Fitger's Brewing Company
Fitger's Brewing Company was a beer manufacturer in Duluth, Minnesota, United States, from 1881 to 1972. The surviving brewery complex stretches for 720 feet (220 m) along the Lake Superior shoreline and East Superior Street, one of Duluth's main roads. The majority of the ten-building complex was constructed between 1886 and 1911. Fitger's, as it is now known, has undergone adaptive reuse as an indoor mall with shops, restaurants, nightclubs, a hotel, and a museum on the brewery's history.
The west end of the Fitger's Brewery complex | |
| Location | 600 E. Superior Street, Duluth, Minnesota, United States |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 46°47′33″N 92°5′26″W |
| Opened | 1881 |
| Closed | 1972 |
| Key people | August Fitger |
| Other products | Soda, candy bars |
Fitger Brewing Company | |
U.S. National Register of Historic Places | |
Rear of the complex | |
| Area | 2.2 acres (0.89 ha) |
| Built | 1886–1930 |
| Architect | Francis W. Fitzpatrick, Louis Lehle, Oliver G. Traphagen, et al. |
| Architectural style | Utilitarian, Richardsonian Romanesque |
| NRHP reference No. | 84001690 |
| Added to NRHP | February 9, 1984 |
Fitger's Brewing Company grew directly out of a brewery established in 1859, making it the first commercial brewery at the head of Lake Superior and the oldest continuously operating brewery in the state of Minnesota until going out of business in 1972. Fitger's was a major local employer, producing 100,000 barrels of beer annually. It stayed open during Prohibition by diversifying into soda and candy bar production.