving to Brewerytown in 1871. At its peak, the company produced around 180,000 barrels of beer per year. Sadly, the brewery didn't survive prohibition, and shuttered in 1936. The building, however, still stands at 31st and Jefferson.

This chromolithograph shows the interior of the Poth fermenting room ca. 1891, drawn by A. M. J. Mueller.

If you haven't visited Inside Out in Brewerytown yet, you're missing the latest addition to the project. Master printmaker Dox Thrash lived at 2340 Cecil B Moore Ave in Philadelphia, just down the street from the Cecil B. Moore branch of the Free Library, where a replica of this work is now installed. Check it out this weekend—Inside Out is on view in select communities through early December. More info here. 

This morning, the lovers— who last night were slurring and stumbling and when I looked out, each gripping the other’s taut throat in a clench of callous and nail—sit on their front steps. The woman smokes an idle cigarette. The man lounges two steps down from her and leans his head into her lap. Beer cans and husks of blue crab from their cookout scuttle by in languid breeze. The woman flicks the stub of her cigarette into the street and kisses her man on his forehead. In the kitchen behind me, Naomi turns on the coffee grinder. I look back at her but don’t bother to complain about the racket this time. I’m more interested in the lovers. Or, I was—they’re boring me now. I liked them better when the radio was pumping from their open window, and they were clawing out, under the streetlight, the terms of their love.

Iain Haley Pollock

Beginning this week, our fall Inside Out communities will be debuting their new collections. Please check them out in Brewerytown, Old City, Landsdowne, PA, and Glenside, PA—all up until early December.