Anthony Yoerg Sr. House

Text

After the Yoergs built their new brewery in 1870, It did not take long for competitors to show up: Brueggeman, Banholzer, Stahlman, Schmidt, and Hamm. The last two grew giant, with Schmidt's castle-like complex southwest of city center, along Fort Road and right on top of Fountain Cave: and Hamm's along Phalen Creek just east of downtown.

Though St. Paul has cultivated an Irish image, and Minnesota a Scandinavian one, in fact Germans comprised the biggest national ethnic group in both city and state from the mid-19th century forward. Beer was one of the resulting cultural manifestations, and St. Paul remained a major brewing town until the late 20th century.

These were family businesses, and in this now scarcely imaginable era, industrialists often lived near their factories and their workers. The Schmidts and their successors, the Bremers, lived across the street from their brewery. Old Man Hamm's mansion perched on the bluff above Swede Hollow; he could look down from there on his factory, his workers, and some of his his customers. The Yoergs were no different.

Anthony Yoerg's house on 215 West Isabel still stands today - a French Second Empire box with a mansard roof, designed by Monroe Sheire, who was also the author of the Alexander Ramsey House.