The "Prohibition and Lancaster" Story

Serving trays bearing the name of a good friend.

It was an ordinary day.  Looking on eBay for a few bobble-heads that I thought I may want to bid on when I came across some beer bottles from a brewery in Lancaster known as the Rieker Brewery.  Got me to thinking of years ago when the alleyway behind my home faced the homes on the the north side of the alley and one of my best friends and neighbors on that side of the alley was Dave Rieker.  Our sons played little league and high school baseball together and we were both members of a table-top dice game baseball league when we played a game known as APBA.  

Lithograph of the Rieker Star Brewery in Lancaster, PA.

I can remember visiting him in his house and seeing a few momentos from the Rieker Star Brewery that was at one time located in the city of Lancaster in an area known then as well as now as "Cabbage Hill."  The brewery was built on land that had been given to build the town of Lancaster by none other than William Penn.  A local neighborhood where the blue-collar workers of the city lived and played.  On the southern edge of the neighborhood stood the Frank A. Rieker Star Brewery.  

An aerial view of the Rieker Brewery.  The brewery stands
in the rear with what became the Blue Star Inn in the
front center.  The Inn still remains today. 

The brewery turned out over 50,000 barrels of beer a year which was primarily sold to the "Cabbage Hill" neighbor- hood.  It was sold in glass bottles with either a screw on top or a hinged porcelain gasket cap that were known as growlers.  The Rieker Star Brewery was started in 1876 and operated under that name until 1907 when it became the Rieker Estate (Star Brewery) from 1907 to 1912 when it was renamed again the F.A. Rieker Brewing Company until 1920 when National Prohibition shut it down.  In front of the brewery was built the victorian F.A. Rieker Western Market Salon & Hotel.  

A recent photo I took of the Blue Star Inn on East King St.
in Lancaster.  The star logo can be seen at the right top.

It had Italian tile floors, intricate pressed metal ceilings, expensive wood working and custom boilers which were elaborate metal heading units that sat in the rooms.  When prohibition began, the Rieker family gave control of the brewery to the mobsters who ran illegal hoses through the city sewers to the taps in the saloon.  Although prohibition ended in 1933, the brewery never was the same as it had been at one time and was finally demolished in 1941 while the Market Saloon & Hotel became known a the Historic Blue Star Inn.  

Crystal Park now stands where the original brewery once stood.

I recently made a trip to what is now known as Crystal Park.  It is a playground for the local neighbor- hood and covers the ground that at one time was home to the brewery.  I walked to the south of the park and found a building which I assume was the Blue Star Inn at one time.  It still sits along West King Street, but is currently for sale.  It still sports a large star sticking out from the second floor which I assume was blue in color when lit.  In 2007 Crystal Park turned 50 years old.  During the years from 1881 to 1886, Lancaster, Pennsylvania was known for the beer it turned out with Mr. Frank A. Rieker the most successful brewer in the city.  

The playground serves the youth of the "Cabbage Hill" area.

Lancaster's daily newspaper proclaimed in 1868 that Lancaster occupies the same position that Munich does in Germany in regards to the brewing industry.  Lancaster's beer fame had spread over the whole Union.  When prohibition ended in 1933, Lancaster county breweries resumed legitimate operations but eventually bowed to the much larger and automated breweries.  Wacker Brewery was Lancaster's last operating brewery which closed in 1956 with all remaining unpackaged beer being dumped into the sewer.  It was 39 years before Lancaster had it's own brewery when Lancaster Malt Brewing opened in 1995 in the historic McGovern Tobacco Warehouse in the east side of Lancaster City.  I must admit I learned quite a bit about brewing beer in Lancaster from my on-line search, but still never found the bobble-head I was looking to purchase.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.