February 2026.
Born Capital Brewery was one of four prominent German breweries in the neighborhood now known as the Brewery District in Columbus. Its Romanesque Revival bottling factory is the only remaining portion of the brewery today, which has since been converted into apartments.
The Born Capital Brewery Bottling Works is located at 570 South Front Street in the Brewery District neighborhood of Columbus, Ohio. It is bordered by Beck Street and the Schlee Brewery complex to the north, a parking garage to the south, Wall Street to the east, and Front Street to the west.
History
Brewing in Columbus began shortly after the city became Ohio’s capital in 1812. It was first done by English brewers and using their techniques, but the industry quickly became dominated by German immigrants. The first German brewery in Columbus was Bernhard Burck’s, which opened in 1834 a few blocks northeast of the current Brewery District (the site was probably around the I-70 trench today). Burck died suddenly in 1850 and was surpassed by Louis Hoster, whose brewery along Front Street right beneath Livingston Avenue/Fulton Street was the first in the district.
Conrad Born was, well, born in Germany in 1812 and worked as a butcher there, immigrating to the United States in 1837 and moving to Columbus in 1839. After seeing that the other breweries were struggling to keep up with demand, Born bought land on South Front Street (the site occupied by the Kroger’s and contemporary buildings along Front Street south of Beck Street today) in 1858 and established the Capital City Brewery with partner Jacob Silbernagel (formerly of L. Hoster Brewing Company) in 1859. It first had a capacity of 6,000 barrels a year, and by 1872 there were three buildings on the site. By the 1880s, the brewery had grown rapidly, with over a dozen buildings with additions and a 60,000-barrel capacity.
1895 depiction of the Born Capital Brewery. (Facebook)
According to the 1887 Sanborn Map, there was a house on the site of the current bottling works, though it was bordered to the east by a coal shed and “bottling establishment.” I’m unsure if that earlier bottling factory was related to Born’s brewery, as the brewery was located on the west side of Front Street at the time, and the factory was closer to the Schlee brewery. It seems to have been expanded or replaced by a larger brick building as of the 1891 Sanborn map, which definitively marks it as part of the Born brewery.
The Bottling Works building that stands today dates to 1895. It is a Romanesque Revival design, though its architect is unknown. The 1901 Sanborn map states that its first floor was used for bottling, the second was storage, and the third was a carpenter’s shop. Its location across Front Street was due to a federal law requiring bottling plants to be built on sites away from the breweries themselves.
Conrad Born died in 1890, and his sons took over production. By 1900, the brewery had a capacity of 100,000 barrels but was only producing 65,000. At that time, it was the city’s second-largest brewery, only behind the much larger Hoster Brewery with 300,000 barrels a year. The bottling works received an addition further eastwards around 1900.
With increased competition from non-Columbus breweries, which were able to ship their product into the city via railroads, Born merged with Hoster and Schlee to form the Hoster-Columbus Associated Breweries Company in 1905. However, each brewery continued to operate independently in practice. In addition, the growing temperance (anti-alcohol) movement cut into profits as well. In 1908, 57 of Ohio’s 88 counties were “dry” (prohibiting the sale of alcohol), and the consolidated breweries posted the first of a series of losses that year. Born’s brewery was closed that year in an attempt to consolidate. With the beginning of World War I, there was serious anti-German sentiment in Columbus, and Prohibition began in 1920, which caused production at the breweries to stop completely. August Wagner’s Gambrinus Brewery was the only one to survive by manufacturing soft drinks, which would remain operating until 1974.
Almost the entire Born brewery was demolished between 1910 and 1922 (hence why I couldn’t find any historic photos), leaving only the stable, bottling works, and Born’s house. The house was demolished between 1937 and 1955, while the stable lasted until the 1990s.
Photo of the complex as of 2009. (NRHP listing)
The bottling works building was then used by the Hercules Trouser Company as a factory. They built an addition on the south side in the 1930s or 1940s, and another wing on the east side for shipping in the 1950s. Hercules occupied the building until 1962 or later, and until 2007 it was a Salvation Army warehouse and store. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009. By the time of its listing, the first floor windows were heavily altered and replaced by glass blocks, though the remainder of the building was intact. After that, it was converted into apartments, which began in 2011.
Photos
An overall view of the complex today:
Note that the first floor’s windows were repaired as part of the renovation project. The gray sign used to read “HERCULES” even after they had long left, but it has been painted and is much more difficult to make out.
A better-exposed view of the Front Street facade:
You really don’t see factory buildings that are built this well or attractively anymore. At the time, there was an attitude that industrial buildings should have a sense of character, and that they should be built to last. Hence, why much of the remaining buildings in the Brewery District are still standing, as well as being preserved and reused.
Detail of the entrance portal, which probably dates to one of the additions and not the original building due to its stripped-down classical nature:
Looking up towards the cornice, which compresses a bunch of the details into one shot:
The ornamentation is pretty restrained, but it’s there.
There is a metal cornice above the vaulted windows, a string course that separates the lunette windows from the operable portion, and a subtle coffered brick pattern.
A view from the southwest, showing the 1930s-1940s addition:
Northwest corner, with the 1900s-1910s addition:
It matches the window elevations, but it has a simpler industrial style with larger, rectangular openings. No stylized lintels and sills.
Detail of the windows:
The first floor has double-hung windows with transoms above and massive stone lintels. The second floor has segmentally arched double-hung windows with brick arches and an iron reinforcement.
Another view of the 1900s-1910s addition:
There’s even still a railroad spur that once led to the old Born brewery:
These rails were a spur that once led to the Hocking Valley railway’s Mound Street yard.
The east facade along Wall Street:
Very industrial with the large steel windows.
Sources:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_OH/09000442.pdf
https://www.facebook.com/groups/202347880517398/posts/1533636370721869/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Born_Capital_Brewery_Bottling_Works
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