Brooklyn Beer in Stained Glass

A bit of ephemera, a small sketch, opens a window onto the lost Schaefer Brewery on Kent Avenue in Williamsburg, showing a decorative embellishment that once may have graced the interior.

The design, found in the collections of the Library of Congress, lays out a view of the brewery complex on Kent Avenue between South 8th and South 9th streets to be rendered in stained glass. A penciled note across the top indicates the design is for one of 12 stained glass panels planned for the “Director’s Room.”

Schaefer was founded in Manhattan in 1842 and moved to Brooklyn in 1916. The brewery expanded in the 1930s and 1940s with buildings designed by Eggers & Higgins, Architects — whose name is also penciled on the sketch. Eggers & Higgins designed a number of projects for the beer company, including their pavilions for the 1939 and 1964 World’s Fairs. The sketch is not dated, merely given the date range of 1920 to 1950 — this timing coincides with much of Eggers & Higgins’ work for Schaefer.

The work is also credited to J & R Lamb Studios in Tenafly, N.J. Still in business, J & R Lamb Studios was founded in 1857 and is believed to be the oldest continuously operated stained glass business in the U.S. Their archives were acquired by the Library of Congress in 2007.

If the windows were completed, they likely did not survive. Schaefer left Kent Avenue in 1976 and the site is now the location of the Schaefer Landing residences at 440 and 446 Kent Avenue, two apartment towers built in 2006.

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