JAX Brewery — From Beer to Boutiques
The JAX Brewery on Decatur Street in New Orleans was founded in 1890 and served for nearly 85 years as the largest brewery in the South. Designed in 1891 by architect Dietrich Einsiedel, it survived Prohibition by producing non-alcoholic drinks. Featured in Tennessee Williams' 1947 play A Streetcar Named Desire, the venue was redeveloped after a 1984 fire into a retail center housing radio station WWOZ.
New Orleans · from the walk “Moon Walk: New Orleans Riverfront Revealed” · audio ~4 min · Generated
The Shops at Jax Brewery, 600 Decatur St, New Orleans
- German-born architect Dietrich Einsiedel designed the JAX Brewery red brick building on Decatur Street in 1891.
- JAX and Dixie were the only two New Orleans breweries out of thirty to survive Prohibition after 1920.
- In Tennessee Williams' 1947 play A Streetcar Named Desire, the character Steve Hubbell asks for a Jax Beer.
- A seven-alarm fire during 1984 renovations killed one person before the eight-million-dollar retail redevelopment was completed.
How did the JAX Brewery in New Orleans manage to survive Prohibition?
Take a deep breath and look at this handsome red brick building right here on Dekatur Street. Today it's full of shops and restaurants, but close your eyes for a moment and imagine... the roar of steam, the clang of iron kettles, and the rich, yeasty smell of brewing beer filling the entire French Quarter.......... This is the Jax Brewery, founded by Lawrence Fabacher in eighteen ninety as the Jackson Bohemian Brewery, named after Andrew Jackson and Jackson Square. The building itself was designed by German-born architect Dietrich Einsiedel in eighteen ninety-one, and for nearly eighty-five years, it was considered the Largest brewery in the entire South!......... Now here's what most people don't know. Fabacher was an Alsatian immigrant who arrived amid a massive wave of German settlement that transformed New Orleans' brewing landscape, peaking with over Thirty breweries by nineteen hundred. Can you imagine... thirty breweries in one city?......... When Prohibition hit in nineteen twenty, most of those breweries vanished. But not Jax. The old brewery survived by converting its operations to bottle non-alcoholic brews... grape punch, Jax Cola, and orange soda. Clever, right? Jax and Dixie were the Only New Orleans breweries to survive Prohibition.......... And here's a literary gem for you. In Tennessee Williams' nineteen forty-seven play A Streetcar Named Desire, the character Steve Hubbell requests Jax Beer for the evening's poker game in Act One, Scene One. That's how deeply this beer was woven into the fabric of the city.......... The brewery finally closed in nineteen seventy-four. But the transformation into a shopping mall didn't go smoothly. In nineteen eighty-four, during the renovation, an acetylene cutting torch sparked a Seven-Alarm fire. Old brewing tanks could be seen through burned-out walls. One man was killed and four others injured.......... Despite that tragedy, the twenty-two acre site was purchased for five point five million dollars, and developers spent another eight million to transform it into a sixty-five thousand square foot retail and entertainment complex.......... And one more thing... since twenty twenty-three, this building also houses the studios of radio station Wwoz, the heartbeat of New Orleans music. So the old brewery Still hums with life... just a different kind of brew.