Courtesy of The Beer Can Guide.
Whenever you hear the phrase “Old Georgetown”, it’s often followed by the word board. But in the middle part of the last century, the phrase was used to describe a much more enjoyable item: beer.
The shores of the Potomac just south of Georgetown once housed DC’s greatest brewery: the Christian Heurich Brewery. Started by its namesake, a German who immigrated here in 1866, it was built in 1894. Huerich ran the brewery both before and after Prohibition, gaining a reputation as the best beer in town. He passed away on the job at the age of 102 in 1942.
The brewery produced a series of different beers, mostly under the Senate Beer logo. But in 1950, the brewery introduced the new Old Georgetown label. It wasn’t until later in the year that Congress passed the Old Georgetown Act, which established the strong historical protections for the neighborhood’s architecture. Both were probably inspired in anticipation of the 1951 centennial of the neighborhood (the “Old Georgetown” signs at M and Pennsylvania that you see in GM’s header were also erected around then).
The Old Georgetown beer can was emblazoned with a map of the old Georgetown street names. It also featured a couple local landmarks including among others the “Cumberland Canal” (i.e. the C & O Canal), Suter’s Tavern, Dumbarton Oaks, the brewery itself, and Francis Scott Key’s house.
Like many regional beers, Huerich faced increasing competition from the giant national breweries. Sadly only six years after the first Old Georgetown can rolled off the brewery, the last one did too.
The brewery closed and remained vacant for another six years. But construction plans for the Roosevelt Bridge and the Kennedy Center led to its demolition.
For about 20 years, starting in 1986, Gary Huerich, Christian’s grandson, started a microbrewery selling the Old Huerich Brewing Company beer. Later it was renamed Foggy Bottom. However, unlike his forefather’s beer, it wasn’t brewed in, or even around, DC. It was a contract brew made in Utica by the Saranac brewery. It stopped production in 2006.
The Georgetown Metropolitan 
Interesting. I was under the belief that the exact location of Francis Scott Key’s house was lost to history. (Or perhaps his office on M Street – if that was a different location). Where does the can say his home was?
Very cool, yet sad at the same time…
The Francis Scott Key house’s location is quite well known. There are numerous photographs and postcards. The house itself was lost to history when it was disassembled piece by piece by the Park Service prior to the construction of the Key Bridge. The storage location was promptly forgotten, and no one seems to know where the house went although many think the period materials were used to help refurbish the Old Stone House further down M Street.
IIRC the house was located where the onramp for Whitehurst Freeway at 36th and M.
Thanks so much for the clarification, Charlie! Interesting stuff. Was this building considered both his house and his office? Do you have a link to a photograph?
Here’s a link to a great article on streetsofwashington.com
http://www.streetsofwashington.com/2010/01/lost-opportunities-key-mansion-saga.html
I also erred when I said the house was torn down when the Key Bridge was built. It was torn down in 1947 when Whitehurst Freeway was built.
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