Wisconsin Builder | Job Satisfaction

Small village taps big plans

Brewery restoration ignites Potosi

By Seth Ansorge

Project design/builder Marshall Erdman & Associates, Madison, is already moving dirt at the site of a $33 million hospital and medical office building for Southwest Health Center in Platteville. The company plans to hold an official groundbreaking ceremony for the 128,000-square-foot project near the end of September.

Any list of America's great beer-making cities naturally includes St. Louis and Milwaukee. But Potosi?

It sounds far fetched, but this tiny Mississippi River village in Grant County has joined the home cities of Anheuser-Busch and Miller Brewing Co. in a three-way race to host the nation's only noncommercial brewery museum.

And, according to one insider at the American Breweriana Association, little Potosi has a great shot.

"It's a fantastic location," said Stan Hollaway, a founding member of the 22-year-old association that wants to sponsor the museum. "And in my view, (Potosi) seems to have their plans together with more specifics" than the other cities.

Such a tourist destination might be a minor rumble in metropolitan areas. But in Potosi, a national museum would resound more like a thunderclap.

"Not only in Potosi, but in communities around us, you see a lot of empty storefronts," said Frank Fiorenza, village president. "This museum would bring in tourists. Those empty stores will no longer be empty."

So how did a town of 726 people make the final cut? In a way, it all started 150 years ago.

Located on the town's three-mile main drag, the Potosi Brewery was built in 1854, two years after Gabriel Hail started brewing beer to quench the thirsts of immigrant lead miners.

Though the brewery flourished for decades — in its post-Prohibition heyday, it employed 90 workers and shipped barrels of "Good Old Potosi" brew as far as California — it was later edged out by macrobrews like Miller and Budweiser.

Hard times forced the four-story brewery to close in 1972.

Potosi "It was the lifeblood of this community," Fiorenza said. "It had been here 120 years. It gave this town its identity."

Over time, the building deteriorated. Doors fell off. The roof caved in. But the steel-reinforced limestone structure remained strong.

In 2000, some locals decided to bring the brewery back. A fund-raising campaign kicked off, the Potosi Brewery Foundation formed and an architect was hired. Since 2001, two adjacent buildings have been razed, the roof removed and the front façade restored.

Now, dreams of a rejuvenated brewery are gaining steam. Plans include an 80-seat restaurant, outdoor beer garden, a microbrewery and gift shop on the ground floor.
If all goes well, the remaining three floors could hold the ABA's museum.

Fiorenza ponders the day when tourist ships could sail up the Mississippi from nearby Dubuque, Iowa, to visit the museum, making Potosi something of a "mini-Galena," the popular Illinois destination.

"That's way down the road," he said. "But it's fun to imagine it."

To restore the 30,000-square-foot building to its 1920s condition could cost $3 million to $4 million. Raising that much will be tough, but there's help. Last year, the Jeffris Foundation, a Janesville group that supports historic preservation projects, pledged $400,000 in matching grants. Federal grants are pending, and in June, the Brewery Foundation hired a professional fund-raiser.

"It's an uphill battle, but we'll get there," Fiorenza said.

As recently as last winter, plenty of skeptics ranked Potosi's chances for the ABA museum as slim to none. But those odds improved after the town pitched its plans in June at the ABA's annual convention in Stevens Point.

"They did a tremendous job," Galloway said. "Their plan is small-scale enough to be affordable. It wouldn't incur any long-term debt, and that's huge."

Potosi's location one mile from the Mississippi River played well, too. And ABA members seemed impressed by Fiorenza's pitch that 17 million people live within 200 miles, or less than a day's drive away.

"I think their perception before was that we're an isolated, rural community," Fiorenza said. "I think they no longer see us as all that isolated."

If the ABA chooses to go elsewhere (a decision could come by late fall), Fiorenza said the restoration will continue. A local history museum, more shops or apartments could fill the brewery's top three floors.

But the museum would be a dream come true.

"Even today, people around here associate themselves with the brewery," he said. "We want it back."