Through the success of beer brewers Joseph Rennig and his son, George, "Die Alte Brauerie" on Lehigh Mountain gave many South Bethlehem beer drinkers a place where they "wet their whistles," danced and socialized. Seven years after Rennig's Brewery closed, Aaron Schaadt purchased a half-block property, occupied at that time by Marechal House (Marshall Hotel) on Elm (now Webster) and East Fourth streets.

Schaadt's idea - to build a brewery in South Bethlehem - was in response to the success of neighboring breweries - Horlacher and Neuweiler in Allentown, Uhl's and Widman's in Bethlehem - all which supplied locally brewed beer to hotels, clubs, saloons and cafes to a beer-drinking populous.

Schaadt's property was in close proximity to the Reading Railroad where a siding platform would allow deliveries of barley, malt and hops and the transport of the finished product by the same boxcars.

The property offered his proposed brewery a bonanza: pure ground water piped through Tomstown Limestone at 100 gallons a minute and accessible a mere 54 feet below ground surface.

In 1901, construction began on South Bethlehem Brewing Company. "Overbuilt" by local labor, the sound steel frame featured 30-48-inch thick brick walls. The imposing six-story structure was designed to support heavy machinery, immense 12-foot tall vats for malt storage, plumbing coils and associated metalwork. Added to the facility was an innovative bottling room with sterilizing and capping equipment.

Atop the main building, brewing steam was vented through four copper stacks that towered four stories above the roof. Each stack measured eight inches in diameter and was crowned with pierced decorative metalwork. The main five-story brick chimney measured five feet in diameter.

In 1902, South Bethlehem Brewing Company went into full operation and transported its first shipment of beer. By 1915, the brewery and bottling department was known as the most modern in the Lehigh Valley.

The company's advertising department created the "Supreme" and "Heirloom" labels, which appeared on bottled beer, porter and ale, bottle caps, beer trays and coasters. The company slogan proclaimed, "Supreme - a truly fine beer brewed from an early German formula of choice grains and finest hops," and boasted their product "An Heirloom Gold Medal Beer."

Advertisements in local publications were quick to remind readers that "Supreme Beer [was] scientifically brewed from Barley, Malt and Hops," which gave "South Bethlehem Brewing Company the reputation as a recognized standard of brewing in the State."

At Bethlehem Steel prior to WWI, Eugene G. Grace had accepted government contracts to produce steel plate, ammunition shells and war materiel. Bethlehem Steel hired thousands of workers who lived in South Bethlehem and neighboring towns. After each shift, steel workers flooded local barrooms, hotels and saloons in search of thirst-quenching "brews" and South Bethlehem Brewing Company was ready for duty.

The sale of beer and alcohol was legal, according to the owner of a liquor license. That all changed after WWI. On Oct. 28, 1919, Congress passed National Prohibition or the Volstead Act, which implemented the Eighteenth Amendment. By Jan. 17, 1920, nation-wide prohibition was enacted and for the next thirteen years the sale of alcoholic beverages was illegal.

By law, local breweries curtailed brewing beer with full alcoholic content. Malt beverages, called "near beer" containing less than 0.5 percent alcohol by volume, were legally considered non-alcoholic.

Though the sale of beer and alcoholic beverages was illegal, drinking beer and alcohol was not. For this reason, grape arbors appeared in the backyards of countless South Bethlehem ethnic immigrants whose culture included the consumption of wine at the principle meal.

In fact, decades before Prohibition, illegal sale of alcohol proliferated in clandestine barrooms and saloons around South Bethlehem, often hidden in back rooms or basements. Called "speakeasies," local bars kept their illegal business "secret" from law enforcement officials.

These South Bethlehem establishments served alcohol to patrons all times of the day, every day during the week - a violation against liquor laws. Some unscrupulous proprietors of these speakeasies were known to have even duped their patrons . . . the substitution of a weaker "lager" beer over a requested, fuller-bodied "weiss" beer - or "raw rammers," straight shots of whisky. Law officials quickly arrested drunken patrons who led them back to the speakeasies.

On Main Street, an ordinary door disguised Hotel Bethlehem's speakeasy, while in South Bethlehem, Tally-Ho Tavern on West Fourth Street kept a speakeasy in its basement.

As many Southside residents recalled, South Bethlehem Brewing Company continued to brew and bottle "Supreme Beer." During Prohibition, cities as far away as New York knew South Bethlehem as "wide open" to vice and available alcoholic beverages. Undetected by law officials, brewing and delivery of beer to "secret" drinkers continued around Bethlehem - a possibility revealed years later.

In 1928, WWI veteran Hugh P. Larkin, his brother Archie and family members arrived in South Bethlehem from St. Clair, Schuylkill County. That same year, Hugh and Archie were employed at South Bethlehem Brewing Company. In the early 1940s, Hugh, Archie and their brother-in-law, James Knipe, assumed control of the brewery and continued brewing under the "Supreme Beer" label.

During WWII, 25 to 30 men operated the brewery and turned out 500 to 600 cases of bottled beer a day for shipment to military bases. After the war, the nation experienced a "golden age" of tobacco and alcohol consumption.

In advertisements, "Supreme Beer" was known to impart "vigor and strength" attractive to beer-drinking college and university students. Steady sales gave countless national industries a sense of euphoria with no end to wealth or production, including Bethlehem Steel.

Trucks continued to deliver "Supreme Beer" to local saloons, hotels, and restaurants throughout Bethlehem. Long-distance "runs" were made within a 100-mile radius of the brewery. By the 1950s, tremendous volumes of beer were bottled and canned by national corporate breweries. Slick Madison Avenue advertising campaigns in print, radio and television assured efficient ways of delivering their product to a thirsty market.

Consequently, many local breweries were forced to close as sales suffered and beer production was less cost effective. Empty breweries across the nation added to increasing neighborhood "blight."

After he reviewed his successful 25-year reign as South Bethlehem Brewing Company president, Hugh Larkin announced the closing of his brewery on Aug. 21, 1954. It remained idle for 12 years until 1966, when the Bethlehem Redevelopment Authority established the Webster Street Renewal Area. This property included the old brewery and Holy Infancy Parochial School and Convent on Taylor and East Fourth Streets. to make way for the eight-story, 100-unit Andrew W. Litzenberger House.

On Bethlehem Redevelopment Authority's strict deadline, demolition crews struggled to raze the brewery on time - a defiant testament of South Bethlehem's proud work ethic. On one of the floors during demolition, workmen found a trap door built into the baseboard behind a five-foot high, 600-pound safe. They turned over to the police what they found . . . numerous 1920s currency bills valued up to $200,000.

Was this unpaid "hush money" to law officials during Prohibition? If only brewery walls could talk.