Hupfel's Brewery, 1898.

The South Bronx was once a brewing mecca. As a German immigrant community with more open space than Manhattan, dozens of brewers set up shop here in the mid to late 19th century. Originally owned by a Xavier Grant, the business was purchased by Anton Heupfel in 1863 who later passed it along to his sons. The brewery was located on a steep slope between St. Ann's Avenue to Eagle Avenue. This hill provided an excellent spot for digging out caves. These naturally insulated spaces were perfect for aging and storing the lager that the brewery produced.

When Prohibition came to New York's breweries, many continued to produce "near beer" (and real beer surreptitiously and illegally). Adolph Hupfel Jr. had a different plan. He converted his family business into a "mushroom plantation." The beer-aging caves were also well suited to mushroom growing, and the business produced more than 200,000 pounds of the crop per year. The brewery closed in 1938, presumably after returning to beer production when Prohibition ended in 1933.

The Hupfel brewery still stands in ruins, the only 19th-century Bronx brewery building still extant. The tall red brick building can still be seen boxed in by the newer low-rise industrial buildings on St. Ann's Avenue south of East 161st Street.