Michael Bushnell
Northeast News

The new $750,000 M.K. Goetz Brewery wasn’t built in Kansas City until 1936, but its long, storied history had already been a major part of the St. Joseph, Mo., landscape for almost 75 years prior when in 1859, M.K. Goetz and J.J. Max started brewing beer in a shack along Blacksnake Creek.

By the mind 1860s, Goetz was producing almost 4,300 barrels of beer a year, rivaling the brewery of Henry Nunnely & Son for the top producing spot.

Midwesterners, then as now, enjoy a good beer and the Goetz Brewery grew exponentially. By the early 1900s, the operation spanned several city blocks and was producing over 30,000 barrels of beer annually. The Volstead Act, passed in 1919, spelled doom for a number of smaller brewers across the country but Goetz continued to prosper by selling near beer, a very low-alcohol beverage that tasted like the real thing. The brewery also re-tooled, so to speak, and produced a line of soft drinks.

When prohibition was repealed in 1933, Goetz went back to brewing real beer and expanded the brewing operation into the Kansas City market. The site selected for the new facility was the old circus grounds on the northeast corner of 17th and Indiana. On May 25, 1936, the Kansas City brewery opened with a capacity to produce more than 100,000 barrels a year. The opening day gala event was attended by a variety of local dignitaries who were given a tour of the new grand facility. The opening was even covered by KMBC Radio which broadcast the event live.

By 1947, production between the St. Joseph and Kansas City breweries was topping 650,000 barrels a year. But change was coming. The role of the Goetz brothers in the brewery operation began to diminish. In 1960, citing a changing market, the Goetz brewery merged with Pearl Brewing and consolidated all operations into the St. Joseph plant. The Kansas City site was sold to a local developer who transformed the brewery into warehouse space. In 1977, the site was acquired by Sears and was leveled to make way for an expanded warehouse for their 15th and Cleveland store. The signature smokestack with the Goetz name emblazoned down its side was no more. A year prior, operations at the Pearl Brewery ceased and the company consolidated everything into its San Antonio, Texas, location.

The description on the back of this linen postcard published by the Allis Press of Kansas City notes: “View of the M.K. Goetz Brewing Company. Completed in 1936 on the historic circus grounds at 17th & Indiana. America’s most modern brewery. New from the ground up.”