# Photo of Brewery in the middle of Appalachian mountains with strange orbs



## polymath (Jun 19, 2022)

This is a brewery that was said to exist near my hometown in Appalachia. It was near a boom town that sprang up in 1890 and this was supposedly built by 1891 in the middle of the mountains to brew beer for the forthcoming steel and coal miners. I have seen bottles from a company by this name, even dug one up in my back yard as a child. So I know things were bottled in the late 19th century under the brewery name. The building, though...I'm not so sure.  It was in operation from 1891 until 1916 according to official records yet the National Park that is now there stated in a report that there was no archaeological remains of this mammoth during a survey in the 20th century. 

I won't even get into how ridiculously ornate this thing is for the location and clientele but that's another, longer post.

My question:
As always with these buildings it seems, no photographic evidence of its 1890/1891 construction is available. But from what is available I wonder what is that* orb looking finial object above the windows to the left and right of the taller towers (more visible in the photograph but also in the rendering)? *


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## AaronSenoj (Jun 19, 2022)

Could you mark that orb looking finial object on the photo? It's not certain where they are.


As for the ambiguity on the construction dates of these aesthetic looking buildings. If this building was really built by 1891 then at least a photo or two showing its construction must have been available but there aren't any.  It's known that the camera devices had become common starting from 1850's.

Another example of such buildings where there are no photos taken during the construction phase is the state district heating and electricity plant of Dresden in Germany. Its construction is reported to begin in February 1899 and completed by March 1901. Within a mere 2 years this building is erected:





This photo is reported to be taken in 1903. So, in the year 1903 we have such quality photos of the building but no photos at all 4 years earlier.


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## polymath (Jun 19, 2022)

It looks hollow inside? Maybe a simple decoration but I don't know anything anymore really. I've been researching my hometown and its origins and I've landed on 2 possible theories. The group of "businessmen" who are photographed touring it, "developing it" and later abandoning it were either rediscovering it from something that was there earlier OR major con men. This group of investors from London is still the owner of huge tracts of land, an absentee landlord situation. One day I'll make a post about it. One of the first things that went up was a Masonic Lodge. Probably all coincidence.


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## AaronSenoj (Jun 19, 2022)

polymath said:


> It looks hollow inside? Maybe a simple decoration.
> View attachment 23393


It doesn't seem to be a functional part it looks like a simple decoration.

But, it might have been put there later as a replacement. I mean that section of the building originally might have had something different. I also think the flags are added later on rendering. I mean those 2 antenna looking posts were not meant to be used as flag posts. In the photo, no flags can be seen anyway.


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## polymath (Jun 19, 2022)

AaronSenoj said:


> It doesn't seem to be a functional part it looks like a simple decoration.
> 
> But, it might have been put there later as replacement. I mean, that section of the building might have had something different originally. I also think the flags are added on paper. I mean those 2 antenna looking posts were not meant to be used as flag posts. In the photo, no flags can be seen anyway.


I feel like I am looking at the artist's rendering of a repurposing not a construction. Other photos show it completely in red brick around those early days, not white washed like in the photos. This is listed in a history archive from 1890-1900 photo time frame. So It was red brick, painted white like the rendering. Does the second photo look like a recently constructed building (less than a decade old)? 

Another interesting note is that a sanitarium was "built" in the same valley and called a four seasons hotel. It burned down around the same time period it seems. When I'm a little more organized, I'll post the whole story of this place. I really do feel like some people arrived, set up house in old buildings while looking for something "hidden" in the mountains. Was it simply iron and coal? I don't know. 

The kicker is that growing up in the 1980's there was none of this information taught to us, not even the founding father's name. It sprung up in the 1990's when the town started getting attention for being built in a crater. So we had to have a history to go with it, right?


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## trismegistus (Jun 19, 2022)

Pretty difficult to find more than a handful of photos and scant explanation for this brewery.

The Cumberland Gap Broadcasting Company

There's some interesting photos here to sort through and potentially determine if this is a pre-standing structure.  There are a few maps of the city made when this brewery should have been built, but I am not familiar enough with the city to know where it sits in the design.





Naturally, no early American city would be complete without a bizarre "after the great fire" photo.


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## polymath (Jun 19, 2022)

trismegistus said:


> Pretty difficult to find more than a handful of photos and scant explanation for this brewery.
> 
> The Cumberland Gap Broadcasting Company
> 
> ...


Even better, if you keep looki g through those photos there are some “during the fire” pics just as weird. This brewery should have been outside of downtown but in an area where no one would have seen it. Why the fanciful design?
I moved from there to Jacksonville Florida which also had a “great fire” in 1901. No pre fire photos except a handful that showed stone like buildings. Maybe they were flammable and a form of masonry we’re unaware of? Or its all made up? I really heard Nothing of town history until the 1990’s. Because it became semi famous for the crater. Before that no one spoke of it.
Also, that brewery in an area where the native population was heavily southern Baptist & the temperance movement was strong. The town and county we’re dry until 2 or 3 years ago.
The only alcohol was moonshine. 
The hotel was “dismantled” 3 years after its building (no photos) due to bankruptcy but the land and onr building, the sanitarium, we’re donated to the fledgling Lincoln Memorial University.


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## Udjat (Jun 20, 2022)

If you take a look at "Breweries" in the 1800's, you will find that a good deal of them were "built" or should I say "housed" in what looks like castles.  I had found an old beer bottle from a New York brewery called Hinckel Brewery and I looked it up to see if it was up state New York or the Islands. 

I find it interesting that these people had all the time in the world to build castle like "Breweries" that could be college campuses, while all the other crazy stuff that was going on during this time.  Also, did this many people drink beer that they needed to build these "breweries" so gargantuan?  I have been in a brewery before and you don't really need that much space, even for the huge vats.  

Now this building is used for apartments.


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## polymath (Jun 20, 2022)

Udjat said:


> If you take a look at "Breweries" in the 1800's, you will find that a good deal of them were "built" or should I say "housed" in what looks like castles.  I had found an old beer bottle from a New York brewery called Hinckel Brewery and I looked it up to see if it was up state New York or the Islands.
> 
> I find it interesting that these people had all the time in the world to build castle like "Breweries" that could be college campuses, while all the other crazy stuff that was going on during this time.  Also, did this many people drink beer that they needed to build these "breweries" so gargantuan?  I have been in a brewery before and you don't really need that much space, even for the huge vats.
> 
> Now this building is used for apartments.View attachment 23416


It would be interesting to consider beer consumption during that time, especially in the area where extravagant breweries popped up. Giving the benefit of the doubt in my situation, if you're importing workers from places where beer drinking is commonplace a brewery might be a good idea. But..if you can import the materials to construct why not just import the beer instead for an experimental town in the middle of nowhere? Maybe I'm just not getting the mindset of these (re)developers? I do feel like the water from this area is part of the puzzle, the lake, the creek, etc. Maybe the water was being exported? I know they also sold ice according to their advertisements. 

Here is the official state marker for the town calling it an "English colony". The English were still colonizing America in 1886? Hmm...
the wording should be accurate since it's an official maker. It was installed in 1968.



Historical marker


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## AaronSenoj (Jun 20, 2022)

There was one such building in İstanbul, Turkey until late 2020. It was called "Bomonti Brewery"




Another view:





An islamic political party called AKP has been in power for 20 years in Turkey. That party has been planning to demolish this magnificent building since 2009 and finally in late 2020, during the height of the Pandemic Lockdowns and curfews, that party has demolished it. Before demolishing there were protests, and activities (2020)




There were constant resistance among the Architects and Civil Engineers societies to this demolishment. But the conditions were unfavorable for normal citizens to  raise their voice. 

A picture from 2012:



It's been reported that an islamic style building will be built in the place of this building. Note: The Islam and the islamic style buildings, islamic applications are not demanded by the Turkish people, but rather they are imposed on the Turkish people.


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## polymath (Jun 20, 2022)

AaronSenoj said:


> There was one such building in İstanbul, Turkey until late 2020. It was called "Bomonti Brewery"
> View attachment 23420
> 
> Another view:
> ...


I looked it up and it seemed to still have life a few years ago. What a shame! And of course, TPTB took the opportunity to remove it during the most opportunistic moment. It does bear a lot of similarity to the New South Brewery. 

And along familiar lines, I cold not find construction photos of the Bomonti Brewery. It was quite a building for two youngish brothers to have built. I tried to find out about their father (born 1825) who came to Istanbul from Switzerland. I might go down the rabbit hole of that family later. There are some good photos of Istanbul from 1890 so it's silly to say that no one documented any stage of construction of the first brewery and large industrial complex. Maybe it's out there, wherever all the construction photos are located.
I would like to add one other oddity (of many) with Middlesboro/ugh. In this 1978 application to the National Register of Historic Places the architect of one of the first buildings in town (circa? 1890...circa? ) is listed as Colonel George H Waring. THE George H Waring who was not an architect by trade but a sanitary engineer and civic reformer. He was credited for cleaning up NYC's sanitation and draining Central Park in 1857 at the tender age of 24. So many questions. Was he a real person? Did he even know this town existed if he was? Why would his name be attributed to architecture and building when he was not known for either? Too many questions. But if this building is attributed to the mythical man did he actually design Central Park's drainage making it possible for the park to exist? 

It's all somehow connected. Who were these people trying to fool? When did the lie start? All I can go back to is what I know. And what I know is that a famous, important NYC sanitation engineer did not design and build this building in the middle of the mountains where he had no connection. It's ridiculous to even say so. Who did? And who was George Waring. That I do  not know. Is it really just a testament to how historians just make things up as they go along and perpetuate lies through laziness?

The style is credited as Richardsonian Romanesque. The early buildings in town had that feeling. Is that the title that was given to a building style that tied to old world in the new? More questions.


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## Yveham11 (Jun 26, 2022)

AaronSenoj said:


> Could you mark that orb looking finial object on the photo? It's not certain where they are.
> 
> 
> As for the ambiguity on the construction dates of these aesthetic looking buildings. If this building was really built by 1891 then at least a photo or two showing its construction must have been available but there aren't any.  It's known that the camera devices had become common starting from 1850's.
> ...


Well I would have to say and do believe these type buildings were already here when England was stealing yet another peoples country.


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## polymath (Sep 6, 2022)

Yveham11 said:


> Well I would have to say and do believe these type buildings were already here when England was stealing yet another peoples country.


But still, who is what we call England? It is such a tangled web, I think. I can only be sure that official history is not 100 percent true nor is it 100 percent false. It's skewed and distorted and names changed, theories made up but based of truths, etc. So did a group of people from across the ocean arrive to my hometown in what is documented as 1891 usurp something that had been there before? I think that's possible. Another thing I noticed was that the buildings that were photographed supposedly just having been constructed looked dirty and old.


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## polymath (Sep 10, 2022)

One more thing. This amazing town builder has a collection of personal papers stored in the local library. One entry is “Alexander A. Arthur: Master of the 32nd Degree, 1891”. The same year our town was “founddd”.


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## Starfire (Nov 10, 2022)

It seems that almost every town of old buildings has an old brewery as one of them. Then I read the thread :
The strange appearance of hopped beer in history
I learned about gruit beer and a whole lot more! Definitely worth reading.

Before the Protestant Reformation the whole world got the bulk of their nutrition from some form of gruit beer or other thick fermented grain and herb drink. That is the beer these breweries originally produced, not alcoholic hopped beer. It would have been easy to dig them out and refurbish them to produce modern hopped beer.


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## Udjat (Nov 11, 2022)

Starfire said:


> It seems that almost every town of old buildings has an old brewery as one of them. Then I read the thread :
> The strange appearance of hopped beer in history
> I learned about gruit beer and a whole lot more! Definitely worth reading.
> 
> Before the Protestant Reformation the whole world got the bulk of their nutrition from some form of gruit beer or other thick fermented grain and herb drink. That is the beer these breweries originally produced, not alcoholic hopped beer. It would have been easy to dig them out and refurbish them to produce modern hopped beer.


I have heard everyone talk about this "gruit", which I had never heard of before, but do remember a drink called "grog".  It was popular in the 1800's I guess.  It is another type of "herbal" drink.  

This may be off topic, but what about the drink people used to consume that was called "absinthe", this stuff was pretty crazy, a hallucinogen. Maybe that is why they built so many "asylums" in the past, because everyone was tripping out on this stuff.  

Just think about the people that were in charge, drinking down some of this stuff.  Kind of scary.


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## Starfire (Nov 11, 2022)

Grog is a watered down rum with sugar and spices added, so sailors didn't get as drunk.

Absinthe is also a thin liquid, more of a liqueur. The main ingredient is wormwood (Artemisia absinthium), which causes the hallucinations. And it is listed as one of the possible ingredients in gruit beer. Gruit beer could be made more as a meal with no hallucinogens, or the brewer could add the fun stuff and make it a party!
So perhaps the liqueur absinthe was developed after hops were introduced and people could no longer find  the party gruit beer.


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