This subarea is located just north of the Findlay Market subarea, between Central Parkway and McMicken Avenue. Its points are the surviving structures historically associated with the Over-the-Rhine brewing industry, which developed here during the last half of the nineteenth century. A variety of buildings, including brew houses, malt houses, storage buildings, and stables, from a surprising number of breweries crowd the area. When viewed as a subarea, the Brewery District does not offer a cohesive visual continuity of distinctive architecture, but offers a broken view of mixed-period industrial development with isolated examples of residential buildings and churches. The area’s significance to Over-the-Rhine and the city is primarily historical, with its industrial associations.

Christian Moerlein established his first brewing company in Over-the-Rhine in 1853. Eventually the Christian Moerlein Brewing Company became the city’s largest brewery and expanded into the national market. At its height the brewery occupied three entire city blocks. Prohibition brought an end to the company in the 1920’s. Surviving structures include the Moerlein Office, constructed in 1873 at 2019 Elm Street, the malt house at 2025 Elm Street, the bottling plant, built in 1895 at the southeast corner of Elm and Henry Streets, and the Romanesque Revival-style cooper shop, constructed in 1884 on Elm Street south of the bottling plant site.

In 1854 Meinrad and Fridolin Kleiner, two Forty-Eighters from Wurtemberg, purchased the Jackson Brewery, which had been founded 25 years earlier. In 1859 the brothers constructed a large new brew house at the north end of Elm Street north of McMicken Avenue. They also built two large homes for their families east of the brewery. By 1871 the Jackson Brewery was the fifth largest in Cincinnati. Today the main brew house and malt house are among the oldest brewery structures in the city. The Squibb-Pattison Brewing Company occupied these structures after Prohibition.

The Sohn Brewery was another of the brauerei to flourish in the area. The business began in 1845 as the Hamilton Brewery, but was known as Klotter, Sohn and Company by 1853. In 1871 the brewery ranked tenth in Cincinnati for beer sales. In 1907 the brewery was reorganized as the Mohawk Brewing Company. The company closed in 1919 due to Prohibition, although federal agents raided the brewery in 1925, destroy a hidden supply of full-strength beer. The brewery’s main malt house still stands at Stonewall and McMicken Avenue. This Queen Anne-style building was constructed in 1887. It displays brick pilasters and corbelling, decorative brick panels, radiating brick voussoirs with stone keystones and a corbelled cornice with a decorative gabled parapet. A terra cotta panel in the round arch above the main entrance depicts barrel ends and a malt shovel, and the six-pointed star at the top was the symbol of pure beer.

Another of the subarea’s focal points is the Philippus Kirche, or Philippus Church, constructed in 1890. Originally constructed as a German Evangelical Church, the building is now home to the Philippus United Church of Christ. This red brick building features Gothic Revival-style details. Recessed pointed-arch windows flank the gabled pointed-arch entrance and projecting tower with its rose window. A tower rises above the front gable to an octagonal base and octagonal spire. A gilded hand, with its index finger pointing to the heavens, tops the spire. Other details include stepped buttresses, pinnacles, and decorative brickwork.