26 SEPTEMBER 12, 2019 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
A most popular Ridgewood brewery
BY THE OLD TIMER
OUR NEIGHBORHOOD: THE WAY IT WAS
EDITORIAL@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
@RIDGEWOODTIMES
In 1857, John Welz founded his brewery
in a small plant on the corner of
Scholes Street and Graham Avenue
in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. He brewed
good beer, and as the demand for his
product grew, he decided to expand by
relocating his brewery.
Accordingly, in November
1861, he purchased four
acres of land on the southeast
corner of Myrtle and
Wyckoff Avenues. This is
present-day Ridgewood, but
back then, it was referred to
as East Williamsburgh.
Welz paid $210 per acre,
a grand total of $840, for
the land which once had
been part of the Nicholas
Wyckoff Farm. The sellers
were the heirs of Nicholas
Wyckoff Jr., namely his four
daughters: Catherine Nostrand,
Jane Schoonmaker,
Henrietta Meserole and
Susan Harris.
On this site, Welz build
this High Ground Brewery,
named for the nearby High
Ground Park at Grove Street
and Myrtle Avenue, and increased
the capacity of his
brewery to 20,000 barrels
(31 gallons per barrel) of
beer per year.
In 1877, Charles C.D. Zerweck, who
was brewmeister for Jacob Marquardt’s
Brewery on Cypress Hills
Road (present-day Cypress Avenue)
married Emilie Welz, daughter of John
Welz. A fi re in May 1877 destroyed
Marquardt’s Brewery, causing damage
estimated at between $10,000 and
$20,000. Although Jacob Marquardt
subsequently left his business,
Zerweck joined Welz’s brewery
as brewmeister.
John Welz Sr. retired in 1883 and
turned the business over to his son,
John Welz Jr., and son-in-law Charles
Zerweck. The name of the brewery
was changed to Welz and Zerweck,
and it was operated as a partnership.
The junior John Welz was born in
1859 in Williamsburg at the location
of the original brewery, Scholes Street
and Graham Avenue. Growing up in
East Williamsburg, he attended a oneroom
schoolhouse on Cooper Avenue
near Cypress Hills Road, and later a
private school in the rear of a hotel.
Welz & Zerweck Beer was indeed
popular at local saloons, and at a popular
picnic park, Glendale Schuetzen
Park. The brewery had one particularly
tall order to fi ll at the park on
July 7, 1895.
About 30,000 jammed the picnic
park that day for the fi rst National
Schuetzen Fest, a celebration of German
culture in the neighborhood.
About 1,500 half-barrels, most from
the Welz & Zerweck brewery, were
consumed.
From the profi ts made at the brewery,
the offi cers invested in large tracts of
land around Glendale.
In 1900, Henry Roth bought 26 acres
of the former John Debevoise Farm,
located on the north side of Myrtle
Avenue from the old Fresh Pond Road
(now Cypress Hills Street) to what is
now 69th Place. It was originally part
70 acres of land that Nicholas Wyckoff
had sold to the Debevoise family
in 1781.
Meanwhile, the capacity of
the Welz & Zerweck Brewery
increased to 500,000 barrels
of beer per year. To increase
their distribution, they opened
a supply depot in Coney Island
to give quick service to the
amusement parks in the area.
They also supplied beer to
Peter Becker’s Columbia Park,
located on the north side of
Metropolitan Avenue near Dry
Harbor Road (present-day 80th
Street) in Middle Village. Although
Becker was the son-inlaw
of William Ulmer (who was
the owner of William Ulmer
Brewery, a 100,000-barrel per
year plant located in Brooklyn),
he did not serve Ulmer beer at
his park.
In 1900, Welz & Zerweck
Brewery — in order to insure
that only their beer was consumed
at Glendale Schuetzen
Park — signed a fi ve-year lease
to run the park. They also purchased
a half interest in Louis
Buser’s Webster Gardens Picnic Park,
located on the northwest corner of
Cooper Avenue and Webster Avenue
(present-day 71st Street) in Glendale.
Carl Zerweck, son of Charles Zerweck,
was appointed brewmeister of
A sketch and photo of the Welz & Zerweck Brewery on Myrtle Avenue in Ridgewood.
Ridgewood Times archives
The Queens County Labor Lyceum on Cypress Avenue was one of many Ridgewood establishments that served Welz & Zerweck Beer, as advertised on
the storefront.
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