My ancestor's house turned into a brewery, and ...... a can of beer on my desk....Hopfen und Malz Gott erhalt's!

I just bought a CAN OF BEER on ebay (sitting on my desk in above photo)! But this is no ordinary can of beer, it is a collector's can issued in 1978 to "honor the men who created the Brewing Industry in this country." This brewery, called Engel and Wolf, was built on exactly the spot of my gt gt gtnth uncle Samuel Meeker's country estate, the only thing that seems to have stayed the same is the name, "FOUNTAIN GREEN". {there of course is no beer in the can altho there was when issued (two small holes on the bottom) &... if you look closely you can see the name 'Fountain Green' under the word BREWERY}

on the can

• Charles Engel and Charles Wolf had the first large brewery in Philadelphia to make lager beer. It was conveniently situated beside the Columbia Railroad on the Schuylkill River about one mile above the Fairmount Waterworks
• The brewery was built in 1849 at Fountain Green, now a part of Fairmount Park & included five large vaults cut out of solid rock for cooling and storage of their well known beer

&

• Through this series of specially commissioned signed artwork "The History of American Breweries", we honor the men who created the Brewing Industry in this country.
• The Huber Brewery has brewed for this Edition a CLASSIC BEER as it used to be.
• We at Huber salute these vanished American breweries.
• Hopfen und Malz Gott erhalt's! Hops and Malt God preserve them!

Fountain Green, a country estate owned by Samuel Meeker, eventually turned into a brewery. Most Fortuitously (for me), in 1800 British artist William Russel Birch set out to draw some of the finest country residences in the American Nation [The Country Seats of the United States of North America (1808)]; in these depictions not only the architecture of the villas but also the special role of nature is illustrated, he says in his introduction, "The comforts and advantages of a Country Residence, after Domestic accomodations are consulted, consist more in the beauty of the situation, than in the massy magnitude of the edifice......In the United States the face of nature is so variegated; Nature has been so sportive and the means so easy of acquiring positions fit to gratify the most refined and rural enjoyment, that labour and expenditure of Art is not so great as in Countries less favoured...."

One of these fine 'edifices' gracing the countryside on the banks of the Schuylkill River in Pennsylvania was known as Fountain Green purchased by Meeker at auction in 1799 from the merchant Johnathan Mifflin.

More on this house, and Birch's illustration of the country estate ...soon. As well as more on the BREWERY !