Construction on the building was begun in 1902 and apparently wasn't completed until 1937. Trapezoidal in shape, the building consists of several separate parts joined together as they were built over the years. The southwest corner is a five storey tower with a gable roof hiding behind a stepped parapet and a seven foot diameter window in the parapet. To the north of the tower is a five storey section with a clerestory above and a huge semicircular window above the ground floor. Behind both the tower and this section the building steps down in height until it is just two storeys tall at the southeast corner.
At one time a large industrial complex with railway access, the area is now mostly the WSU campus, with the brewery building, the last remaining industrial building, housing the university bookstore, a credit union and a pharmacy. With 20,110 square feet of usable area, the building also houses a number of rentable offices. Though it had fallen into disrepair at the time of its nomination, it has been restored and appears to be fully utilized today.
State prohibition forced the closure of the original Schade Brewery in 1916. Sold in 1918, it remained mostly vacant until becoming a flophouse for transients at the beginning of the depression. Known as the "Hotel de Gink," the shelter operated with the city's blessing from 1930 to 1933. With the end of prohibition the brewery was reopened as Golden Age Brewery, which claimed to brew "
the beer
that made Milwaukee jealous." At that time well known architect G.A. Pehrson was employed to make necessary improvements and changes to the building.
Golden Age sold out to Bohemian in 1948, who, in turn, sold the operation to the Chicago-based Atlantic Brewing Company. In 1957 the building ceased to be a brewery and became a scrap metal storage building, slowly deteriorating for the next thirty years. Now essentially fully restored the old Schade Brewery remains a highly visible landmark in the area. Of the five large-scale breweries which operated in Spokane in the early twentieth century, the Schade Brewery Building is the sole survivor.
Schade Brewery
The building takes its name from Bernhardt Schade, the brewmaster
who had the building erected in 1903. Schade served as assistant
brewmaster at another Spokane brewery, the New York Brewery, for a
decade prior to the creation of his own brewing operation. In 1903
he bought the entire oversized city block on East Trent from a Mr.
Frost. Included in the purchase was a cold storage building Frost
was constructing on the site. Schade hired the architect Lewis
Stritesky, designer of the prominent Westminster Apartments at 2301
West Pacific in Spokane, to design a facility based on drawings of
a European brewery. Stritesky created a new western addition for
the building begun by Frost. A bottling building and steam/pump house were also built on the property. Initial production was 35,000 to 40,000 barrels a year.
Designed to convey a sense of power and permanence, the Brewery's
walls are three feet thick in the basement and first floor, and two
feet thick in the upper stories. This building is a typical example of commercial/industrial construction of the early twentieth century in general, and of breweries in particular. Designed to accommodate immense weight and rough use, these buildings nonetheless retain aesthetics in their massiveness. The Schade Brewery's Flemish style stepped parapet tower, with its rounded apex and gambrel roof, are reminiscent of the Dutch Revival influence, similar to that of its contemporary, the Old Holy Names Academy north of the Spokane River. The soaring, round arched windows of the primary façade, while artfully rendered, also fulfilled the utilitarian purpose of displaying the scientific brewing works to the general public.
The Schade Brewery, was fairly typical for its day. All breweries
had some sort of tower to supply their gravity-fed operations; all
were built on a large, imposing scale for both practical and
artistic reasons. In Spokane, the Hiebner and the New York
breweries were good examples, but the Schade Brewery was considered
the premier establishment.
In 1910, five large-scale breweries were in operation in Spokane.
Today the Schade Brewery building is the only remaining structure
from that era designed solely for the production of beer...
From the NRHP Nomination Form