Narragansett Brewing Company former location. (Cranston, Rhode Island) | brewery

 brewery, historical layer / disappeared object

 Upload a photo

In 1888 John H. Fehlberg, Augustus F. Borchandt, Herman G. Possner, George M. Gerhard, Constand A. Moeller, and Jacob Wirth. In 1888, these local businessmen - the original "Original Six" - came together to form the Narragansett Brewing Company. With $150,000 in capital and funds from Butterine - Fehlberg's predecessor to margarine - a brick brewing house was built. In December of 1890, the first beer was produced, and the following year, the company officially incorporated.
The grounds of the Narragansett Brewing Company included a barn, a stable, a blacksmith, seventy-five horses, forty-five wagons, gas-powered trucks, electric trucks, twenty-five refrigerated train cars and its own ice plant.
In 1914 the company built the most modern bottling plant in the region, it became official: Narragansett Brewing Company was the largest lager beer brewery in New England. Surviving prohibition by bottling and selling beer for medicinal purposes, by the end of Prohibition, the Narragansett Brewing Company's financial condition was not what it used to be. But then the Haffenreffers saved the day. Rudolph Haffenreffer had built one of Boston's first brewery complexes, and when he passed away in 1929, the New England Brewing Company was turned over to his sons Rudolf, Jr., and Theodore. Rudolf, Jr., also had a natural talent for marketing, not to mention a keen interest in cigar-store Indians the two would come together when a young artist, Theodore Geisel (who'd soon be known as Dr. Seuss), was hired to design an icon for the company. Chief Gansett was born! Rudolf Haffenreffer Jr., would eventually become president and chairman of Narragansett Brewing Company and remain involved until his death in 1954. The Haffenreffer brewery in Boston survived until 1965, at which time brands like Haffenreffer Lager Beer, Pickwick Ale and Pickwick Bock Beer became the property of the Narragansett Brewing Company.
Just after World War II, Narragansett Beer would launch an extensive advertising campaign featuring the soon-to-be legendary, "Hi Neighbor. Have a Gansett." Ads appeared in newspapers, magazines, billboards, busses and trolley cars. Narragansett also began a long, happy relationship with Major League Baseball, sponsoring the Boston Braves in 1951 and later the Boston Red Sox, an affiliation which would take on a certain magical feel when the team's announcer, Curt Gowdy, became a spokesman for the beer.
By 1955, Gansett was the number one choice of consumers and the largest selling beer in New England, 65% market share. Others in the area, like Boston's Croft brewery and the Hanley Brewing Company in Providence, sold out to Narragansett and by 1957, the Narragansett Brewing Company was the last remaining brewery in Rhode Island. Two years later, the company celebrated the brewing of one million barrels by presenting each employee with a gold-plated bottle of Narragansett Beer.
Attracted by the Haffenreffer background and business acumen as well as their network of distributors throughout the northeast, Falstaff Brewing Corporation purchased Narragansett Brewing Company on July 15, 1965 for $17 million in cash and $2 million in Falstaff common stock. The plan was for the brewery to continue operating as a wholly owned subsidiary of Falstaff, under Haffenreffer management, and that the Narragansett brand would be retained and actively promoted.
Two days before the sale, the US Government began an anti-trust action against Falstaff, a suit that lasted until October 1974. US attorneys said that Falstaff should have shipped their products into New England from its other breweries or built its own brewery in the area instead of buying the region's largest, a move they saw as something that would reduce competition. In 1970, Carl Haffenreffer testified that management had actually begun exploring the sale of the brewery in 1956, recognizing that capacity needed to increase significantly so that distribution could be expanded outside of the New England market. He argued that Falstaff was not distributing or selling its products in New England at that time and Narragansett was not selling outside of New England in any major way, so the threat to competition was not valid. In October 1974, nine years after they had first agreed to purchase the company, Falstaff completed the acquisition.
Around the same time, Falstaff's purchase of the Ballantine brands was viewed with great hope in Cranston. In April of 1972, the first barrels of Ballantine were shipped from Rhode Island, and the brewery was now producing 1.7 million barrels a year, maximum capacity for the outdated, turn-of-the-century plant with outmoded equipment. The plants 580 employees were toiling around the clock, seven days a week, producing Narragansett, and other lagers like Hanley, Kreuger, Haffenreffer, Boh, Ballantine, Bohack, Munich and Falstaff. Ales included Croft, Pickwick, Bavarian, Ballantine, Boston Light, BB Stock and India Pale. The Narragansett Brewing Company of the 1970s even produced brands like Kreuger Pilsner, Haffenreffer Malt Liquor, Dresden, Bavarian (dark), Bock and Porter

In 1975, San Francisco multi-millionaire Paul Kalmanovitz gained control of the Falstaff Brewing Company. He hated Falstaff and would not put a penny into marketing for it!!!

Meanwhile the brewery's energy bill in 1980 reached $2.8 million, ninety-five percent of which going toward the production of beer.

In June 1981, plans were made to convert the brewery's oil-burning boilers to natural gas, a move that was also aimed at solving the hazard of leaking steam pipes. The brewery asked the Providence Gas Company for a year-round, five-year agreement of continuous service, something the company could not guarantee. Despite the intercession of the Governor and Cranston's mayor in the discussions, no agreement was reached and it appeared the brewery's days were numbered.
In addition to aging facilities, outdated equipment and increased costs of operation, union workers went on strike for better wages and improved benefits. Meanwhile, years of neglect in Narragansett's marketing were taking their toll. And on July 31, 1981, citing increasing competition from the national brewing companies, the Narragansett Brewing Company laid off 350 workers, effectively ceasing production at the Cranston brewery.
In addition to aging facilities, outdated equipment and increased costs of operation, union workers went on strike for better wages and improved benefits. Meanwhile, years of neglect in Narragansett's marketing were taking their toll. And on July 31, 1981, citing increasing competition from the national brewing companies, the Narragansett Brewing Company laid off 350 workers, effectively ceasing production at the Cranston brewery.
By February 1982, production of the Narragansett brand had shifted to the Falstaff plant in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The water from the Scituate Reservoir had been considered the finest in the country. The water in Fort Wayne, not so much.
Falstaff reopened the Cranston plant on January 13, 1983 to produce keg beer. Six brewers and 19 contract workers were recalled to begin brewing 450 gallons. A second batch of 800 gallons was started a day later. But those beers never reached the market and three months after the brewery re-opened, it closed for the last time. In July of 1995, much of the brewery equipment was shipped to China. On October 27, 1998, demolition of the once-proud brewery began. The bottling plant and eight other buildings were demolished over several months. The last remaining vestige of the brewery facility - the trolley barn - was demolished in 2005, after a fire.

In early 2005, life-long Rhode Islander, Mark Hellendrung, and a group of New England investors purchased the rights to Narragansett Beer from Fallstaff. Next, former Brewmaster, Bill Anderson, came on board, insuring that what's in the glass will always be Gansett at its very best. Since then, this thing has taken on a life of its own. The redesign of cans, cases, labels, caps. The creation of the first-ever official Narragansett Beer website. And, in October of '05, for the first time in a quarter century, Narragansett Beer in bottles and on-draft. And fourteen million New Englanders taking back our beer.

They already have 2% of the market in New England!

acknowledgement to Rick Redman and Virginia McKenna, and the American Breweriana Journal