8055-8057 Medina Street
American Brewing Company (also called the American Products Company, American Beverage Company, American Brewing Company of Michigan, and formerly the Exposition Brewing Company), Plymouth Shafting Corporation
(Current address is 8052 Barnes Street)
The Exposition Brewing Company was founded in 1890 by Fred Kraft, Charles Schmitt, Anton Schmitt, and other investors. The name is derived from the Detroit International Fair and Exposition, a world fair planned in Delray to showcase Detroit’s industrial and agricultural prowess.
The fair became an annual event; however, it was eventually scrapped, and the buildings that housed it were demolished. The Exposition Brewing Company wasn’t affiliated with the fair, so it continued. Their primary offering was Cream Top Old Style Lager. According to Peter H. Blum’s book ‘Brewed in Detroit,’ the company pumped out 20,000 barrels in 1897.
In 1900, the name was changed to the American Brewing Company. Within a year or two, ownership and management shifted, and the Stange family’s influence over the company was initiated. New products were added to try and expand the beer’s range of consumers.
With the inswing of prohibition. American Brewing converted its operation to manufacture soft drinks as the American Products Company. The United States lost hundreds of breweries during prohibition, and American was one of the few in Detroit to survive. When the law was repealed, the company changed its name to the American Beverage Company and again to the American Brewing Company of Michigan in 1935.
Throughout the 1930s, small-scale breweries were falling left and right. Like others nationwide, American Brewing couldn’t keep its head above water and closed in 1938.
The main production facility for the Exposition Brewing Company was at the corner of Chase and Mechanic—which is the present intersection of Cary and Medina, pictured here. However, the brewery was on the southwestern corner. The structure shown here, on the southeastern corner, was the brewery’s artificial ice plant, later becoming a bottling facility. According to Benjamin Gravel, it was designed by Mildner & Eisen and completed in 1907.
By the time the American Brewing Company of Michigan closed in 1938, Delray had been a part of Detroit for three decades and was of the most industrialized neighborhoods in the state. Finding a use for the structure wasn’t difficult; however, tracking what businesses utilized it in 2023 is.
From my research, I believe it has been used as a warehouse and for various manufacturing-related uses over the years. In the 1950s, the Plymouth Shafting Corporation utilized the structure. I’m not certain how long they were there—but their sign remained on the single-story building until a few years ago.
Many structures in Detroit were purchased after their initial purpose was phased out and utilized for decades by the same company, making the history of those structures much easier to track. Buildings like this one, which had multiple uses over the years, are harder to wrangle.
It’s currently owned by Winslow Enterprises LLC, whose address is 38170 North Executive Drive in Westland, the location of Downriver Refrigeration Supply. Before that, the building was owned by John M. Winslow, who took over the refrigeration company in 1979. I’ve found no online or physical record of the company using the structure in Delray, and on my many passes by, I’ve seen no activity here.
However, the building appears to be looked after and is in stellar shape. There are a few occupied homes nearby on Medina; however, for the most part, this structure is one of the few buildings in Delray that isn’t tattered or nearly falling in on itself.
Even after researching over a dozen structures in Delray, it’s hard for me to comprehend what it once was like there. I’ve commented on the phenomenon before; most people I interact with on this page speak with a shade of melancholy about how amazing the town once was—back when Fox Hardware, Magyar Haz, and Szabo’s Meat Market were still open.
However, considering my age, I never knew Delray, or Detroit in general or other cities like Flint or Saginaw, in any manner other than how they’ve sat since the 2007-2008 financial crisis. Researching these structures is a unique way to explore what the neighborhood once was, but without the tales of residents past and present, it would be even harder to tie everything together.
I don’t have a remedy—I don’t think anyone will ever be able to truly paint a perfect picture of what Delray and other manufacturing corridors in Michigan’s cities were once like.
But hey, maybe it’s better like that, anyways.
