Photos by Justin Makler
The abandon Pabst Blue Ribbon Brewery in Newark NJ shut it's does in 1982
After reading about the abandoned Pabst Blue Ribbon Brewery in Newark NJ in issue 23 of Weird NJ, I decided a trip there since the article mentioned that it was currently being demolished. Weird NJ also stated that the structural unsound bottle could cost anywhere from 60K to 200K to remove. The 60 FT Water Tower was the largest bottle in the world when the Hoffman company opened the Brewery in 1930. The bottle is 185 feet above the street, holds 55,000 gallons of water, up to six men could stand on it's cap and It's made of 1/4 copper plated steal.
I would not recommend the trip, the neighborhood is one of the worst I have walked through (and I have walked through the bad parts of E. St. Louis and New Orleans.) At one point I ventured into the cemetery behind the Brewery to get a couple of shots. The Cemetery was littered with needles and crack viles. A women pushing a broken stroller startled me when she popped up from behind a large tomb stone. She kept asking me, "You want sum'tin, cause I got sum'tin you may want." At this point my wife started honking the horn. Turns out that some white SUV with tinted windows and really nice rims had pulled over, backed up and was looking into the cemetery. My guess is that they were looking for "sum'tin."
We decided it was time to head back home and drink a few PBRIC's in the comfort of our own home.
A couple good resources for this location as well as others. oldnewark.com & weirdnj.com
