My name is Scott Thede and I grew up next to the brewery.  I lived in the white house (pictured) at 305 East Main Street that is southeast of where the Brewery stood.  The driveway that accesses the house today was not there when I grew up.  The driveway on the very left of the picture was shared between our house and the Brewery.  The old driveway was a straight alley that went alongside the Boiler Room and the Bottling House and we had to jog right around a large Maple tree to enter the red pole barn.  Where the newer driveway enters the road, there was once a large sidewalk perpendicular to the road.  I remember the manhole cover that you can still see in this picture.  If you click on the photo to the right, the labels can be read.

I was very familiar with all of the different rooms and spaces in the vacated buildings.  Most of the brewery was made up of the larger brick buildings with the many additions over the years.  There was a construction frame carpenter shop and Deep Well Pump #2 directly behind our red pole barn garage that were separate buildings.  There was a brown outhouse on the east corner of the  large vacant gravel area.  The gravel area is where the company cars and delivery trucks were parked.  This would have been behind the red pole barn, but further back behind the carpentry shed and Well House #2.  You can see the plat drawing here and it would be on the top left blue section.  The Sales Office and the Brewmaster’s Office were also in a separate building that still stands today on the southwest corner of the property closest to the main road (East Main).  Other than that, all of the other buildings were connected in some way.  The west brick building (Keg Wash and Racking Room) was technically connected to the larger building via the overhead Main Office.  There was a walkout door to the roof of the building and a drive gate under the Main Office overhead.

My family had connections to the Brewery.  My paternal grandfather, Otto Thede started employment there in 1933 and was the Bottle House Superintendent and Treasurer for much of his time there.  He filled the general manager role for several years when in 1945, Dr. Wurm passed away unexpectedly.  Also, he was the president/general manager from June 1965 to June 1966 for the last year in operation along with various VP titles as well.  My father, William Thede worked there from 1960-1965 and his brother John (Jack) Thede worked there for a little longer.

The Boiler Room was directly across from the backdoor to my house.  As I became interested in basketball at around 7th grade, my father put up a basketball hoop in the window to the right of the Boiler Room door entry that was on the driveway we shared with the brewery.  It was a little lower than regulation and the driveway was dusty with dirt and probably coal dust.  I know my mother had a hard time keeping things clean when we would play in the driveway or behind the garage in the open area.  I remember exploring every nook of the brewery.  I would enter using the door to the Boiler Room, the Bottling House, or the large opening of the Fermenting Cellars A/B from the cement pad shared with the Storage Room.  Sometimes I would use the front door of the Boiler Room off of East Main if it was not locked or boarded shut.

The Boiler Room was the most direct route from the back door of my childhood home and one of the most desirable locations since that was the easiest way for me to climb up to the roof.  The pipes on the Northwest side of the chimney were a perfect ladder right up to the roof and out the window.  Even at the time I knew it was dangerous to walk or crawl on parts of the roof with nearby holes.  When young, there is a feeling of invisibility.  I never fell through and if I did, I would have likely been fatally injured since the roof was quite high.  When on top of the brewery roofs, I limited my exploring to the Boiler Room, the Bottlehouse, and the Storage Room due to their accessibility and proximity to my home and the backyard of the brewery.  I would imagine I felt some sort of common sense and did not venture to the higher roofs knowing that a 30-40 foot drop would certainly be fatal.  Also, these roofs were not as visible to the road where if spotted, may have triggered alerts to my Mother who would have eventually located and scolded me for this reckless behavior.  In fact, one time I was spotted and my Father was home and that is the only time I remember getting a spanking from my parents during my entire childhood.  It was well deserved!

The adventures in the brewery were countless.  The metal stairs surrounding the orange Brew Kettle #1 led to these upper levels that needed to be explored.  This is where Mash Tub #1, Hot Water Tank #1, the Cereal Room, and the Wort Cooling Room were located.  I remember one day sometime in the late 60’s with my sister Lori, my father, and grandfather emptying the Cereal Room.  There were bags of some grain and plenty of mice.  Some sort of slider door was opened on the wall that faced downtown Sebewaing in the Cereal Room and an orange strange looking wagon with some sort of metal wheels on top was below.  This is where all of the bags were thrown down to either my father or grandfather and loaded for a destination unknown to me.  I remember my sister and I found some baby mice and attempted to keep them as pets.  This was until my mother discovered our plans and quickly changed our minds for us!

The great pony incident was one for the books.  During a phase my sister Lori and I were in, and it lasted much longer for her than me, was the idea of getting a pony.  We talked and talked about it and I am sure our grandfather (Pa) overheard us and at some point, encouraged us to clean up a space in the brewery as shelter for a future pony.  Well that was it, if our grandfather gave us the green light, it was a go!  Lori and I went through the Boiler Room and picked up items and swept the floor to a point that we thought a pony could live.  At some point, our mother asked what we were doing.  When we explained it to her and how she and our dad were to purchase a pony for this glorious space because our grandfather said so, what followed was a private discussion between mom and Pa.  When the discussion concluded, there was something said about the cost of feed and that ponies were not allowed inside the city limits.  Well, needless to say, we never ended up getting a pony and I am certain we did not blame Pa!

Another time with my sister Lori during the Winter, I believe I was a little older than the last story, I climbed up on the Storage Room Roof (see the photo right) that was easy to hop onto since it was very low to the ground.  I climbed up to the peak and over to the Case Storage area where the roof was flat.  As I looked down into the open area between the Storage Room and the Fermenting Cellars, there was this wonderful looking snow drift that was quite high.  It seemed to me that this was an opportunity and someone needed to test out how it felt to jump off a roof into a large pile of snow (see picture left).  I am sure that Lori advised me against it, but I felt it necessary to make the plunge!  When it was all said and done, I was ok, but buried in snow to the point I was firmly stuck.  Lori tried and tried to get me out and she being the wiser between the two of us, opted to go back to the house that was all of the way on the other side of the building.  So much time had passed and I thought for sure she forgot about me and perhaps went off to find something else more interesting to do.  What seemed like hours (probably only 5-10 minutes of silence, eerie and humbling), she returned with a snow shovel and dug me out.

My mother often had friends over who had their own children.  Pat Schumacher and her daughters Janice and Renee would visit us often.  Before one of those visits, my sister Lori and I had noticed some object that looked like an older lady hunching down, sort of witch like in the Bottling House.  As the roofs aged they started to leak and water came though saturating items left behind.  There was a barrel of some sort against the wall and the leaking water soaked into the barrel and sort of collapsed it to one side.  When we first saw it, we both thought for sure it was a person in the darkness.  As we investigated, we saw the barrel.  This seemed like a perfect opportunity to scare Janice and Renee.  So we talked about hearing some witch laughter or something like that and then took them into this space and pointed out the figure.  At first I think they saw it.  Renee was always skeptical of our shenanigans and she cleared things up for her younger sister Janice.

Surrounding the driveways around the side and the back of the Storage Room and the Case Storage area were trees and a deep gully.  This gully, especially towards the back, collected runoff water that at times was several feet deep.  Brent Kundinger and I reallocated a 4′ by 4′ metal square container with sides that were about a foot high or so.  We scrounged around for a bucket of aluminum sealant and coated the bottom of this thing to make it float.  For years we used that to float around the area below and proudly named it the “Swamp Boat”.  We even transplanted some carp that we caught early in the summer from the Sebewaing River into this stagnant water and they lived for several months until most of the water dried up in August.

As I got older, I am sorry to say that I spent less and less time exploring the Brewery.  I watched many once well maintained areas slowly deteriorate and once important business papers and unused pads of everything imaginably in a brewery operation littering the inside floors and sometimes finding there way outside.  Many people took advantage of the unsecured areas and helped themselves to whatever they wanted to add to their collections.  I recall two police officers asking my Mother if there were any cans or bottles in the buildings that they could take for their collections.  I knew where there were several mint blue cans that nobody else had found yet and with my older sister Lori, I led those men right to this area.  They took every one of those cans.  If I only had known what I do now, I would have done so many things differently.

My biggest regret is not taking photographs of the external and internal parts of the building.  I do not know of any photos that show the backside of the Case Storage and the large garage style door, the Storage Room and the sliding wooden door, and the alley between the Keg Wash and Racking Room.  Also, the views outside from each window, a missed opportunity.

As I recall more from my younger days, I will make additions to this post.  Until then, thank you for reading and sharing in my adventures of the Sebewaing Brewing Company.