When my father retired, they moved to a smaller house, and
changed the house into an office building; the brewery was closed down in
2004. The buildings are still standing as of early 2009, and this may be so
for quite a while.
The top picture is an old picture of the brewery and the bottom picture is a drawing of the neighborhood. Apart from slight changes, the brewery still looks the same. People today dress differently and they use different trucks. The big chimney was torn down and re-erected on the very right edge of the picture. This happened 1923, before my father was born. The people in the background were the workers at that time, the group of five at the right must have been customers or neighbors.
My great-grandfather is standing alone in the mid-left part. The woman in the center is unknown to me. We don’t know exactly when the picture was taken. My father thinks it was taken before World War I. The picture was taken from where the patio of my former apartment.
Regarding the drawing:
The two big columns with the ball on top at the left side of the drawing form the entrance to the brewery. They are still there. I still remember this view.
The storage building in the center belonged to the brewery. It was torn down in the late 60's. The small house beyond the storage building was torn down last year (1998). My father's secretary used to live there until she passed away two years ago. The building in front at the right side is still there. I know the people -- they have lived there since I was very young. The date of the drawing is written on the wall to the left. It says 1916, which is very likely to be right.
Behind the wall is the front lawn of what used to be our house.
