A black and white postcard of Brewery Gulch. The Brewery Building is visible as are signs for notary public, stenographers, typewriting, E A Tovrea Cold Air Storage and E C (?) Hurst Architect. The front caption on the bottom reads: “Brewery Ave., Bisbee, Arizona”. The postcard was postmarked Bisbee November 4, 1908 7:30 PM and was sent by Wm J. Weller to Miss May Davis 32 San Ford St. Glens Falls New York. The message on the back in ink reads: “Nov., 3, 1908. Dear Sister, Just received your letter. Will answer tomorrow. Where the two pin holes are is where I work for my brother ( they denote the Brewery Building). Where the one hole is, is where I room (denotes the top floor of the Brewery Building. Good by (sic) from your brother. Wm J Weller.” The postcard was published by the Bisbee Drug Company, Bisbee Arizona and was sent with a green one cent Benjamin Franklin stamp. Edward Francis Collection.

Brewery Gulch got its name due to Albert Sieber, a Swiss immigrant who built the first brewery in the gulch in a white adobe building. After he decided on the name he gave out free alcohol to the residents to celebrate and a brawl eventually broke out. It should be noted that water was scarce in Bisbee before burro delivery and infrastructure development, so when the miners wanted to quench their thirst alcohol was often their main option. During Bisbee’s growth as a profitable mining camp, the Gulch came to host fifteen saloons. Those establishments along with a handful of houses of prostitution gave a area a sordid reputation. The Copper Queen Mining Company wanted to attract more reliable, family oriented workers instead of the transient miners who wandered from mine to mine. So after the formation of City Council, several ordinances were put in place to end the worse of the Gulch’s vices. One of the most notable establishments in Brewery Gulch was The Brewery that was built in 1905 by Swiss entrepreneur Joseph Muheim. Despite the name, the building never housed a brewery outright instead three saloons and when the era of Prohibition was enforced in Bisbee the building housed the Stock Exchange instead of alcohol. With his successful enterprises, he built a beautiful home on Youngblood Hill for his family who had immigrated to America after an agricultural crisis in Switzerland that destroyed farmers livelihood. On September 1st, the Muheim house was entered in the National Register of Historic Places, the first home in Bisbee to do so. After the Bisbee Council on the Arts and Humanities restored the building and interior to be a glimpse in time to the towns heyday. In 1980, it opened as a museum as the Muheim Heritage House.

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