Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Magnolia Taphouse - Historical Landmark

In Skimming the Houston Chronicle the other day I came across this really cool article. The article details the efforts of Bart Truxillo and the city of Houston government on creating a Houston Protected Landmark out of the old Magnolia Taphouse. What this means is that this truly magnificent building will not be razed to create another high rise apartment building. To me this is really neat and shows the historical significance of a once prized brewery.
The Magnolia Brewery had around 1- building spread out along Buffalo bayou and in 1903 produced half a million barrels of ice and brewed 200,000 barrels of beer. A few years later they were producing enough beer that they were running boats from Houston to Key West marking the beginning of plans to spread their beer to Cuba. The taproom actually opened up around 1912, however as with most breweries prohibition was not kind, that and a pair of floods caused the brewery to eventually close in 1950. Mr. Truxillo bought the building in 1967 and has worked to restore it since then.
All in all I couldn't be happier that the City of Houston decided to create this protected landmark.

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