Kessler Brewing Company
1865-1958
46°36'30.89"N 112° 4'48.72"W

Nickolas Kessler
1832-1901
Read His Obituary

The Kessler Brewing Company was located on Helena's far west side, just west of todays' Spring Meadow Lake (formerly Helena Sand & Gravel). It operated from 1865 to 1958. Some of the buildings are still standing. From 1984 to 2000, a Helena micro-brewery operated under the Kessler name, but their product was brewed in town, not at the old brewery. What would become the Kessler Brewing Company was founded in 1865 by Charles Beeher. In 1868, Beeher was bought out by Luxembourg-born Nickolas Kessler, an entrepreneur who had turned from gold prospecting to trade and manufacturing. Kessler soon started a brickyard near his brewery, and in this way helped to build the city of Helena. Helena's world-reknowned Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts had its beginning in Kessler's brickyard. Click here for the story, courtesy of the State of Montana's visitmt.com website. By all accounts, Kessler was an exceptionally friendly and honest man, and his death was widely mourned. Kessler School, one-third mile SE of the old brewery, is named for him.

 

The Kessler Brewery, as Engraved for an 1890 Perspective Map of Helena

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS • CLICK ON IMAGE TO OPEN A BIG VERSION IN A NEW WINDOW

Kessler Brewery, 1890s

CIRCA 1892 LITHOGRAPH BY WARD BROS., COLUMBUS OHIO - COLLECTION OF KENNON BAIRD

 

A History of the Kessler Brewery
Click on Image to Open PDF File

Kessler Brewery, Possibly During Prohibition

 

Kessler Brewery Buildings, 2011

PHOTO BY KENNON BAIRD

Kessler Beer Delivery Wagon
In front of the bottling plant

 

 

Two handsome Kessler Brewing Co. Advertising bar trays, circa 1900

Kessler Loreli Beer Advertising Ashtray, Date Unknown

 

Kessler Bavarian Beer Label, Date Unknown

 

Kessler Bock Beer Label, Date Unknown

 

Kessler Muenchener Kindl Beer label, date unknown

 

 

Kessler's Brewery Letterhead Design

 

 

Kessler Brewing Co. workers, ca. 1880

1935 Earthquake Deaths at the Brewery
BRICK SMOKESTACK UNDER REPAIR COLLAPSES DURING SECOND BIG QUAKE

After the Collapse

Brick masons Vincent Kennedy and Ed O'Brien were killed by an earthquake on October 31, 1935 as they worked to repair the damaged stack seen here. Kennedy and O'Brien had come to Helena with a crew from Salt Lake City, and were rooming at 118 North Warren (building now gone). The chimney had been badly cracked by a previous quake, and the two men were removing all the bricks from the top down to the start of the crack. They had just reached the place where the crack began when another severe earthquake occured. Much of the remaining stack collapsed, and the two men hit the ground in a cascade of falling brick. O'Brien died at the scene, Kennedy died a short time later at St. Peter's Hospital.

COURTESY OF TOM MULVANEY • CLICK ON IMAGE FOR A BIG VERSION IN A NEW WINDOW

1940s Aerial View of the Kessler Brewery

COURTESY OF KATHRYN FEHLIG

 

Local 1950 Newspaper Ad

 

Kessler "Cone Top" Can and Glass Quart Label, 1950s

 

Kessler Brewing Co. matchbooks, 1950s

 

 

In 2001, the 1860s Kessler mansion adjacent to the brewery was heavily damaged by fire. It was caused by a child playing with fireworks the barn, which was also destroyed.

 

Kessler Brewery Well, 2011

PHOTO BY KENNON BAIRD

During the 1950s, and probably well before that, there was a spigot on the side of the little shed-like structure from which anyone could draw pure, cold well water for free.