Commissioned by the City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program and McSpain Properties  •  acryic, 2017

Throughout the century following the United States Civil War, Philadelphia was known as the “Workshop of the World.” The city was a manufacturing powerhouse, with thousands of small and large-scale facilities populating a wide range of industry—a reflection of Philadelphia’s entrepreneurial spirit. During this heyday, a complex and self-sustaining ecosystem emerged, supported by a vast network of working relationships within and across trades. This depth and diversity of production sustained the health and longevity of Philadelphia’s industrial base, far surpassing many other North American cities.

Regardless of its early strength, Philadelphia’s manufacturing economy experienced an inexorable decline during the second half of the 20th century. Left behind were the enormous and often magnificent physical remnants of that disappearing city. As the city has redefined itself in recent decades, many of these historic structures, including mills and factories, have been repurposed for adaptive and imaginative reuse. A few have survived outright, having successfully adjusted with the times. Many others stand underutilized or forgotten, subject to scrappers, squatters, and nature’s decay.

This mural is the fourth artwork in the Industrious Light series, which speaks to the scale of industrial brewery production and the grandeur of the Brewerytown neighborhood. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, Brewerytown had 11 functional breweries that produced 50% of the beer distributed in Philadelphia. Bergner and Engel Brewing Company, the third largest brewery in the United States in the 1880s, was located across the street from the mural site and is featured in the left part of the design.

The brewing industry enabled the growth of complexes and adjoining neighborhoods, and the scale and sprawl of these breweries is still visible in the last remnants of the F.A. Poth Brewing Company, suggested visually in the mural behind the barrel wagons. After prohibition collapsed the brewing industry, Poth Brewery was the only survivor. Eventually all breweries moved primarily to the Midwest, and by 1987, every single brewer had vanished. As redevelopment starts to transform Brewerytown, this new mural helps us remember the ingenuity that shaped the very beginnings of the neighborhood.