Heurich House Museum, also known as the Christian Heurich Mansion or Brewmaster's Castle, is a

Gilded Age In United States history, the Gilded Age was an era extending roughly from 1877 to 1900, which was sandwiched between the Reconstruction era and the Progressive Era. It was a time of rapid economic growth, especially in the Northern and Weste ...

mansion in the

Dupont Circle Dupont Circle (or DuPont Circle) is a traffic circle, park, neighborhood and historic district in Northwest Washington, D.C. The Dupont Circle neighborhood is bounded approximately by 16th Street NW to the east, 22nd Street NW ...

neighborhood of Washington D.C.

History

The house was built in 1892-94 by architect John Granville Meyers for German immigrant and brewer

Christian Heurich Christian Heurich (September 12, 1842 – March 7, 1945) was an American brewer and real estate investor in Washington D.C. His company, Christian Heurich Brewing Company, established in 1872, was the largest brewery in Washington, D.C. At ...

. It is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

. The first two floors of the house are preserved and include most of the original furnishings. In 1956, Heurich's widow deeded the house to the

Historical Society of Washington, D.C. The Historical Society of Washington, D.C., also called the DC History Center, is an educational foundation dedicated to preserving and displaying the history of Washington, D.C. The society provides lectures, exhibits, classes, and community ev ...

In 2003, the Historical Society moved out of the house, putting the house on the open market. Amid rumors of plans to repurpose the house, it was purchased by the Heurich House Foundation and converted into a

historic house museum A historic house museum is a house of historic significance that has been transformed into a museum. Historic furnishings may be displayed in a way that reflects their original placement and usage in a home. Historic house museums are held to a ...

. The museum is open to the public.

Christian Heurich

Born in 1842 in the village of

Haina Haina (Kloster) is a municipality in Waldeck-Frankenberg in northwest Hesse, Germany. Geography Location Haina lies in Waldeck-Frankenberg south of Frankenberg and east of Burgwald at the southwest slope of the Kellerwald range. It lies on the ...

, near the town of

Römhild Römhild () is a town in the district of Hildburghausen, in Thuringia, Germany. It is situated 14 km west of Hildburghausen, and 21 km southeast of Meiningen. On 31 December 2012, it merged with the former municipalities Gleichamberg, H ...

Duchy of Saxe-Meiningen Saxe-Meiningen (; german: Sachsen-Meiningen ) was one of the Saxon duchies held by the Ernestine line of the Wettin dynasty, located in the southwest of the present-day German state of Thuringia. Established in 1681, by partition of the Ernestin ...

(in the region of

Thuringia Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million. Erfurt is the capital and larg ...

),Heurich, Christian (1934). ''Aus meinem Leben, 1842-1934: Von Haina in Thüringen nach Washington in den Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika: Lebenslauf und Erinnerungen'' (From out of my life, 1842-1934: From Haina in Thuringia to Washington, DC, in the United States of America: career and reminiscences). Washington, DC: C. Heurich. In December 2012, Haina became part of the town of Römhild. This village is not to be confused with the

near Gotha (also in Thuringia), nor with the

in the Waldeck-Frankenberg section of Hesse. Christian was the third of four children born to Casper and Marguerite (née Fuchs) Heurich.Benbow, Mark (2011-06-08/updated 2014-09-25).
Christian Heurich (1842-1945)
" In: ''Immigrant Entrepreneurship: German-American Business Biographies'' (a research project of the

German Historical Institute The German Historical Institutes (GHI), german: Deutsche Historische Institute, (''DHI'') are six independent academic research institutes of the Max Weber Foundation dedicated to the study of historical relations between Germany Germany, ...

, Washington, DC). Retrieved 2015-02-14. Christian's father was the local innkeeper, which included being a butcher and brewer. Christian learned the trade from his father and several apprenticeships in his youth. By the time Christian was fourteen, both of his parents had died, leaving him orphaned. He traveled throughout Europe until his older sister, Elizabeth Jacobsen, who was living in Baltimore, Maryland, convinced him to emigrate to the United States, where he would have a better chance of fulfilling his dream of starting his own brewery; he arrived in June 1866, initially joining his sister in Baltimore. In 1872, Christian went into a partnership with a man named Paul Ritter. Together, they leased a brewery from George Schnell at 1219 20th Street, NW Washington, D.C. Within a year, Mr. Schnell had died, and the partnership between the two men had dissolved. In his 1934 autobiography, ''Aus meinem Leben'', Heurich writes that he was the one that did most of the labor of brewing while Schnell entertained customers. Christian married the widow of Mr. Schnell, Amelia Mueller Schnell, on September 9, 1873. In 1884, Amelia died of pneumonia. In 1887, Christian married for the second time to Mathilde Daetz. He built their lavish mansion with Mathilde at 1307 New Hampshire Avenue NW. Mathilde worked very closely with the interior designers of the house, The Huber Brothers of

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. Sadly, due to a miscarriage and a carriage accident, Mathilde died in 1895, leaving Christian a widower again. Christian threw himself into his work, creating an empire in the capital city. In 1894 he opened his new, fireproof brewery, which had a capacity for 500,000 barrels of beer a year. The brewery, which rested on the

Potomac River The Potomac River () drains the Mid-Atlantic United States, flowing from the Potomac Highlands into Chesapeake Bay. It is long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map. Retrieved Augus ...

, is now the site of the

Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (formally known as the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, and commonly referred to as the Kennedy Center) is the United States National Cultural Center, located on the Potom ...

. The

Christian Heurich Brewing Company The Christian Heurich Brewing Company was a Washington, D.C., brewery founded in 1872 and incorporated by Christian Heurich in 1890. First located near Dupont Circle on 20th Street NW, it expanded to a much larger site in Foggy Bottom in 1895 af ...

was the second largest employer in Washington, D.C., apart from the Federal Government during this time. In 1899, Christian married Amelia Louise Keyser, his first wife's niece, and namesake. Twenty-nine years her senior, together they had four children, three of whom survived into adulthood: Christian Heurich Jr, Anna Marguerite (who died as an infant), Anita Augusta, and Karla Louise. They had a long marriage together until Christian Heurich, Sr. died in 1945 at 102.

Gallery

Christian Heurich mansion - front parlor.jpg, Front parlor Christian Heurich mansion - unused fireplace.jpg, Unused fireplace in the entryway Christian Heurich mansion - stairway.jpg, Main stairs Christian Heurich mansion - boudoir.jpg, Boudoir Christian Heurich mansion - boudoir toys.jpg, Children's toys in the boudoir Christian Heurich mansion - bathroom.jpg, Bathroom Christian Heurich mansion - stairwell for servants.jpg, Hidden stairwell for household staff Christian Heurich mansion - beer drinking room.jpg, Beer drinking room in the basement Christian Heurich mansion - kitchen.jpg, Kitchen in basement

References

External links

Heurich House Museum
''official website''
The Brewmaster's Castle
Documentary produced by

WETA-TV WETA-TV (channel 26) is the primary PBS member television station in Washington, D.C. Owned by the Greater Washington Educational Telecommunications Association, it is a sister station to NPR member WETA (90.9 FM). The two outlets share studios ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Heurich, Christian, Mansion Houses completed in 1894 Dupont Circle Historic house museums in Washington, D.C. Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Washington, D.C. Richardsonian Romanesque architecture in Washington, D.C. Victorian architecture in Washington, D.C. Gilded Age mansions

History

Christian Heurich

Gallery

See also

References

External links