When Prohibition killed a Dayton landmark

Advertisement in March 22, 1919 Dayton Daily News for sale of Schwind brewery plant.

© Copyright 2019 Timothy R. Gaffney

No big headlines heralded the news a century ago this week, but an ad in the March 22, 1919 Dayton Daily News signaled the end of an era in Dayton brewing history: The Schwind brewery plant—once known as the Dayton View Brewery—was up for sale. Prohibition was coming, and Dayton's brewing industry was going.  

I learned about the Dayton View Brewery in research for my upcoming book Dayton Beer: A History of Brewing in the Miami Valley. The brewery's story is more than a story about beer, brewing and business. It's a story about a brewer, his legacy and the impact it had on Dayton. What follows isn't an excerpt from my book, but a brief retelling of some of the facts I dug up in my research. Some of the graphics here aren't in my book because of their poor reproduction quality.

For half a century, the Dayton View Brewery had overlooked Dayton from the west bank of the Great Miami River on the southwestern side of Salem Avenue. Dayton brewer Coelestin Schwind (1825-1893) built it in 1868 and 1869 and expanded it over the years. Facing River Street (now Riverview Terrace,) its four-story brewhouse and several outbuildings covered the ground that sloped down to the river, land now occupied by Jane Reece Park and West Riverview Avenue.

1869 county map shows location (bottom left) of Dayton View Brewery. 

Schwind’s brewery marked the growth of Dayton’s local brewing industry into an engine of economic development. It was turning out 14,000 barrels per year by 1887 and had a 60,000-barrel capacity by 1893, according to newspaper reports. It generated wealth that paid for the 14-room mansion and carriage house Schwind built across the street from the brewery.

Wealth from brewing allowed Schwind’s heirs to form the Schwind Realty Co., and in 1912 it erected the eleven-story Schwind Building on South Ludlow Street between Third and Fourth, joining Governor-elect James M. Cox’s Dayton Daily News building, the Arcade and others in Dayton’s swanky new business district—“Dayton’s ‘Fifth Avenue,’ ” a 1913 Schwind Realty ad called it.

1919 Sanborn insurance map detail of Schwind plant.

By the turn of the twentieth century, beer brewing had become big business in Dayton. But the local breweries were feeling competition from national brands and the Prohibition movement. In 1904, Schwind and other brewing companies combined to form the Dayton Breweries Co., with Adam Schantz Jr. (1867-1921) as president. He soon began consolidating the combine’s assets, closing older plants and concentrating operations in the newer ones.

Prohibition gained ground during World War I, when food and fuel rationing throttled brewery production. Dayton Breweries felt the pinch. In August 1918, Dayton Breweries shut down all but one brewery, according to a report in the Aug. 16 Dayton Daily News. The Schwind plant was among the ones that closed.

Screen shot of Dayton View Brewery from a microfilm copy of the June 21, 1908 Dayton Daily News.

Then came the double whammy of Prohibition on the state and federal levels. Ratified in January 1919, the Eighteenth Amendment would take effect nationwide in 1920. But Ohio's own Prohibition amendment was effective statewide on May 27, 1919.

Dayton Breweries put the Schwind plant up for sale early that year. The G. H. Schartzer Co. held an inventory sale in November 1919, selling everything from office furniture to its 140-barrel brew kettle.

The final blow came in November 1920, as Schartzer tore down what was left of the former landmark. Residents gathered as the company toppled the brewery's 150-foot smokestack, according to the Nov. 10 Dayton Daily News. A demolition crew undermined the stack to direct its fall toward the river, and 80,000 bricks crashed to the ground.

This brief account doesn't include Coelestin Schwind's first brewery, his remarkable brewing brothers or his equally remarkable wife, Christina (Latin) Schwind. Look for Dayton Beer later this year to learn more.