With the summer 2023 opening of the Guinness Open Gate Brewery Chicago announced just head of this St. Patrick’s Day week, I’m taking the opportunity to look back at the 901 W. Kinzie Street location. These are the “before” pictures, if you will, of the site before its redevelopment. This building used to be along my bike commute route to and from River North. 2017 photos show intensive mural art decoration—and the 2016 photo below shows that the murals hadn’t been there all that long. (And from the current photo accompanying the Sun-Times story, it looks like the murals are already largely gone—and there’s already an adjacent residential highrise.)
breweries
Looking north from what is now Michigan Ave and Pearson, 1871, Chicago.
The photo was taken from the Water Tower, its shadow in the lower right corner of the shot.
The ruins in the foreground are from the Lill & Diversy Brewery, once the largest brewer in the city. And yes, though now spelled Diversey, the street was named for this prominent beer maker.