A brewery on the river
Pearl began brewing in 1883, and by the turn of the century its Italianate brewhouse — designed by August Maritzen and raised by local stone masons, coopers, and brewers — was the largest brewery in Texas. The smokestack that still anchors the plaza has watched over the river for more than 140 years.
Emma's brewery
When her husband died in 1914, Emma Koehler took the reins. Through Prohibition she kept the doors open and the people employed — making ice, soda, and near-beer — and steered the company for decades. The hotel at the heart of Pearl carries her name.
Quiet, then alive again
Brewing ended in 2001. Rather than tear the buildings down, the people who took on Pearl chose to keep them — restoring the cellars, grain elevators, and cast-iron bones, and filling them with chefs, makers, shopkeepers, and neighbors. Today the Culinary Institute of America anchors a campus of craft, and twenty-six acres of plaza, park, and river belong to the city.
It's still a working place. Everything made or sold here is held to the standard of the hands that built it — united in craft.
